An epic adventure!

The view from the car park at the top of Porlock Hill

 I must apologise for the length of time between my last blog and this one, but life decided to bowl me a bit of a curve ball recently! I’d planned to visit my Mum in Cheltenham over the late August Bank Holiday weekend and arrived on the Friday evening to find an ambulance parked on the driveway! 

Once I’d got over the initial alarm and been reassured by the paramedics and the next door neighbours that Mum was OK, I found out what had happened; mum had fallen in the kitchen and injured her hip. Being unable to get herself up from the floor she pressed her emergency alert button and the system kicked in beautifully – the ambulance was despatched and the next door neighbours alerted. To cut a long story short, Mum was admitted to Gloucester Royal Hospital where they discovered that she had broken a bone in her pelvic ring which, like broken ribs, just has to heal itself over a period of several weeks and the only treatment is bed rest and pain killers. Once they’d got the pain relief sorted and once a bed became available in one of the seven community hospitals in Gloucestershire, they moved her to Stroud where she is making good, steady progress (but not fast enough for her!). To keep her morale up and break up an otherwise long day, we have endeavoured, as a family, to keep up daily visits which, for the most part, we have achieved. My sister and brother both thought it was important that I had my planned weekend away in the campervan, so Lynda came down from Sheffield for a week to take over visiting while I went back to Somerset and prepared Bunty for her big adventure.

Jeni and I were heading for the Ilfracombe area to start off with, to visit Karen & Lawrence with whom I’d WWOOFed ten years ago and with whom Jeni had WWOOFed when she worked for the Soil Association back in 2007. In my wisdom, I decided that it would be nice to drive the scenic, coastal route via Minehead and only realised later that that would involve driving up Porlock Hill! Because I didn’t have any service history for the van, I’d booked it in for a service on the Wednesday before we were due to go on the Saturday so I asked them if, in their opinion she would make it up the hill. They seemed to think that if I put her in first gear and took it steady all would be fine.

All ready for the off!

So, on Saturday morning Jeni and I loaded the last few bits and pieces into Bunty, had a short launching ceremony that involved hanging a tree of life pendant on the rear view mirror and placing artificial flower garlands on the dashboard, and set off via Bridgwater towards Porlock Hill. All was going well and we were enjoying the fine, sunny day and on reaching Porlock, we began the ascent. Now, I’ve been up the hill a couple of times in a car but had forgotten the two steep hairpin bends that occur part way up. We managed those OK but the revs were really dropping and the poor engine was howling in protest and then the temperature gauge started to climb. By the time we got to the top, the red light was flashing and I decided we needed to pull over and let the engine cool before going any further. There was a car park and viewing point off to our right so I indicated and started to pull across the road and that’s when the engine died and refused to start again! As luck would have it a mobile farm trailer engineer was pulling out of the side road opposite the car park and kindly towed us across the road onto a level spot, and there we waited for the engine to cool down. After about an hour we deemed the engine cool enough and gingerly opened the bonnet, to be met by rusty water stains all over the engine compartment and no sign of any coolant in the expansion tank. Jeni and I both tried to remove the filler cap but it’s a stupid design and neither of us could budge it and, unlike me, I had no tools with me (note to self: put a pair of pliers permanently in the van!). In the end I admitted defeat and phoned the roadside rescue that I’d taken out two days earlier! The recovery guy was more than an hour away, so we consoled ourselves with an ice cream from the ice cream van in the car park. The guy took pity on our plight and gave us a double scoop each for the price of one! 

Consolation ice cream

Exciting ice cream!

Once our knight in shining armour arrived it didn’t take him many minutes to remove the filler cap, fill the system with water and test all the hoses, radiator, fans and pump before giving us the all clear to carry on our merry way – we had been in the car park for three hours and I had no way of letting our hosts know that we had been delayed, so we just had to carry on as quickly as we could. The next obstacle was Lynton Hill but, having been assured by the ice cream guy, that it wasn’t as steep or winding as Porlock Hill we set off with a certain amount of confidence that all would be well. The temperature gauge did rise a bit but we kept on going and the fan eventually brought everything back to normal. Phew!

