So in an attempt to turn the negative of extended stay at Bryn Mawr and missing out on the next planned host I asked my parents if they wanted to come up and join us for the end of the week during one of our rare phonecalls. Mum managed to take Thursday and Friday off so it was arranged they would travel up to Wales on the Thursday and go home on Sunday. After the hassle of their last visit to us in Devon when they spent a fortune on B&B and food I tried to find somewhere for us all to stay and be self catering – the ideal solution seemed to be a campsite with holiday cottages so I tracked one down in Llangollen, which we had decided was a good place to meet up – somewhere we all know and like, close to the various circuits of reminiscing places Dad would want to visit and not too far out of our route to the hosts we were due at on Sunday in Bangor either.
With limited internet access I tracked down Abbey Farm Caravan Park and asked Mum to ring and book us all in. She didn’t manage to get a cottage as they were all booked but she did book us in to the campsite. Retrospectively I should have spent some more time trying to find another alternative as it was pricey and not a very ‘us’ campsite really, but it did the job. Mum & Dad found a hotel right in the town and booked in there for the 3 nights.
We parked in the carpark when we arrived at 130am on Thursday morning, put the bed down, moved the kids up to their bunk and were in bed just before 3am, then booked in properly when the office opened at 9am, so we did at least save one nights campsite fees – and got to actually pull off the parking up and sleeping option we’d always consoled ourselves we have with a campervan :).
Once parked up and hooked up we stuck everything on charge and went for breakfast – the campsite had a tea room which did sell excellent breakfasts using their own meat and eggs from the farm. We followed that with showers and felt properly clean, fed and above all FREE! We had a drink in the van and sat outside in the sunshine for a while while the kids played together in the field, just trying to get our heads round not being at Bryn Mawr anymore before heading off to walk into LLangollen – about a half an hour walk, mostly along the towpath beside the canal.
We arrived in time to watch a steam train leaving, always good fun and then I rang my Mum to check on their progress as they had rung at 930am to say they were just about to leave Sussex. They were just a mile or so away so we went to look in the window of the taxidermist who has been there ever since I can remember and were checking out the various birds and mammals stuffed on display when my parents appeared. 🙂 Big hugs all round and then off to a cafe for some food and catch up chat.
It was very theraputic to share the whole story with some real people, along with eating yet more lovely food and to celebrate I treated us all to posh ice creams which we all had flakes / fudge sticks in. Scary to spend over a tenner on ice cream nonetheless!
Mum & Dad found a hotel and booked in and then we all went back to our campsite for a coffee / sit in the sunshine for an hour or so before heading to a nearby pub for dinner. A fairly early night all round with me falling asleep before anyone else as they were all watching Sorry I’ve Got No Head on iplayer :).
Friday Mum and Dad came along to us and we headed over the Horseshoe Pass to Llandegla, the village where Dad grew up. It’s changed even since the last time we visited with more new houses built and an hourly bus driving through the village. We stopped to talk to a lovely woman who now lives in one of the 3 houses Dad lived in as a boy, looked at the newly put up information board about the village which Dad was thrilled to see featured two pictures of his grandad – my great grandad, Davies and Scarlett’s great-great-grandad :). We looked in the church yard at the gravestones and took one of Dad’s grandparents, Dad walked along the rows telling me stories about all the various people buried there – and stamped on a few of people he had really hated 😆 We went inside the church which I’d not done before and then walked along the river bank to the well Dad used to play near as a boy and Scarlett and I paddled in the river. It was all very lovely 🙂
We left there and went for lunch in a pub Dad used to drink in (probably long before he was legally allowed to do so) and was owned by the family of one of his friends. Then we drove to Rhuthin and had a wander round there, looking round the castle and all enjoying showing Davies and Scarlett various sights – Dad grew up there, Mum & Dad visited there lots in their early days together as my grandparents were still living in the area and then Ady and I had various holidays in North Wales when we were first together, including at least one trip with my parents, so history spanning over 70 years.
Back to Mum & Dad’s hotel for a coffee and use of their bath for all of us 🙂 I didn’t get the relaxing bathtime experience I was sort of hoping for as Scarlett gatecrashed my bath and I didn’t have the heart to tell her to bugger off so shared it with her. Still, nice to be clean :). Davies then got in with Scarlett and they played with the aquajet jacuzzi feature for a bit then Ady got to have a bath on his own. We had dinner downstairs in the hotel which all of us thought was perfectly acceptable but Mum took exception to and was grumpy about. She had far too much to drink that evening and spent time monopolising Ady while Dad, the kids and I went to the bar, looked at fruit machines, chose some songs on the juke box and generally enjoyed being in a pub. We got a taxi back which the kids assure me was their first experience of taxi cabs (aside from black London cabs of course).
Saturday A later start for my parents due to my Mum’s excesses of the night before which gave me time to run two loads of washing and get it all dry in the campsite laundrette, tidy up our clothes cupboard and bag up a whole load of stuff for my parents to take back with them and do a quick bit of online stuff.
Mum & Dad arrived and we drove along to look up Dad’s cousin. His father was one of 14 children so there were loads of cousins on that side although Dad was a whole generation younger than a lot of them as there were many years between his oldest aunt / uncle and his youngest aunt / uncle. There are now only 3 of that generation of cousins still alive – Dad at 73, Glyn at 82 and Dorothy somewhere inbetween. Glyn still lives in a little Welsh village in the house his wife was born in and her mother before her was born in. Dorothy lives in Newcastle and Dad will come and visit her when we are up in that area in a month or so. He is not in touch with many of the next generation, although he still has contact with his favourite cousin’s three children who are scattered around the world. We all said hello to Glyn who Ady and I had met before about 15 years ago and was very taken with Davies and Scarlett – particularly Davies sharing the family name as he does :).
