Moose on the Move!

(Quick note to reader: we have added various links to maps in this entry so you can get a better idea of where all these places with strange names are. Once you get to the 'multimap' site you can zoom in and out on the maps and move around the country as well. Hope this is of some use to you.)

After leaving the Cathedral in Sailsbury (10th April), we went in search of a particular white horse which has been cut into the hillside just North towards Swindon. We had seen the photo in our guide book and thought it too interesting and unique to skip. We consulted our handy AA drivers atlas, and discovered that there is in fact an entire herd of white horses cut into hillsides all around that area! We were able to find 3 and would like to get back to that area to have a closer look at them at some point. After satisfying our equine curiousity, we headed west towards the town of Bath.

We spent a couple of days in the Bath area, and it is certainly a lovely looking town with a beautiful Abbey and Abbey Crypt. The history in this region is amazing with links all the way back to when Romans ruled the area. Unfortunately we were not feeling very touritsy at that point , so we didn't see as much as we could have... more left for another visit!

A couple of days later, we headed to Newbury. There is not too much to say about Newbury other than that we left it to go to Basingstoke to have dinner with Mel (a work colleague of Chris'). We stayed at a lovely little campsite called Bishop's Green Farm Campsite. The guy who was running the place was quite excited to be talking to someone from Australia. He had visited Australia a couple of times and loved the place.

Chris was keen to see a castle as he had never seen one in real life before. We consulted our English Heritage book and English map book to discover that not too far away there were in fact two castles. Fabulous! Chris had in mind the tall turreted towers and grand walls of movie castles and I was looking forward to the gorgeous gardens and decadent halls. We headed off to the first one only to find on arrival that it wasn't open to the public (despite many signs in town and along the road dircting keen tourists in its direction).

The second one was there, sort of. Donnington Castle is very old (like so many things in England) built in the 14C, and unfortunately for us it was mostly destroyed in 1645. So all that remained to satisfy our desire for romanticisim was one tower and a bit if crumbly wall. We could see where a couple of fireplaces used to be and a spiral stone staircase, we could see where horizontal beams used to meet the end wall to support upper floors and the main entrance gate was still standing. It is amazing actually how little it takes to conjure in your imagination all sorts of glorious images of the people who used to live there and the things that they might have done.

Henley-On-Thames is a lovely little town...believe it or not...on the Thames river. We arrived here on the 14th April. It's the setting for an enormous rowing regatta each summer. So big is this event, that workmen were busy constructing the large blue and white striped tents a full two and a half months in advance. That evening in the pub beside ourcampsite, we got speaking to a local. He wriggled his way into our conversation with some seemingly tame remark about soccer. From there, he sat down to tell us all about his life, his problems with his marriage, problems with his job and so on. He offered to get Chris a job as a security officer. He also assured us that he really is a good bloke and then in the same breath told us about he and a mate were "borrowing" fuel on regular basis from one of the places where he was working as a security officer! Nice. Honestly, he really was a friendly bloke and offered to let us come and cook in his caravan whenever we liked. We left the next day.

After Henley, we headed for Reading (pronounced Red-ing), as we decided that this was quite a good central location for us to be. This is especially true for finding Chris work as Reading is right in the technology corridor between the M3 and M4 that is commonly known here as the "Silicon Valley" of England. Our first trip into Reading was quite nice. The town has a little river that runs through it, and the main shopping area reminded us both of Perth and the Hay St Mall area.

We had in our possession a camping guide book which assured us that the campsite just outside Reading in Finchamstead was a lovely place to stay. We had to stop to ask directions three times and each time Chris came back to the car shaking his head and laughing. It seems that asking for directions in an English pub is not as simple a matter as one might expect. No, you might ask the bar maid for help but she will point you the direction of one of the grizzled looking locals who she tells you is "much better at giving directions". So you ask him, he sighs, holds his chin and says "I could tell you how to get there but that guy over there" indicating a pile of coat at the table in the corner "lives down that road so you should really ask him". Before long most of the pub will be involved in giving you directions (most of them indicating the same direction) and you will leave the establishment with enough information to get you a couple of miles down the road before having to stop at another pub and ask again.

Finally we found the place we were looking for, only to be turned away at the gate because we did not have a certified campervan. The woman justified their policy by saying they couldn't let in one comercial vehicle or they would have to let in more. With relief I explained that we were not in a commercial vehicle, simply a people mover, and that 'yes' infact the seats did fold down to make a bed. She looked suspicious and asked if it had curtains. It was very frustrating to have worked so hard to find he place and then not be allowed to stop for one night.

We decided that it was too late to try and find another campsite to we headed into Reading city to try and find a reasonably priced hotel room. Elke must have really looked tired and sad when she walked into the Comfort Inn reception because she came back out to the car to say that they were going to let us have a £59 room for £45. We had a nice warm room, with TV and a heated towel rack!!

