Happy New Year
I hate New Years Eve with a vengeance I do. It has nothing at all to do with me being a miserable git at all. Honestly it does not.
I like to socialise with the best of them, but cannot cope with the invariable upset that the turn of the year brings. People have a drink and with that drink emotions can run high. I can understand it but cannot be doing with it.
The turn of the year is usually a time to reflect. Herself is in work today and I have a bit of time on my hands to do some key tapping.
We entered 2012 with a 'New to us' caravan having purchased the Sancerre in November of 2011. I think it's safe to say that it's seen some use in 2012.
February half term saw herself and I tow up through the mid Wales Hills to stay at Daisy Bank in Montgomery. The 4 night mid week break saw some highs and some lows, but we quickly fell in love with the fixed bed and end washroom in our new van.
Early March saw a mini heat wave hit the UK and raise everyone hopes for a long hot summer. By Easter those same hopes had vanished as the Arctic North Easterlies had the UK firmly in it's grip. The bank holiday weekend was spent shivering at Pembrey Caravan Club Site with Mr & Mrs Shag, consuming far too much alcohol in the awnings until late at night.
Just after Easter it started to rain, and rain and rain. Our plans for Mayday were subject to last minute alterations as the planned rugby tournament at Usk was called off. Some frantic work on the phone by Mrs Shag ensured the weekend was not lost and we went on tour with Llangenench U16s to Blossom Park near Abergavenny. For such a hastily arranged weekend it went off really well, and all credit to Mrs Shag for sorting out a campsite that was able to accommodate us so late on, and getting the boys games for the weekend.
It continued to rain throughout May and the extended Spring BH / Jubilee weekend saw us pitching up at St Davids with Mr & Mrs Shag for a rather enjoyable weekend.
With so much rain, weekends away were out of the question, but early July saw us tow up through Mid Wales again for a week at Fforest Fields with Nana Coupons. In spite of the weather we had a great week in mid Wales on a superb independent site.
Straight from Builth Wells we towed to Pembrey Country Park for a weekend Rally with Llangennech Juniors, except that the weather was so bad that the juniors didn't show up. Never the less, we were rewarded with some sunshine, drank far too much, and me and Mr Shag almost got caught by the wardens emptying the rubbish from his works van into the park skips.
It continued to rain throughout July until the day we arrived at Broad Park Club Site for the start of our 2 week holiday in the West Country. We were blessed on this holiday with good weather, we had 10 days of wall to wall sunshine in South Devon, and the break was a real tonic. Our Sons Ronnie and Roids joined us for some of the time as did Grandpa Grumbles and Nana Creaky.
From there we headed up to the Cornish North Coast, and stopped at Trewetthette Farm perched on the Atlantic cliff tops. The weather here was not so good, and we almost lost our awning during one of the overnight storms.
Mr & Mrs Shag were still away in France, so August BH weekend was spent as 'billy no mates' on the Pembrey Club site in not too great weather.
Late October saw us again heading along the M4, over the Severn Bridge and right towards the West Country. Our destination this time was the Exmoor House Club site in Dulverton. This served to be an excellent destination for our late Autumn break, and is a site I'm sure we'll revisit soon.
This usually sees the end of our touring year, but this year I won a competition with the Caravan Club. I may have mentioned this previously!
So with the loan of an X Trail and 7 free nights of camping we set off on a mini tour of the North of England, Firstly to Chatworth Park in the Peak District before going further North to Beechwood Grange in York and taking in Chester Fairoaks on the way back down south.
The individual blogs for all these breaks can be read on this site, so I won't bore you with them by regurgitating my antics here, but suffice to say, it's been quite a busy year. We spent 53 nights away in the van on 12 different sites. Of those sites 7 were sites that we'd not stayed on before in areas that we'd not explored. On our travels we covered 1967 miles towing the van, and enjoyed every bloody minute.
Here's to an equally good 2013 ...... Happy New Year everyone.