{"id":3577,"date":"2022-07-29T19:49:11","date_gmt":"2022-07-29T19:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=3577"},"modified":"2025-12-24T22:27:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:27:48","slug":"9-heading-home-gradually","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=3577","title":{"rendered":"9. HEADING HOME (GRADUALLY)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leaving Penrith we hesitated at the Tebay Services for one of their famously, superb breakfasts.\u00a0 It seems a contradiction of terms.\u00a0 “Motorway services” and “superb breakfasts” don’t normally feature in the same sentence – and very rarely even in the same paragraph!\u00a0 However, Tebay (and probably it’s two associated service stations) are indeed renowned for their food.\u00a0 So, two “seven-item” breakfasts were ordered.\u00a0 And very good they were too.\u00a0 With free toast and marmalade!\u00a0 And lots of space for the caravan – in the car park, obviously!<\/p>\n

We are heading for a site just south of Knutsford, but I made a very bad mistake by driving through the town as we arrived.\u00a0 “Let me out HERE!” was the cry.\u00a0 “You go and set up then come back for me later!”\u00a0 Very limited choice of pitches and nothing at the top end which we had requested.\u00a0 The Cheshire County Show was on this week and the site was jammed.\u00a0 Not our favourite.\u00a0 Having already shortened our week by a day at the front end, we eventually lopped off three more days at the end.<\/p>\n

Still we managed a trip to Alderley Edge where every other car was a Ferrari or Lamborghini (or a Bentley SUV, or an Aston Martin or a McLaren).\u00a0 The cars in between those were BMWs, Jaguars, Range Rovers or Porsches with occasional Fiats and white vans.\u00a0 25% of all vehicles (including the vans) had personalised number plates.<\/p>\n

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I reckon anyone with a personalised number plate is a poser!\u00a0 Apart from me, that is!<\/p>\n

While Glenda was bothering the shop owners, I tried for coffee at Wilmslow Golf Course.\u00a0 Yeah!\u00a0 Right!\u00a0 Locked up tighter than – well, very tight anyway.\u00a0 Keypads on all external doors.\u00a0 All apart from one door on the balcony reached by a rickety ladder.\u00a0 But once inside the main club area with dining tables set for a posh (and probably very expesive) dinner, I discovered that most of the internal doors had combination locks on too.\u00a0 No cafe.\u00a0 No visible staff.\u00a0 But I bet they clocked me on CCTV wandering up and down stairs looking firstly for a coffee and secondly for a loo and finally for a dignified way out of the place.\u00a0 (To be fair, before-hand, Glenda had rated my chances of getting any refreshment here at just below zero.)<\/p>\n

After an exciting day, we headed home, but stopped before we left Wilmslow.\u00a0 On the left side we passed Hickory’s Smokehouse.\u00a0 \u00a0A quick about turn and we were in a crowded carpark.\u00a0 A restaurant crowded before 6pm – that’s a novel concept!\u00a0 It turned out to be a very Americanised sort of place.\u00a0 Not quite sawdust on the floor, but almost.\u00a0 Although there must have been best part of 200 diners, it didn’t seem crowded.\u00a0 And the service was super-efficient.<\/p>\n

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We enjoyed watching the red-headed meal dispatcher constantly viewing and updating a complex computer screen, checking the food orders and summoning the servers with a loud “@#\u00a3%^ fdsg”.\u00a0 This, it transpired was actually “Yes, Please”.\u00a0 But we had to ask for a translation!\u00a0 The food was pretty nifty too.\u00a0 I can see why the place was full!\u00a0 If we lived close, it could become a regular haunt.\u00a0 But we don’t – so it won’t!<\/p>\n

June is birthday season!\u00a0 I’ve bought Glenda a present and I’ve had it delivered to the campsite at Knutsford.\u00a0 In fact it was waiting at reception when I arrived.\u00a0 So, Glenda being absent was a bit of a bonus.\u00a0 There were two packages awaiting their owners.\u00a0 One little one and one big one.\u00a0 Mine was the big one!<\/p>\n

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Just fitted on the caravan table!\u00a0 An ideal size to keep the contents safe.\u00a0 I was supposed to take the virtually non-existent hint and buy this for her at Grays in Warkworth (if you can remember that far back).<\/p>\n

Before we get to birthdays, we decided to go to Glossop.<\/p>\n

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Now that’s a crowded campsite!\u00a0 Or a caravan sales company!\u00a0 We still can’t find a suitable successor to our current caravan!<\/p>\n

On the way home we ducked into Lyme, a magnificent National Trust property in a huge estate.<\/p>\n

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We had just time to get into the house if we could secure a ride to the front door in the electric buggy.<\/p>\n

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Well, we made it.\u00a0 The last punters of the day.\u00a0 As we moved from room to room, the volunteers followed us shutting windows, closing the curtains and switching off the lights!\u00a0 We kept them two rooms back by occasionally nipping back a room.\u00a0 Good to keep these well informed folk on their toes!<\/p>\n