The next day we enjoyed the cooked breakfast that came with the room and moved back to the kind of accommodation we were getting accustomed to, a campground. It was a lovely site with a large lake just nearby, home to all kinds of birds and other animals. Most of the following week was fairly unexciting. We spent a few hours a day on the internet in Reading's Coffee Republic, walked around the lake, made our way back and forth across a muddy road to get to the bathrooms. To keep our spirits up and to keep us warm, we were sampling several "cheap" wines from various different countries during the colder evenings.

The 19th April was Elke's birthday and it was a nice day where we broke from routine. We headed into the city after a little sleep-in, had lunch at a nice restaurant overlooking the river, went to a movie and to top it all off, got a parking ticket for £20. Bum. Otherwise it was a lovely day and Chris spoiled me with three great novels to read and a bar of Swiss chocolate. On the back of this bar sweet Chris had crossed out the fat and sugar content and made them both 0%.

A couple of days later, on Friday afternoon, we headed back into Thorton Heath. This was Rosie's first trip into the big smoke. It was not too bad at all actually except for trying to parallel park our tank on a crowded street :) We spent the night with our friend Leia, and decided to go on a bit of a road trip the following day which was the 23rd April.

Heading South from London we drove towards the coast. We visited Arundel which has a magnificent castle. Unfortunately, this magnificent castle is closed on Saturdays. Go figure. We stopped in Arundel for a bit of breakfast and checked out a couple of Cathedrals while we were there anyway. We then headed on to Chichester, which is a little bit further South West. One of the interesting things to see in Chichester is an old Church that has been converted into a pub/coffee shop. We decided we had to stop in and have some coffee. Chris wasn't so lucky on this occasion though. The first cup came with lumpy curdled milk, and when the waited brought the replacement milk, he promptly spilt it all over the table (and Chris and Leia). Oh well, no use crying over spilt milk. Ha ha. That'll teach us to complain about our food though.

South of Chitchester is an area called the Whitterings. We had been told that the Whitterings is a great example of a sandy beach and sand dunes in England. Going to the beach is certainly a different experience here than back in Australia. Firstly, we noticed that we were the only people not changing out of our shoes into Gum Boots. It seems a very strange custom. Chris tried out the water temprature by going in up to his ankles. By all accounts, it was very cold and there was no swimming to be done that day. The other funny thing is all the little beach houses that are lined up along the top of the sand dunes. Apparently, after having a dip in the water, people run back up the beach to their little beach house. All the beach houses were locked up and seem to be privately owned. We can't wait till summer when we can make our way to the beaches and see what it is like with all those little houses filled with people and their Gum Boots.

After leaving the Whitterings, we decided we had to visit the seaside town of Bognor Regis. We had no other reason for wanting to go there other than that it had quite a funny name. It turned out to be quite a nice town. However, we didn't stay long as we still had other places to see. We decided to head back towards London, but take a detour to the most famous of Englands seaside towns, Brighton.

Brighton seemed like a lovely place, although we didn't explore much other than the water front. There are two piers in Brighton. One has been devestated by a fire and is completely and utterly burnt to a crisp (but still standing in the water). The other has a mini fun fair/carnival type atmosphere with roller coasters, haunted houses, bumper cars etc. We decided to head to this pier. Initially we wondered why all this peripheral entertainment was here until we saw the beach. Nice and full of large pebbles and once again, not warm enough to swim in. We are wondering if it would actually ever be warm enough to swim in. I guess we will have to head back to the South coast once the weather warms up a little. After a quick beer overlooking a beautiful sunset, we decided to head back to London.

The next day, we left London and headed for a camp ground in Horsley where Elke decided that is was worthwhile for us to join the Caravan and Camping Club. Seeing we were doing quite a bit of camping already....and would like to do more when the weather is nice enough for normal people to want to camp...we joined up. Basically the club has many sites right across the UK. From our understanding, all of these sites are of a pretty high standard. Becoming a member entitles you to discounts at all club sites.

The next week, we went back to the same campsite we had been in previously (not a club site) outside Reading. However, in order for us to avoid causing offence we were advised to buy ourselves a tent before the bank holiday (a.k.a public holiday) the following weekend. Why don't people like it when we sleep in Rosie? Anyway, we therefore headed into Reading during the week and purchased ourselves a nice tent and airmattress. We are moving up in the world :) We also decided to get ourselves a wireless LAN card which means that we can get cheaper internet access and didn't have to pour our entire life savings into the hands of Coffee Republic. It has turned out to be quite a good move.

So we are not quite up to date but we will be soon. Hopefully, last week's adventures will be posted in the next few days. We'll 'talk' to you then.