Sunday 23rd March
Sandra:
Sunday dawned bright and relatively early as today was the day to move sites, about 50 or so miles further north into the Lincolnshire Wolds. The site we were booked in to for the next 10 nights was Greetham Retreat in between Horncastle and Spilsby. This was an area neither of us has visited for some considerable years (in my case 30+)! Even then I only got as far East at Lincoln for a short break.
We had consulted SAT NAV, Google Maps and Atlases to see which was the best route – me in my car and Richard, of course, towing Patsy. We soon realised that Richard would have to take a longer route and my route was more or less due north in large part and mainly across the Fens and then into the South Wolds on B roads in the main. It was a lovely sunny day and a very pleasurable run it was.
Given I had to stop for petrol, facilities and to see to the girls, I rolled up at site only about 15 minutes or so before Patsy came round the corner and down the hill. We had made it! We were surprised to see that with our arrival, the site was full! It was the same for the next couple of days. The site was as quiet as anything even full up.
It’s much easier packing up when you’re moving between sites I find – most things just get chucked in the car. No sorting out what will stay in the ‘van, what will stay in the car, and what will have to be hauled up to the flat once home.
It was a beautiful morning for a tow and yes, I stuck to the A roads despite Mrs Google Maps’ protestations and ended up doing 75 miles – worth it though.
Noticeably cooler but still sunny, the chairs were extracted for lunch before the awning went up – we’re getting better at it with practice.
Sandra:
Fitting the white eyelet straps to the vertical poles has helped greatly.
Monday 24th May
Another pleasantly sunny day, we had a lazy morning then headed into Spilsby, dropped Sandra’s car off for it’s MOT then walked into town, where I enjoyed a nice pint of Batemans in the sun whilst we waited.
All was well with the car thankfully; some groceries were procured before a trundle back to site. It’s lovely to be spending time on quieter roads.
Tuesday 25th May
Overcast but at least dry, we headed to Lincoln, first to the ‘top bit’, checking out the summit of the famous ‘Steep Hill’. I’ve walked it once but not this time, it wasn’t worth the inevitable grief my knee would give me.
We then perused the outside of the cathedral before taking coffee and a tea cake on the terrace of the café. Very pleasant with the magnificent cathedral in the background.
Back in the car for a short while before parking up again near the bottom of the hill. Lunch was taken on some seating but given some hoons making a nuisance of themselves and the police turning up we decided to leave and ended up making a gentle meander back to the site.
Wednesday 26th March
Sandra continues:
Todays visit was to Tattershall Castle and Horncastle. The former is a 12th century castle in pretty good condition than most of the era. It was cold but sunny and we both enjoyed visiting the various parts. Richard braved the steps to the top and down to the basement. I managed the ground floor and there were some very helpful boards and an explanatory video showing you all the various parts. A very interesting visit – not so good on the pathways around the site though, lovely, neat kept gravel but very deep and wheels stuck – so across the grass we went.
More opportunity to pose in a long leather coat – this time my ridiculously impractical but gorgeous ‘vampire’ coat. I was determined to get to the top although I didn’t make it easy for myself – several kilos of dead cow on my back supported by Cuban heeled winklepickers and having to scoop the coat tails up to avoid tripping on them and going arse over tit. I’ll never learn, the view was worth it though.
Sandra continues:
Staying in the North Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire Wolds area you are spoilt for choice really in regard to fulfilling your need to watch aircraft flying. Following on from WWII, there are any number of RAF bases in the area, indeed there were many more, but these have slowly closed.
We decided to try RAF Waddington first, the current home of the world-famous Red Arrows – unfortunately, a check on their Facebook page yielded the information that they were overseas finalising their 2025 show. There is a good-sized spectators car park with portable toilets and even a mobile snack bar! Obviously, there was not much to be seen, so we moved on to RAF Coningsby.
This, despite the much busier feel to the area, had a much smaller car park, no toilets or snack bar. There is a Battle of Britain museum at the side which I understand has toilets and a café but looked shut on the day of our visit.
We found a space, one of the very last, it was still very quiet although you could see the engineers readying the Euro Fighter Typhoons for action. We were soon to see why it was so busy. We quickly scoffed our usual packed lunch and then parked ourselves resting on the car’s bonnet and awaited the growing noise. We were not disappointed as no less than the Typhoon Display Team are based here, and they were ready to practice some manoeuvres. We were then treated to nearly an hour of breathtaking acrobatic manoeuvres and, I have to admit there was a certain amount of showing off to the crowds I am sure! Pilots live to fly, so the saying goes – this lot were having a rare old time – there was even a relatively low-level twisted fly pass of the control tower – one hopes the CO did not have a cup of coffee in his hands at the time!!