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The only problem with windows like this is that you can’t see who’s dropping in for supper.\u00a0 Still, they are ready for visitors – so, no problem!<\/p>\n

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The one thing about arriving at one minute to last entry is that the gardens will be shut when we finish in the house.\u00a0 Or will they be?\u00a0 As we sidled past the office on the way out, we noticed that the garden gate was still open.\u00a0 OK.\u00a0 So a quick sneak garden visit is possible.\u00a0 It might, of course, end up being an overnight visit!\u00a0 But we do have a bottle of water and a couple of muesli bars with us!<\/p>\n

The orangery was beautiful …<\/p>\n

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… and lovely and warm, should we end up camping here!\u00a0 However, we did manag to escape – although the sat nav was trying to take us out the back of the park via a dirt track and a locked gate!<\/p>\n

We headed south on a Friday.\u00a0 All good until we got near to Bristol.\u00a0 From there the M5 south was chocca and the westbound traffic on the M4 was backed up for miles.\u00a0 Note to selves – change the date of our trip to Devon.\u00a0 Avoid Friday!<\/p>\n

So we have extended our stay at Horseshoe Farm (near Chipping Sodbury) to nine days.\u00a0 Worth putting up the awning again.\u00a0 Got all the poles in position and turned round to get the pegs to nail it down.\u00a0 In that instant a gust of wind struck and blew the whole thing upside-down onto the top of the caravan.\u00a0 Legs sticking straight up like mobile phone masts.\u00a0 Quite funny – now – but a bit of a worry at the time!\u00a0 The saddest thing is that, in my haste to get the car out of harm’s way and the perishing thing off the roof, I didn’t get a single photo!<\/p>\n

We had intended to visit Rod and Marion for a day in Hinton Parva for a joint birthday party.\u00a0 At short notice we were invited to stay over so, having secured the awning the correct way up (with legs pointing down), we abandoned camp for two days!<\/p>\n

I had no idea there were so many Badburys – often with iron age forts included.\u00a0 One near Wimborne (Badbury Rings) and one near Faringdon in Oxfordshire (Badbury Hill), north-east of Swindon.\u00a0 In addition, I now see there are other Badburys in Dorset (Badbury Hundred) and a couple more in Wiltshire near Swindon (Badbury Wick and boringly just Badbury) not to mention one in Warwickshire and another in Somerset!\u00a0 We went for a walk in the countryside around the Oxford version.\u00a0 Apparently the name “Badbury” (might) mean “The fortified place belonging to a guy called Badda”.\u00a0 Badda was clearly into hill-top properties with defensive potential!<\/p>\n

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We had some directional issues during the walk.\u00a0 In fact the car is the other way, Rod!\u00a0 But then one wood does look a lot like another!<\/p>\n

The following day was Glenda’s birthday.\u00a0 Remember that parcel?\u00a0 Well, it contained this – and only this!<\/p>\n

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… a pair of earrings!\u00a0 \u00a0Well they weren’t damaged in the post!<\/p>\n

We did things in pairs this year.\u00a0 My present …<\/p>\n

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After a birthday breakfast we visited Avebury Manor, another National Trust property.<\/p>\n

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Lovely gardens – and, nearby, more standing stones …<\/p>\n

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… followed by a party lunch at the White Horse Inn at Compton Bassett!<\/p>\n

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Before heading “home” again to our abandoned caravan!<\/p>\n

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The final week went by in a bit of a blur.\u00a0 We met John and Freda at the Bowl Inn at Almondsbury.<\/p>\n

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We met Tetbury’s answer to Banksy …<\/p>\n

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… and walked along the old railway line.\u00a0 But both the Station cafe and Blue Zuchini were shut!<\/p>\n

Another day we hit Bath.\u00a0 Great shops for one of us and lovely, peaceful canal-side walks for the other.\u00a0 I call it our Shop:Life balance!<\/p>\n

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I got quite friendly with four Dutch narrow boaters – they were driving at just under walking speed!\u00a0 We swapped emails, told a few jokes and arranged a dinner date next time we are in Amsterdam!<\/p>\n

I like these signs!\u00a0 My sort of sentiments!<\/p>\n

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Then there was Cheltenham for a day.\u00a0 And as the sun sets over the caravan …<\/p>\n

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… it’s time for home.\u00a0 Home as in Galmpton!\u00a0 All we have to do is remember where Galmpton is!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leaving Penrith we hesitated at the Tebay Services for one of their famously, superb breakfasts.\u00a0 It seems a contradiction of terms.\u00a0 “Motorway services” and “superb breakfasts” don’t normally feature in the same sentence – and very rarely even in the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-england"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3577"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3616,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3577\/revisions\/3616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}