November...mud, mud and more mud!

The weekend at Cliftonville did not take place, so we set off on 4th November for Somerset, in the pouring rain. Lorna was not well so we were on our own.  After a horrendous journey, we arrived at Lower Odcombe (The Masons Arms) only to be told not to go on the grass as we would sink!! We were allotted a gravel area behind the shed, but at least it had an electric hook-up. On the Saturday we met up with some friends from work who were staying in the pub accommodation, as well as our other friends who have moved to Dorset. We spent a lovely evening chin-wagging over a very nice meal and copious amounts of wine until it was time for the chef to go to bed!  Sunday dawned nice and sunny  although not very warm, so after a hearty breakfast in the pub we said goodbye to Chris & Trevor and then donned our boots and coats for a walk along the road a bit, through Montacute Park to the House, round the garden, round the village, back to the coffee shop and then back up over the hill to Upper Odcombe and down the other side to the campsite. By which time all we wanted to do was sit down and relax.  Monday was a rather grey mizzly day, so we drove about 20 miles to visit the Haynes International Motor Museum.   That was really interesting...lots of old cars, new cars, racing cars, motor bikes as wells as memorabilia. We partook of a soup and roll late lunch there and then made our way back to play cards after dinner. Tuesday was once again rather wet, so we took a stroll around the village, up to the church and back again, bypassing the muddy tracks across the fields.

Wednesday was a much nicer day for our 25mile drive to Glastonbury via the Clark Shopping outlet at Street. We spent about 3 hours browsing the shops there and came away with a shirt, jumper and handbag, which is quite good for me knowing how much I hate shopping. It is certainly a shopper's paradise. As the weather  was so unsettled we had opted to stop off at another campsite before going to the rally field for the carnival. We found The Old Oaks which is a beautiful adults onlly site, very well run and laid out, so we treated ourselves for a couple of nights.

On the Thursday, which luckily was quite nice, we walked  nearly 2 miles in to Glastonbury itself up over the Tor. At this time of year everywhere is quiet and we had the lanes to ourselves along with the birds singing ....quite an experience. We spent about an hour in the Rural Life museum and found out all about wicker baskets and coffins, mud fishing, peat cutting, cider making and the good old days in general. After lunch in the Abbey tea-rooms, up the High Street and back down again mooching in and out of loads of ethnic and organic type shops we were worn out so decided to get a cab back to base rather than do the 2 mile walk again.

Friday ..we drove 4 miles along the road to a very muddy field at West Pennard and joined in with 39 other caravans and motorhomes all going to see the Carnival. We had to be towed on to the field with a tractor, as did everyone else after us, even the tractor got stuck at one point! Needless to say we did not venture outside much after that....I don't know what we would do without the Duke of Wellington and his 'boots'.

On Saturday the rally organisers had arranged 2 coaches to take us in to Glastonbury at 6.00pm ready for the carnival parade. (Most of the roads were closed by 3.00pm and parking would have been impossible) Once off the coach we followed everyone else to the centre of the town and managed to find ourselves a pretty good viewing point on a little roundabout, so there we stayed.  We waited until about 7.45 when the first floats began to arrive, luckily being entertained by numerous vendors of balloons, light batons, toffee apples, candy floss etc.   The Parade was magnificent, it went on for about 2 hours, float after float, all with music and thousands of light bulbs. The costumes and make-up must have taken ages to get right they were so good. There were about 102 floats all together and estimated 30,000 people watching.  We had been told about the Somerset Carnivals but had not realised that it was so extensive. There is a parade every night for over a week in a different town each night. Loads of money is collected for charities and everyone has a good time.
The coach took us back to the muddy field at about 10.30 and we eventually got to bed at 11.45.

more carnival photos

Sunday ...it was time to be towed off the field again and then drive the 178 miles back home. Luckily the sun shone all the way and we arrived back around 3.00pm and were able to unload the van in daylight.

We have now brought mostly everything indoors as I don't think that we will be going away again this year...but you never know.  We can just sit and think about what we would like to do next year.  Our first year with the campervan has been really enjoyable and most interesting.  We like the fact that we can just be nomads and wander where the whim takes us, often stopping only 2 or 3 nights in one place, but not driving so many miles between stops.