It is obviously a big thing – many a car had a standing platform attached to their roofs, cameras, tripods and massive lenses were on display. Expensive and then some. We even saw, someone who is obviously quite famous locally at least – A YouTuber called Ted Coningsby. He had all the kit and a satellite dish connection and amongst the noise it was actually quite handy to listen to his commentary – very close to your ear, to get to know what was happening next. People were tooting their horns as they passed, and we admired his ability to talk endlessly about the history of the base and flights.
We then moved a little closer as a space on the
verge had become vacant and we were able to see a WWI Cub aircraft being
checked over quite close, in fact just the other side of the fence.
A very pleasurable hour or two, Monday to Fridays are best. Earplugs might be useful if very loud noise is not your thing – make sure you keep your pets safely locked away – my two slept through the whole thing!
Tonight’s visit was to the George and Dragon, just up the road from the site on the main road. Very nice and old, however there was about 10 of us in the whole pub, including the restaurant half. It was sad to see and the publican graciously allowed us to finish our drinks before shutting up shop early.
Thursday 27th March
A pleasant morning enjoying a now empty site then nothing more in the afternoon than a run into Spilsby to pick up some dog food for Sandra’s gorgeous Westie’s, then a look at the ruins of Bolingbroke castle on the way back. Very little left but it was a nice spot to visit and it gave the girls a chance to have a wander too.
Sandra:
Thursday night – a trip out was in order. We both perused the local apps and came across a very pleasant sounding pub: the Blue Bell Inn in Belchford. It was a trip across country but was well worth the visit. It seemed a very old building and there was obviously a group of people all together eating in the restaurant. A bit of a more positive change than the night before when we had been the only two customers left after a few people had finished in the restaurant. Useful to note that most pubs, certainly outside of the towns are closed on Monday and Tuesdays. With Mothering Sunday due, it was proving impossible to get a meal before we head back.
A lovely couple of pints of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, not my favourite from their stable but a nice pint nonetheless. Yes, it looks like we’re going to struggle for our traditional ‘Last Supper’ out this time. No matter, we’ll never go hungry. Two things, should you ever be welcomed into Patsy’s bosom, you’ll never be cold and you’ll never be hungry – or thirsty…
Friday 28th March
Sandra:
We decided that as a lovely, if cool, day was forecast, we would plan a trip towards the coast. Our main trip destination originally was to Louth, a visit to Coupland’s Caravan and due to a terminal malfunction on the dashcam, a visit to Halfords was in order. Fortunately, they were both within 20 yards of each other so that was our first port of call.
A look around the well-stocked accessories and awning shop was interesting but sadly no green liquid was available. There was plenty of blue and pink however. We commented that maybe this was a sign of the move away from the original products. When researching where the dealers where we came across a more modern 2014 version of Patsy. I was keen to have a window shop look, if only to see what changes they had made. Probably the two which stick in my mind, well 3 thinking about it…. i. Cooker has an electric ring; ii. The large fire heater is no more and freed up quite a bit of space; iii. It had ATC. I will leave it to Richard to give you his impression.
We then picked up the new dashcam for me – we will install it on our return.
A nice enough 'van but certainly not tempted. It did hav my pondering whetheran uprade to Patsy's heating system would be feasible at some point. Would free up some space too.
Sandra:
It was a short drive into town, there appear to be no major supermarket fuel stations in the area but we managed to find a reasonably priced one and duly filled up. A Twitter account, now X, had recommended we try a quirky café in Louth – we were pleased to note that we actually had to pass it on the way to the centre of town. We decided to visit on our way back – not least because the wind was biting cold through the narrow streets. We did the usual perambulation of the main bit – not far, plenty of history. Sad to see that the last bank in town is closing in late Spring/early summer this year.
The café was physically quite small and I wondered if we, including one of the girls’ pushchairs would fit in – thankfully, we did. We spent the next half hour admiring the artistic efforts of people from Louth who had decorated it into Wonderland. There are some very talented people around. We had welcome hot tea/coffee, toasted teacakes and crumpets – it was a great recommendation and warmed up us as the car park was two minutes away.
