We didn't want to go abroad with our poorly dog, and we didn't want to leave him with anyone else, so set off to see some bits of the UK that we've not visited before.
Our loop through Scotland was cut short as we had to return south to Pontefract to attend Stella's Auntie Kath's funeral. After that, we were ready to resume our travels, but Stella's back suddenly went 'sproing'. That laid her out for a week, which we spent slowly making our way back to Cardiff to her trusted and reliable physiotherapist.
Loch Lomond was fantastic (and lived up to its reputation). Arriving in low season we got a fantastic camping pitch with a view across the loch to sun dappled hills.
A few minutes later, the rain started in earnest, the hills disappeared into the cloud and were never seen again. Once the wind dropped the midges rose like smoke and pressed themselves against our windows like the crowds at the January sales. In spite of that we had a great time, wrapped up in waterproofs, splashing in puddles and enjoying the quiet woods (and enjoying what we could see of the landscape).
Kath's funeral was as happy an occasion as these things ever can be. It was good to meet up with the more distant members of Stella's family, some of whom we've not seen for years. During the short walk following the hearse to the church, the whole village appeared on their doorsteps and joined onto the end of the cortège. The Vicar's sermon was at times funny as well as moving – it was clear she knew Kath well. The event ended with tea, cakes and chat in the church, a new innovation especially for Kath who would have loved it. It was a fitting send off for a lovely, lively and gregarious, not to mention garrulous, woman. She will be missed by a lot of people.
In some ways its been a frustrating few weeks. We've had odd appointments and commitments which have meant we've not been able to travel far. We've made the best of it, kicking around the old county of Glamorgan meeting people, doing errands and being lazy.
We managed to get away to Devon for a few days parked up in Hallsands Bay, a beautiful quiet spot where Richard had spent a couple of memorable weekends diving and fishing for scallops. It was great to spend a few lovely sunny days there together, even if there were no scallops this time.
Hallsands is just down the road from the village of Dunstone, one of several candidates in Devon for being the ancestral lands. Since it's in rural Devon, rather than being 'down the road', it's actually down a narrow lane hemmed in by tall stony overgrown embankments and thorn hedges. The Devon lanes did the Beautiful Big Blue Van's paintwork no good at all.
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| The Dunstones at Dunstone Farm, Dunstone, Devon |
Scooby is in fine form. Eight weeks ago his life expectancy was four to six weeks, but he's still going strong. We know it could all change any day, but so far so good. He's still up for a three hour walk, for chasing his ball or having a swim. He's slowing down a bit, but still having fun and being fun. Tomorrow we're visiting the vet to get more arthritis tablets for him – a few weeks ago we thought that packet of tablets was going to be a lifetime's supply.
Not surprisingly we've spent a lot of time discussing what we do next. Since our summer hadn't gone to plan, we felt we owed it to ourselves to extend our travels by a few weeks. When we looked into the ins and outs, we concluded we might as well extend it through the winter as well. Better to be living cheaply and travelling in the van with tenants paying our mortgage than sitting at home, maybe unable to get jobs, unable to sell property during the winter, watching our savings going to help bail out HBOS.
We've offered extended tenancies to the people who are living in our house and our flat, so we're nomads until March. The Beautiful Big Blue Van rolls on!
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