Last weekend we had our first trip out in Major Tom, our new Motorhome that we’re very pleased with. We drove up to Lydford in about 2.5 hours, the scariest bit was leaving the road we live on as cars all park on both sides of the road and the most frustrating part was between Dorchester and Bridport as there are some work’s temporary traffic lights in place but a large lorry had broken down just before them so that took half an hour to get past. After that it was plain sailing!!
We refuelled in Sainsbury’s and bought some last minute items and met up with Mark in his VW Camper at the Crown in Bridport, we were definitely going to be the slowest so he followed us all the way. Our Labradoodle, Eddie, was harnessed in to a secure anchor point that I’d added to the van and the anchor lead is just long enough to allow him to sit with his head between Mary & I in our driver/passenger seats. He loves it there.
We met up at the Dartmoor Inn which is a boutique pub, great food, I had a beef baguette with horse radish and fries, I could have eaten it all again but had to hold back as Debbie was cooking for us all that evening.
Arrival at the site was painless, the staff there are efficient and friendly, the site is open and easy to navigate, the facilities are excellent, Covid secure and very clean. On site we had. A pitch between Mark’s Camper and Cozy & Debbie’s Caravan, they were there since the previous Tuesday and were staying a week or so.
Cozy helped me get Major Tom onto the ramps for levelling purposes (a first for me) and the coffee was on and the seats out, electric hook up hooked up, water tank full is, water heater on, pump on, all good and set for the weekend.
Friday afternoon’s walk was Out the campsite and back to the village cross, down the lane to the viaduct, under the viaduct and further down to the little river, Debbie & Cozy have a cockerpoo called Sesto and the dogs played in the river to their hearts content, that was until we decided it was time for a pub stop!
We walked along the river a while then up the lane which came out by Lydford Gorge, the gorge wasn’t open so we doubled back to the village and into the Castle Inn which we’ve stayed at a few times. We had good service in the beer garden albeit through an app that took a while to get the hang of, the wine was rubbish but the beer was ok, we’d booked in for Saturday evening dinner there so we had to get used to it.
From there we walked back to the campsite and had a glass of wine from our own quality store whilst Debbie was preparing a Lasagne for all of our tea. Tea was excellent and in their snug awning, it was followed by local ice cream from Princetown with honeycombe in it, that was so good we bought a load before we came home!
Our first night in Major Tom was a roaring success, comfy and warm under our duvet, dog at the bottom of the bed, our own toilet, what more could you want?
Saturday morning we had breakfast with Mark, chilled for a while then set off on our late morning walk, Back past the cross but left up the hill this time and past the lovely Dartmoor Inn, straight up the side of the moor to the top of Brat Tor and to stand next to Widgery Cross, a famous landmark locally. We had a minor panic on the way back down, thought we’d lost Debbie, not the case, quality misunderstanding as usual!
Lunch was again at the Dartmoor Inn and I had the same as previous day, too good not to.
We walked back to the campsite and had drinks in Major Tom, then showered and set off for tea in the Castle Inn, good food, better wine this time, but sadly I was too full from my lunch to make full use of it. Back at the van we all fell asleep early doors.
Sunday was a very relaxed start, chilled breakfast followed by decamp with no rush. We got away from our pitch dead on 11am and drove very slowly back to Weymouth, a big thanks to all our friends involved and now we’re looking forward to our next trip to a swimming site near Frome.
