Five are together again

Actually, Five came together again in the St Pancras Chapel carpark before leaving in their separate cars!

The sad day had come when the last of my daughters was to leave home (again). I don’t know about anyone else but I LOVED lockdown, especially the start when we were all trapped at our house. But then Vickys evil employer forced her back to Devizes at a moments notice and she took Alex too. I was bereft. Still, kathy stayed. Until now. Thank god I have Chris locked in the attic.

The morning was spent packing and tidying up a bit, I even got Chris with a brush in his hand. That’s the thing I hate about a holiday cottage, you feel you have to leave it in some semblances of cleanliness. Whereas with a hotel room you can just leave it trashed. Jane had said we should be out by eleven, which was a very civilised time. In actual fact we were ready about five to (I know!!). We hugged and cried before waving each other off. Chris and Misty were on their way to Aunty Susan’s as someone had forgotten the presents and he had to Deliver them. Vicky and Alex were going back to Devizes before Alex returned to his Bristol flat on Sunday, the last of the Quarantine Six to return home. Vicky was obviously worried about her car and had checked the water several times that morning alone. Jason’s telling off had had a dramatic effect on her. And we were going to Whiteley. 

The sat nav took us cross country due to traffic and we found a lovely country pub for some lunch.

It wasn’t long before we were driving through the roadworks on the M27 (we worked out they had been there for more than two years with no discernible progress, and pulling up to her Whiteley home. Ida was waiting for Kathy for a tearful reunion. Then Ian and Kath went out to try and Stuart little red. No Dice. So we finished the holiday as we started it, with a call to the AA. Up to two hours wait, so Ian and I scootled off to The New Place, our hotel for the night. After checking in we took our included bottle of Prosecco on to the terrace and did a bit of people watching.

That done we went back to the room to watch the second half of Arsenal winning the FA cup before having a lovely meal. 

Then Ian romantically showed me some bats before we turned on the fan (hot room no air con) and retired for the last night of our hols. Funnily enough, we both missed Misty snorttling around the room. 

TOILET WATCH

Well the bathroom in the hotel is adequate. Clean. As you would expect. 8/10

STARWATCH

No stars but lots of bats. 7/10

Five have plenty of fun

Ian woke me in the middle of the night with bad news. It was 4.30am before he needed the loo and was too light for stars. The final day of our holiday was set to be scorcchio. We decided on a lazy day with a trip to the beach. All except Alex who was going to do a suicide run over the Quantocks. we had another full English then played more pool and lazed around in the lovely garden all morning before leaving Kathy and her pigeon and shoehorn companions. We drove to the bottom of a Quantock hill in Bicknoller and threw Alex out. Off he went while we drove down to Klive beach. It turns out this is actually called Kilve, much to my consternation. 

Klive beach is a fossil hunters beach which have Vicky and Chris an hour or so of amusement. It also had crabs. ‘Have you seen any?’ I asked Ian. ‘Just the dead one Misty just ate.’

Fossil hunting

Fossil finding

It was also pretty cold on there and a rain shower started pelting us due to the wind. At that moment my watch pinged. ‘Heathrow records 3rd highest temp on record. 37.3.’ 

It wasn’t too long before Alex arrived on the beach so we all retired for a cream tea. The guy on the next table was obnoxious, which gave us loads to talk about.

Alex’s run

We arrived home early, much to Kathys delight. The girls had decided to buy the tea and decided on pizza from the cider farm. Unfortunately I was cream tea stuffed so didn’t want any. More pool, Richards quiz, (sorry Heather) then bedtime. 

TOILET WATCH

The tea room was outside only and had no toilets so I have nothing I’m afraid

STARWATCH

Cloudy

Five on a hike together

In the middle of the night, around 2am, Ian shook me to tell me there were loads of stars and did I want to see them. My answer was no. 

It was a lovely day for a hike, which is what we had planned. A nice round walk from Tarr steps to Withypool and back alongside the river Barle. Around 7 miles in total. We messed around most of the morning, then pfaffed a bit more, until it was about noon. We then decided to set off for the Tarr steps car park. But, due to the fine weather, the Tarr Steps car park was heaving and we couldn’t fit. No problem. We can park at the other end in Withypool. But, due to the fine weather, Withypool was heaving. Mmmmm. We decided on a drink at the pub in order to use the facilities, then parking at Comer Gate, just outside Withypool, and walk down to the river from there. ‘This will cut the walk down to 5 miles’ I confidently told Chris. The drink at the pub turned out to be really nice so that was a plus.

It was about 1.30 when we eventually parked up at Comer gate, and we had to evict a few Exmoor ponies in order to manage it

We were soon on our way over the moor and down the valley to join the river, after navigating over a few fords. Vicky had picked this day to wear trainers not walking boots for some reason so was a little hesitant

The walk by the river was really beautiful and Misty got to swim loads

Eventually we came to Tarr steps themselves, which are really big slabs from hundreds of years ago that form a bridge. Here we had ice-cream! Then we crossed over and walked back up the other side.

We had then spotted a path that went up the hill and over the moor back to Comer gate. We waded through bracken up to our eyeballs and up a steep rocky path to the moor at the top before the path took us through mud, mud,mud, bog, more mud, and a final boot sucking (trainer sucking in vickys case) bog. Eventually we came to the crossroads which Ian and Alex had been searching for for hours. As we looked back the way we had come we were eternally grateful we had chosen the right path.

We had popped out on the moor and before long the cry came from ahead, ‘The Car!’. And there it was, surrounded by ponies. Ian shooed them away so we could all remove our boots (or soaking wet caked in mud trainers) and head for home. Ian checked his Strava and we had walked 13.3km. Much more than we were going to do, as Chris kept telling me. 

I must admit the little peak at 6km was Ian, vicky and Alex going to the loo. Chris and I missed that section out as it was all uphill. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Kathy had spent a long, lonely day, alone. Except for a shoehorn and a pigeon.

We decided on fish and chips for tea so Ian and I popped to our favourite shopping Mecca of Wilaton and Andy’s chippy. My list was long and involved, mainly because there were no veggie options (they are frowned on in this part of Wiltshire) so Alex had to have chips, mushrooms, onion rings, mushy peas, and gravy (??!!). After a chippy tea and a few games of pool (I beat Chris), we were all off to bed. Plus Misty.

TOILET WATCH

Apparently the one up the hill was very nice. Clean with plenty of paper. Too much effort for me though. 7/10

STARWATCH

OK but missed the dark ones due to Ian’s toilet habits