Okay if you like paintings

 Apart from the occasional mooing of the cows from a nearby farm, our night sleep was undisturbed. Woke to a very chilly MB, thank goodness our heater works now and with it the hot water too! So before leaving the site, showers were had, and the water tank topped up afterwards.

Today we made for Petworth House. Not sure what to expect, but it was a NT place and looked amazing on the website. The grounds were beautiful, Rhododendrons, Bluebells and Magnolia trees were in full bloom, shame the house was a good 10-minute walk away, and uphill to boot. Our poor knees! 

Ian has a plant identifier app on his phone. Works really well for a freebie.

 

Taking a lot longer than the 10 minutes quoted, finally the house came into view. Really nothing to write home about, not like some places we have visited.

In fact, apart from the below stairs kitchens, we were a tad disappointed. The house is a 17th-century mansion, but instead of elegant furniture adorning every room, it was filled with paintings and sculptures. Admittedly famous artists like Gainsborough, Turner, Van Dyck, and Reynolds all had paintings displayed but unless you are into your art, this would not be the place for you to visit. 

The kitchens below stairs

This was impressive

The electric meter and old telephone

Back at MB, time was only a tad after one, and about an hour's drive away was Hever Castle. It was the home of Anne Boleyn, and another Historic Houses property. We were to be disappointed once again though, because it's only free to members Monday to Friday and with tomorrow being Sunday, we would have had to pay to get in. As Ian quite rightly said, we have paid a considerable sum to become a member, so why exclude us at weekends. As you may have gathered, this will be given a miss, for now anyway.

Being a bit peed off, we looked for somewhere to stop for the night. Found this wonderful wooded area near to Petworth Village. So secluded, only the occasional dog walker turns up. Am I tempting fate by saying we don't expect any trouble? Fingers crossed we won't!

m

And wildlife today

Partridge

Jackdaws

Fast cars, a stolen Mercury and a surprise dragon.

 There are times (very few, I might add) when wild camping isn't all it's cracked up to be. Last night, as the sun was setting, several cars raced up to the car park and all with what I call 'boy racer' cars. As MB was the only motorhome in the car park, we did feel slightly vulnerable.  The side blinds were pulled down, but we deliberately left the front cabin side window and front windscreen bare in case a quick getaway was necessary. Fears unfounded though because after a good hour of playing music, laughing and chatting, they all left.

This morning, Ian walked up to the Danebury Iron Age Hill Fort. I could have gone but had a splitting headache so left it up to him to take photos.  What he took made me glad I stayed behind. There didn't appear to be much to see but there again, he doesn't take as many photos as me, so there could have been a lot more of interest. Still, my fault for not making the effort.

Not many miles from the car park was Houghton Lodge and Gardens. As English Heritage members we get in free and although the lodge was only open to the public at weekends, the gardens and surrounding walks meant we spent a good 3 hours wandering around. Unfortunately, part of the grounds were waterlogged from all the recent flooding in the area, which meant trying to get to see the Alpacas meant a bit of a route march. The shortest way, which was by a small bridge across the stream, was still submerged!

Houghton Lodge

Japanese Garden

Orchid House

Below is the figure of Mercury. Made of Iron, thieves tried to steal it by sawing off his legs.

The saga of what happened next was written in the map given to us by English Heritage. 

We came across a topiary Dragon guarding her eggs, something children would probably delight in seeing. You can make out it's a dragon...just, and anyone walking across a sensor nearby set of a jet of steam from its nostrils, I can imagine the screams of delight from the kiddies.

You need some imagination to see this was a dragon.

 

Well, it's a bit of fun for the children

Does anyone remember the TV drama Buccaneers? It first aired in 1979 and a 2023 version is now on Apple TV. Apparently, the BBC built a landing stage for one of the scenes next to the River Test.

Tonight we booked into a CC site. Room for no more than 7 motorhomes, it was rural and had all the amenities we wanted. No shower or toilets but water and elsan disposal, what more does one want! Not sure about tomorrow yet, we may have to change the starter battery because it's still not right. The charge drops overnight even though the solar panel is putting amps in. Luckily, MB starts first time at the moment, but one day I can see our luck running out.

Day 1 of our hols and not the best start.

 April 17th

A break in the weather at last and a great morning to set off in MB. Took far longer to reach our destination though, not because of traffic, but a slight detour was made to collect our post from our daughter in Swadlincote. So we eventually arrived at the Furze Bush pub near Newbury around 5 pm. 

 

This pub was a Brit Stop, a place that one can overnight, so long as frequents the pub and buy a drink or meal. We chose to have a meal and very nice it was too. Got back to MB and discovered the fridge hadn't gone over to gas. Blast now what! Normally, this is done automatically once the engine is turned off. But even though Ian manually switched it over, it still wouldn't work. For goodness’s sake, what else is going to go wrong with this van? Out he went to check connections and at the wrong moment too because as he was fiddling with the connectors, the heavens opened. Still what ever he did worked and a slight soggy Ian returned much relieved.

Bloody hell, it was cold last night, had to grab a blanket and dressing gown to try and warm up. I wasn't going to wake Ian, he lay there just in a thin sleeping bag totally oblivious to my distress, and snoring gently. Well, I suppose I could expect nothing less seeing as this is the man that wears a T-Shirt in minus degree temperatures! Slowly I warmed, thank goodness, and next thing I knew it had gone 7 am.

So the plan today was to get to Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey). Only 6 miles from the pub, it was to be a good day out. The sun shone, warming everything nicely and by 9.45am we were ready for the off. Ian turned the key in the ignition and the horrible sound of a laboured engine trying to start came into play. Both looked at each other, both wondered if MB would start. Try again and this time it sounded more promising. At the third attempt, MB sprung into life. Phew, but the worry was why! Nothing for it but abandon the trip to Highclere Castle for the moment and instead find someone who could check the battery. 