We visited a lake that Dad had nearly drowned on as a boy in a leaking boat – the woman there told us it was 75feet deep in the centre so his recalled story of panic and being out of his depth (he can’t swim) was pretty accurate!
We drove to Rhyl which was rather bleak and depressing and very run down and had half an hour on the beach which was lovely – Scarlett was bemoaning the lack of beaches so far this year so was appeased by that. Then back to the pub we’d eaten at the first night for want of a better option. Ady, the kids and I confessed to each other later than we had struggled with pub food a third night running and were rather in need of something more simple. I am looking forward to a dinner we have cooked ourselves at some point again…
Sunday morning we presented Ady with some ales and chocolate for Fathers Day, then walked along the canal path to Mum & Dad’s hotel for a fathers day greeting and farewell. We’d had some fairly heavy discussions over the weekend with them about coming in with us on a property so lots of digesting of all of that to do. It was lovely to see them, fab to be in such a special place to us all to do so too. We agreed that we felt rather reeling from such an intense weekend after such a crazy fortnight and are all still craving some actual downtime but are discussing missing our next host in favour of a few days quietly somewhere so we may get that soon.
We had a quick look around the town before wandering back along the path to the campsite via the bakers for a cake each. We packed Willow up, had showers and headed off again for the next host.
It was a smooth journey although we failed to find a supermarket along the way to stock up on our usual campervan essentials incase of rubbish food at hosts. We are not even a mile away from a 24 hour Tesco extra though so plenty on hand should we require it.
We were greeted by Lisa and given a guided tour of their land – really just a field attached to their house which they have been in for 7 years. They have 2 children – Corina aged 14 and Yannish aged nearly 13. Lisa is German and they all speak German, English and Welsh so a very mixed language spoken around the place. They have a cat, ducks and chickens which they sell the eggs of and loads and loads of bees which they sell the honey of. They grow a huge array of fruit and veg and do bottling, preserving, breadmaking, winemaking etc.
Shortly after we arrived so did a group of cyclists, having come 50 miles together on the first leg of their tour with Otesha (follow the link, too tired to explain it!) travelling in a self sufficent and low impact way bringing a message of sustainability and green living with them – fab people, fab project. 🙂
So we all ate together, in the garden – a combined meal from John and Lisa and the Otesha guys along with a bottle of wine and a bottle of mead from John and Lisa 🙂 Much interesting chatter over eating then suddenly it was after 10pm and so we retired for the evening.
Monday yay finally caught up – still photos to add mind you.
This morning we started with some repairs to the duck enclosure as ducks have been escaping. I sewed the netting together using bailer twine while Ady pegged the base in better with tent pegs. Scarlett worked with me and Davies with Ady – we’ve talked about the kids doing more at this host and the hosts are very on board with that – they flexischooled their kids through primary and are very into the idea of the kids learning alongside us. Then we swapped over. Lisa had made a big point about me not losing the needle as it was her only one and so on so Davies and I managed to drop it between us and never did find it. Fortunately it was a wool needle and I happened to have one in the van so I went and grabbed that and Lisa need never know it was actually my needle I gave back to her at the end of the morning 😉
The kids went off to do some strawberry picking next and then John appeared to ask if we wanted to go with him to do some beekeeping stuff. He said he rarely gets WWOOFers involved with the bees as the time he saves by having someone help is totally negated by the time he loses in having someone ‘help’! 😆 but as we’d shown such an interest in bees he was happy to show us some stuff – today he was swapping over some hives into travelling boxes as he has sold a couple of colonies.
So all four of us donned beesuits and gloves, Davies lit the smoker and we all went down to one of the various sites within the garden that have hives on. We opened two up and got to see all inside them, handle frames, do the smoking, spot the queens and have all our questions answered – fascinating stuff 🙂 I do love bees.
After that Ady did some strimming and the kids did some fruit picking while I finished off sewing the fence and then helped with lunch.
After lunch we did mowing and strimming, Ady and I swapping over to have a go at both. Strimming looks easy but is very heavy, very noisy and you get bits in your mouth! I had pins and needles in my fingers for ages afterwards. Mind you mowing up hills with a non self propelled mower is also no picnic 🙂 Two hours felt like quite a work out – very enjoyable in the sunshine though :).
We finished and sat down for a cup of tea and Lisa came back (she’d been out), we debated dinner and offered to help so went to shell some peas and chop some vegetables. We then had about half an hour in the van before dinner was ready. It was nice sitting and chatting with John and Lisa who seem really nice. We are working 9am-4pm Monday to Friday which seem reasonable hours although we don’t appear to get a tea break which we have been used to. We are self catering for breakfast but lunch and dinner are provided and the food is lovely so far (if vegetarian ;)). I think this will be a nice relaxing host with showers and electric and clearly set out times for working.
After dinner we helped clear up and then watched the Otesha team perform their play for us in the polytunnel which was great fun – really enjoyed it 🙂 I do love the diverse range of people we are meeting this year. We decided to call it a night at that point so I read a couple of chapters of story to the kids and have finally caught up on both blogs and emails and flickring. Hurrah!