We then pressed on towards Mablethorpe – I knew of the place by name as a very good friend of my Mother’s youngest son moved there with his new wife some years ago. Living as I currently do on the Western side of the UK, as indeed did they, we did wonder at their choice of location. In many ways it reminds me of the North Wales coast, sadly with the accompanying challenges both socially and economically. We ventured a little out of the main resort area and found a car park where we could sit and eat our usual packed lunch overlooking the sea. We also had a look on the maritime app to see the various boats coming and going from Immingham etc. It did remind me so much of a similar setting, two differences – it was much warmer and it was the other side of the world in NZ!! We often ate our packed lunches overlooking the beaches – usually if possible, under trees.
We then turned south, passing through various villages and made our way back to site. A night in beckoned – we had been out the last two nights. Some TV, xword after a fresh cooked chicken dinner by Chef Easy is just the ticket.
Saturday 29th March
A trip to the coast and to Cleethorpes, a place neither of us had ever been to before. Not getting into the right lane at the main roundabout meant the nice lady from Google Maps sent us through a housing estate before reaching our destination – the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway. It was only a short run, from the pretty lakeside area towards the town, but very pleasant indeed. The area seemed, on the face of it anyway, to be faring much better than down the coast. Sandra had challenged me to a game of crazy golf after and much fun was had. After storming into an early lead, Sandra started closing the gap and I was somewhat lucky to win by a couple of points. Plenty of good natured ribbing on the way around.
After our usual packed lunch we went in search of the Meridian line again. There was a handy car park and I nipped out for some photos; a lovely remote area but popular with folks out enjoying the weather.
Sunday 30th March
To the coast again, this time to Skegness and the chance to bag another Waltzer, which I did, at Botton’s fun park.
Built by Maxwell in 1972, it’s been at the park since then. A reasonable turn of speed but not the smoothest. Old(er) school music though which always gets an extra mark.
We took our lunch on the promenade then headed a short way up the coast to Ingoldmells. Conflicting reports of whether there was a Waltzer here – there had been one on the main fun park however that was no longer listed on the website. We spotted one though, with some other attractions off to the side. There was no way I was going to fork out a minimum of a fiver to park just for a ride, so we stopped, swapped over and Sandra dropped me off.
Leigh Harris’ Waltzer was also built by Maxwell, again in 1972, but this time as an Ark/Speedway, being converted at the end of the decade. Smoother and a tad faster and with a longer ride time this was undoubtedly the better of the two machines in my view.
Getting off a little dizzy I called Sandra who picked me up shortly after, and we headed back to the site for a drink in the sun outside the ‘van.
Another good day out, I do love how the hobby of caravanning gives you the opportunity to enjoy other hobbies – my rediscovered childhood enjoyment of Waltzer’s being just one.
Monday 31st March
Many trips in Patsy involve a visit to a stately home and this one was no different, todays out being to Gunby Hall, on the way to Skeggy.
A fascinating history, Gunby Hall was saved twice, the first from debtors in the 1800’s when Algenon got heavily into debt and the majority of the land had to be sold off. It is said he fled to South America to avoid being tried for Treason too.
More recently the property was given to the National Trust to prevent the then Air Ministry from commandeering it, knocking it down to build a long runway to accommodate heavily laden bombers during World War 2.
We took it in turn to look around inside – the girls were not allowed – then we had a stroll in the gardens, finding a nice sunny spot to devour our usual packed lunch.
Tuesday 1st April
Sadly the last full day on site, so a slow pack up – it was good to get the awning away bone dry as it will probably not be used now until the autumn.
Sandra had managed to find a dog friendly pub that was open on a Tuesday and in the evening we headed to the Leagate Inn, near Coningsby for what was a delicious meal. Very popular, they were clearly doing well. Nice to find Timothy Taylor’s Boltmaker on the bar too, alongside it’s more common stablemate Landlord. Very tasty indeed.
Wednesday 2nd April
Time to head home sadly. With an expected journey time of around five hours I had initially thought about breaking it with a stop at a CL, however my upcoming appointment put paid to that and anyway, that was far more important than another night away.
By 9:15am we’d said our goodbyes and were on the road, heading off in different directions of course. I stopped briefly at Birchanger services to empty the bladder and refill the belly, eventually getting back to storage at 2:25:pm after an excellent run. In fact the only traffic I encountered was on the way back to the flat – an eighteen minutes journey took nearly forty minutes!
Another cracking trip, Patsy gets a bit of a rest now until the half-term at the end of May, which promises to be expensive at least – annual service, new tyres and I’ve finally, reluctantly committed to a new motor mover too. Ouch.
Until then, thanks for reading.
Rich