Karen and Lawrence made us very welcome and it didn’t feel as if so many years had passed since we’d last seen them – they’ve hardly changed at all. We had a tasty evening meal with them and then bedded down in the van which was very comfortable, although you need to be pretty agile to get into the top bunk! During the night it rained quite heavily but by the morning this had eased off to a fine drizzle which stopped quite quickly and we eventually got back on the road by late morning – next stop, Launceston.

After a good night's sleep at Lee

The drive to Launceston was uneventful and we arrived with Jo and James by early afternoon. By then, the sun had come out and it was beautifully warm, so a walk around the farm was proposed. The first stop was at the paddock behind the house where their remaining seven sheep were lazing in the sun. With the help of Jess, the Border Collie, James soon had them in a pen so that I could say “Hello” to Number 74 aka Lady, the sheep whose life I’d helped to save eight years ago. It is four years since I last saw Lady but, as the photo shows, she hadn’t completely forgotten me, which was surprising and delightful in equal measure. (Who says sheep are stupid? Not me, that's for sure!)

Old friends reunited!

 After that we inspected the vegetable garden and then walked down to the Shepherd’s Hut where they had planted a wildflower meadow in front of it. Even though some of the flowers had gone over, it was still stunning and such a lovely idea, as the Shepherd’s Hut is a rather romantic place, set well away from the farm buildings and just right for a cosy weekend away (check it out on AirBnb:  https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/3315317?s=67&unique_share_id=1c4d314b-de31-4299-bd6d-1fe96fb34dcd). 

By the Shepherd's Hut

After that we went our separate ways, Jo and James back to the farm and Jeni, Jess and I down the farm track to the beautiful oak woods and, ultimately, the river.

In the oak woods with Jess

Down by the river

 Both Jeni and I remarked on how we were suddenly aware that we had somehow exhaled all our worries and felt properly relaxed and peaceful - it really is a magical place! Four years ago, whilst clearing out the stream bed near the farm, I gathered some acorns, put them in a plastic bag and took them home to use, either as a dye or a mordant, on my handspun wool. However, when I finally remembered them, they had all started to shoot, so I potted them up and managed to grow about twenty small trees. With Jo and James’ permission, I brought fourteen of these saplings back to the farm and, in return I was given a Tamar apple variety that I had helped graft from an old tree that was dying in the orchard.

East Penrest sunset

The evening was so warm that we were able to sit outside to eat our evening meal, share a bottle of wine and witness a beautiful sunset that morphed into a star-studded night and another good night’s sleep in the van. With our souls restored by the special atmosphere of East Penrest Farm and fortified by sleep and breakfast, Jeni and I continued to the last day of our break – a visit to the Eden Project. We last visited the project back in 2001, when it had only been open for a year, and we were continually surprised by a) how little we remembered and b) how much things had grown and matured. The Rainforest Biome was more of a challenge than ever as we had to wear face masks the entire time that we were inside and the humidity and temperature were quite high, but it was worth it to see bananas growing and cacao and ginger plants, too. The Temperate Biome had probably changed the most as the original planting had matured and various Mediterranean-style buildings had been erected, with bougainvillea spilling over terracotta-tiled roofs and a ‘hillside’ of vines with an art installation depicting Bacchus and his consorts, but I was pleased to see that the cork pigs were still in evidence under the trees.

Cork pigs

Bacchus amongst the vines

After a long and interesting visit we returned to Bunty and headed home by way of the A30 and A303, with a brief couple of junctions on the M5 round Exeter. All went well, but pride nearly got the better of me when I decided to overtake a large articulated lorry going up one of the long slow hills on the A30 in Devon, only to discover that Bunty didn’t have quite the power to overhaul him easily and he wasn’t going to give an inch! Yard by yard we drew alongside and then in front with the engine screaming and the temperature rising and a longish queue of cars backing up behind me, which prevented me from eating humble pie and dropping back behind him. Again, I’ve apologised to Bunty and told her I won’t make her do that again, either! 😄 

I then spent the rest of the week catching up with my garden clients’ jobs before heading back to Cheltenham where there is a new shower room in need of painting, amongst other things. I hope it won’t be too long before Bunty and I resume our travels, as there are new places just waiting to be explored and more old friends to catch up with.