We wanted to get to Newbury, but the bloody sat nav took us to the wrong place! Well to be fair we only put in Mill Lane, Newbury and didn't bother with the post code. OMG...down the narrowest of lanes reminiscent of NZ, although at least in NZ we could be relatively sure no cars would be met. Gosh, we were fortunate. Got through unscathed but on reaching said Mill Lane, it was of course the wrong one!

  This time the post code did go into the sat nav and guess what, it was a good 7 miles back from where we had started from! Mill Lane MOT, Tyre and Battery centre was what we needed, duh....thought it a bit strange to have a garage out in the back and beyond. Anyway, eventually found the place and turns out it was right next to the K&A with loads of moored boats. Unfortunately, this was the only photo I could get from the MOT centre.

The alternator was checked that was fine with 13 amps plus volts going in, so deemed to be okay. Battery also okay so no need to change that either.  No more suggestions made by the very nice chap from the centre, so we left hoping it was just the very cold weather this morning making the battery sluggish to start. 

Back on track toward Highclere Castle and within 15 minutes pulled up to the gates. What greeted us was somewhat unexpected.

 

Talk about not a lot of luck today. We debated what to do and decided on Avebury Manor, Wiltshire. Luckily, Ian checked the website and....oh no....that too was closed due to the January flooding! Crikey can the start to this holiday get any worse? Looking at a proper map, noticed Salisbury Plain was fairly close by. About 30 miles and visiting Stonehenge seemed like another good plan. It must have been nearly 40 years since our last visit. So that was where we would go then. Sat Nav showed the route, seemed okay so clicked agree. Well, not 10 minutes into our journey and the sat nav rerouted. Turns out the A360 was closed and the only way to get to Stonehenge (according to the Sat Nav) was a further 30 odd miles to add onto the mileage. Bloody hell....you couldn't make any of this up! Took nie on three hours to get there. God knows what the Sat Nav was on, and more fool us for following it! Finally, we arrived, it was packed with foreign tourists and coaches lined up in their dozens. A designated motorhome parking was shown but when we got there, car owners must have a size issue because all but one of the parking spots were of cars! Anyway, a shuttle bus took us the mile and a half to the site, took 30 minutes to walk around and we were back to MB before an hour was up.

One surprise by the stones was a very tame Great Bustard! It normally resides in northern Morocco, South and Central Europe and Central and East Asia.This one has been a visitor to the stones during April for the past few years, stays for a short time and then disappears until the following year.

Ian found a wild camping site at Danehill Fort Roman ruins. Very quiet but for the dog walkers tuning up in their cars. No doubt this will be our wake up call in the morning.

Blacking begins.

Our doggie fix has come and gone, Toffee was returned to our sons a week ago, we have now resorted once again to being couch potatoes. Mind you the weather has been atrocious, not walking conditions at all, and the planned dry docking for Monday was touch and go at one point. Without any cover we were open to the elements and applying bitumen to a wet hull was a no no! We decided to go for it anyway as a small window of good weather was forecast from Wednesday onwards and Vikki & Dan (owners of the boatyard) gave us an extra day drying.

In the rain, we moved FS into the dock. Another boat joined us, Halcyon, not a DIY, so it would be left to Vikki to do the blacking. Anyway, soon both boats had descended and settled onto the steel sleepers and as soon as the dock had completely emptied, Ian set too with the jet wash.

Most of FS's had been cleaned and a very small area left when disaster struck. First the jet wash hose split, not a problem as Dan had a spare but as soon as the washer was once more switched on, the pressure valve gave up the ghost. Well, nearly two hours went by as both Dan and his brother Tom tried to fix it. In the end, they had to give up and bring out a small electric jet washer. Ian finished FS's hull, but I did feel for Dan trying to jet wash the hull of Halcyon. It took twice as long as it hardly had the power of the industrial broken one!

Tuesday was a day of fine mizzle and dry periods, but I did manage to get one coat of bitumen around the waterline. Ian blacked the uxter plate and swim, both protected of course by the rear counter.

Not a lot more was done by me that day, although Ian did titivate rubbing down the tunnel bands and applying undercoat in-between the showers. Thank goodness it was quick drying!

 

Wednesday the blacking really begun. Overnight the hull had dried, I was up at 7 am knowing I had but 4 hours in which to get the first coat on both sides. After midday, more rain was forecast, not a problem once the bitumen had been applied. I managed it in 3 hours, but gosh my back at the end screamed out in pain and trying to stand up straight was agony! Plenty of painkillers taken and the thought of doing it all again the next day to apply a second coat filled me with dread. Ian had been sorting out the tiller. Having bounced over some rubble on our travels in Birmingham, the steering had felt very light. Turns out the wedge Ian had placed in the cup had perished, so a new one was made from an old paint spray cap, and this did the job nicely. 

 

This was done before Ian had blacked underneath the uxter.

 

Anyway, by Thursday morning the painkillers had worked and Ian helped out by blacking the starboard side. While I went inside for a rest, he set too, rubbing down the gunwales and smoothing the newly applied undercoat on the tunnel bands in readiness to gloss. 

The finished tunnel bands

Friday it was all done, the big clean-up started, me on the inside trying to remove as much dirt and dust from floors shelves etc, and Ian on the outside replacing fenders and giving the gunwales a second coat of paint. 

FS was refloated this morning. Both sides and top were given a thorough wash before we brought FS back into the basin. We plan to leave in MB Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, heading South and to the Isle of White. All problems on MB have been sorted to our satisfaction, hopefully we will have trouble free summer but knowing our luck, probably not! Oh, the tar running down the flue on FS also seems to have been sorted. Since Ian used silicone as a seal, it's been okay.