Friday 18^th May 2018

We left home later than normal as it wasn’t too far to the site in Hurley. The weather was perfect – lots of sunshine with just a light breeze.

The journey was uneventful for the most part – motorway for most of the way with only a few miles of 50 mph narrow lane roadworks – no delays there. A few more roadworks on the A road towards Henley but no queuing. We got to the right turn off the main road – less than half a mile to site – but a few hundred yards down the narrow lane, just around a bend, we met a tractor with trailer coming towards us. There was no way we were going to pass each other but as luck would have it he wanted to turn into a yard we had pulled in at – so Nigel had to put his reversing skills to the test again – luckily he’s pretty good now.

We arrived at 3.00 finding the site very clean and tidy. We had booked a fully serviced RV pitch which turned out to be long enough but a little narrow. As we had already decided we would only be using the scooters for exploring we put Voyager in first with Betty blocking her in.

Before continuing I need to bring you up to date. You will remember (probably) that my scooter ‘Dolly’ died while we were away at Easter. Nigel did patch her up a bit but we decided to just replace her with a new one and have already sold her (for spares only) on EBAY. We bought another Shoprider Cordoba (like Nigel’s) for me, again in Red. What’s she called I hear you ask – well on her first test drive I found her so graceful – she sort of named herself. So Nigel’s is Gordon and mine is Grace and from now on we will be using the ‘2 G’s’ to ‘trundle’ about as we explore.

After getting levelled and connecting up the electric and water we got the scooters out and went for an exploration of the site and the riverside park which is part of the ‘Thames Pathway’.

The only problem with the route is ‘kissing gates’ in odd places – great for walkers – but a no go with our scooters. Some have full gates next to them though so we are hopeful we can use them.

Saturday 19^th May 2018

Today is Royal Wedding day. The weather is beautiful full sun but at 9.30 still a little chilly – I’m sure it will warm up later.

After breakfast we went for a trundle – along beside the river towards Windsor but only going as far as the village of Hurley. It is a nice place with a lot of large houses that must cost a bob or two. It got warmer as we progressed past the church – stopped briefly at the one local shop and then went up and down the high street checking out the old buildings and Hostelries.

We returned to Voyager for lunch and a short siesta (mustn’t overdo it) then we went out again on the 2 G’s – we used the lane to the village this time – stopped for a few minutes to watch the Hurley cricket club playing. Had a nice chat with a friendly chap about the virtues of village cricket. Moving on Nigel popped into The Olde Bell pub, checked accessibility and reserved a table for tomorrow evening.

We went back to Voyager reversing the river route we had used earlier.

We stopped by the weir and Nigel had a brief fly of the drone to get some shots from on high. He’s getting more confident with it but is still not happy with taking it too far away.

 

Lots of nature around us – as well as the normal ducks, geese and swans around the river in the sky above are many Red Kite raptors. They glide and soar above us on the site in large numbers – it’s a wonder to see.

 

Sunday 20^th May 2018

Today, thirteen years ago we got married – which means this is our lace anniversary. I bought Nigel a sundial for the garden and had a nice card made for him. He got me a card with a fridge magnet and keyring all saying 13 years – very nice (I was thinking it would be lacy knickers).

Anyway the weather is again bright and sunny so after the morning routine we set forth on the 2 G’s aiming to use the main road footpath and hopefully get to Henley-on-Thames (the next town west).

Unfortunately the pavement stopped at the ‘Black Boys Inn’ and we decided that the A4130 was too busy to trundle along. Instead we followed Black Boy Lane back to the Thames Pathway at Frogmill where we went west hoping we could make it to Henley that way. We managed to get a further mile closer passing through a couple of unlocked gates next to kissing gates on the way. Then after crossing a large field we approached the edge of a deer park. The usual kissing gate with a large five bar gate next to it – with an enormous padlock on it.

Our only option was to turn around and retrace our route. A good five mile trundle but we couldn’t do the last 3 miles because of that locked gate.

Our campsite had a sign near the entrance about a ‘Nature Trail’ – we picked up a leaflet from Reception and decided to give it a go in the afternoon. I think it was designed to educate youngsters about the local wildlife but we found the trail to be very narrow in places – in fact we escaped from it through a patch of cow parsley because it got too awkward to trundle through.

So it had to be a little siesta before we set forth again to the pub for our anniversary meal. The Olde Bell dates from 1135 and has many claims to fame over the years. One modern one is that it starred as the Magna Hotel in the Midsomer Murders episode ‘They Seek him Here’ in 2007.

We enjoyed our meal – an Italian inspired ‘Roast Vegetable Sharing Platter’ starter followed by Sea Bass fillet main – we skipped sweet just having coffee (so mostly Slimming World friendly).

After trundling back to Voyager we watched a bit of TV before retiring to bed – all in all a relaxing happy day – and I’m sure we will have many more.

 

Monday 21^st May 2018

After a late breakfast we were off on another explore. We intended to explore the eastern side of the village using more footpaths but again we came across a kissing gate at the junction of two paths. We couldn’t go the way we had planned so just kept going on the path we were on – no idea where to but at least we got through what gates we found. We went past some very big houses, through the hamlets of Temple and Bisham and ended up in the very pretty town of Marlow.

We bought a few things in a small Sainsbury’s and enjoyed our lunch in a small park – we also sneaked a cheeky ice-cream treat for afters.

Unfortunately the weather started to cloud over and we suspected there might be a shower so we headed back the three and half miles or so. By the time we were back in Hurley it had brightened up so we detoured to the lock where we watched a couple of boats pass through on their way upstream.

We eventually got back to Voyager in time for a nap before it was time for our last evening meal onsite.

Tomorrow we head home – it has been a lovely long weekend – and unusually for us the weather was kind.

Now we’re looking forward to our next trip.