The Wesleys Wild Wanderings Episode One

So here we are at the beginning of our 'gap year for old people'. You are invited to share our journey. This is not a travel log ….I plan to regale you with some of our adventures, share stories with you about people we meet and places we love or hate and even the odd profound thought (if I have any). I will also share stories of life full time in a caravan..... we are new to caravanning so I am sure there will be plenty of laughs!

 Why are you doing this?  I hear you say!

Well we decided that while we are able to walk and talk, have most of our marbles and enjoy each others company (its early days!) we would explore the UK in its finest glory. There are so many places we have not seen and more that we have travelled through, peeked at and often said ‘ we must come back here one day”. Then of course we have National Trust and English Heritage membership that we need to ‘ get the value out of ’…….

So once we had decided we were going to take a year out of normal life the question then arose of How?

 Well on our pensioners budget  ( his not mine - I am too young!) we have to travel on our own steam and a caravan seemed the best option. A home from home  -something we can pitch and leave to explore each area. For those of you whose experience of caravans is as a child on a dismal holiday in a leaky, damp and cold caravan having to trip off to the toilet/shower block in the rain please be assured that there is absolutely no way I would consider that! So our first task was to buy a state of the art Bailey Unicorn Valencia caravan (otherwise known to us as Val the Van). She is lovely….. with central heating, full sized fridge and cooker, separate shower room and a fixed bed meaning we don’t have to argue over who puts the bed together at night. Of course those of you who are hardened campers will be appalled at all of this luxury but please remember we are talking about living in Val for a WHOLE YEAR.

Our next step in planning was to pack up all of our worldly goods as we are renting our house out for a year (its about time it paid us back after all these years of swallowing our hard earned cash) .We discovered that we had an awful lot of STUFF and so the great clear out began… from the garage to the attic and beyond – we got to know the local Red Cross shop so well the lady knew us by name. Moving from a 4 bedroom house to a tin box is quite a stretch- We HAVE to travel light as although there is loads more space in Val than I had thought, we really did have to be clear about what we actually NEED.

My biggest challenge was deciding which clothes NOT to bring along. I cant imagine not having a different outfit to wear each evening and I certainly don’t want to turn into a ‘ Mildred’ type caravaner who wears beige elasticated trousers from the M & S Classic range and a fleece! ( although I am sure they are lovely people!) .

Talking of outfits – Those of you who have watched Caravaner of The Year on the BBC recently will be aware that the technical term for a caravan is an ‘outfit’.

I promise you I am not going to become one of those awful people who talk about the highs and lows of their ‘ outfit’  - (unless I manage to sneak in a trip to Hobbs for a new dress of course!) .

 So here we are at the beginning of our adventure. We have started in Lands End – a caravan site on a cliff top ( a tad scary if the wind gets up I suspect) over looking Sennen Cove . The sun is shining, the surf is up and there could not be a better place to start our journey.

Our plan is to spend the next couple of months exploring Cornwall (including spending the fab Rick Stein and Nathan Outlaw vouchers , vineyard Tour and Afternoon tea we were given as wedding pressies ).

After that we have a few things planned /booked including some house/dog sitting in Dorset in July (so I can have a bath) but mainly we are trying our hardest not to plan too much. I am going to be like Mary Poppins and go where the wind blows me!

Thank you for joining us on our travels – please comment on the blog and make suggestions of places you think we should visit.

Here we go …….