Day 3 and wild cmping

Wednesday 13th

A Cockerel greeting the dawn, something to be expected in the country but after a very restless night of heavy rain, what with the melting ice slipping periodically from the roof making us jump every time it landed, we could have wished that bird further! Very bleary-eyed we made ready to leave the site disconnecting the electrics and then placing waste tank hose into our container. A sudden loud expletive .. bu**er or was it 'Oops it just came away in my hand....honest Gov', and I discovered the blasted hose had split. Emptying the internal tank was going to be difficult but he managed to get what was left of the waste pipe into the container so the tank could be emptied. Finally on our way it was head off to do Jacobs ladder. But once again we were scuppered by the weather. This time fog was the problem. No chance of seeing the views from the top then! Deciding to give it a miss we headed off toward Brean and the fort instead.

Managed to pick up a new hose at a caravan and camping outlet on route toward Brean. Torrential rain nearly all the way apart from a very brief glimmer of the sun creating a vibrant rainbow. 

  

 A narrow lane took us toward Brean Down and we had a problem of a parked lorry. Enough room for cars but not for this Beast (In has named her at last) so all we could do was wait. Turns out a bungalow had part of its roof blown away during the night's high winds and scaffolding was being installed by those in the lorry. Anyway, we only had about 40 minutes to wait before they eventually moved off.

So after parking in the NT car park, we climbed the steps and walked the mile to the Fort.
Brean Down's fort was built to defend the country against a possible Napoleonic invasion but the earliest signs of life on Brean Down date back to 10,000 BC. Evidence of extinct creatures such as mammoths and woolly rhinos had been uncovered here.

Lots of steps

The Beast parked by those Chalets

Not stone hugging but saving his woolly hat from being blown off.

Wild camping for the first time that night. Found a convenient layby on the coast road but because we arrived after dark, couldn't t put the van on the levelling blocks. Meant we were listing to one side, so much so that Ian spent most of the night stopping himself from falling from the bed! Another problem was no internet and no phone signal. But we did have telly so that was alright then. Pretty wild night with the wind rocking the Beast, torrential rain had water dripping from the trees. The sea was so close that we could hear a constant roar as the waves crashed onto the rocks. But would we have changed location? Not a chance as you will see on the next post.