{"id":2428,"date":"2013-09-03T20:35:57","date_gmt":"2013-09-03T19:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=2428"},"modified":"2026-05-24T06:40:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T05:40:50","slug":"well-wander-to-wales-but-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2013\/09\/03\/well-wander-to-wales-but-first\/","title":{"rendered":"We’ll Wander To Wales, But First……"},"content":{"rendered":"

We started this trip in April and then suddenly we’ve looked up and it’s September.\u00a0 The days are getting shorter and we can actually say we will be back in Sydney next month.\u00a0 But before then we have 57 days to visit Wales, Cornwall, prepare Eileen for another winter in East Grinstead and then spend 16 days in Abu Dhabi.\u00a0 All of a sudden that seems a lot to squeeze in, but we’re going to try not to rush life, for the next few weeks.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The first morning of the month was spent helping to clear up after the big wedding.\u00a0 Everything that had been placed in the marquee had to be removed again.\u00a0 Bows were removed from fences, flower arrangements gathered, chairs stacked, tables cleared and tablecloths folded.\u00a0 At 11:30am around 25 of us sat down in the garden to eat bacon with scrambled eggs and toast, followed by fruit salad.\u00a0 Everyone looked tired, including the bride and groom, and there was still more work to do. Luckily for us, we were excused as we had a campsite at Devizes booked, so\u00a0 we had to say our farewells at 1pm, pop in to a supermarket for some basic supplies and then get ourselves across country to Wiltshire.\u00a0 By the time we arrived at the Devizes campsite, we were both really sleepy.\u00a0 I busied myself with sorting out all the cupboards, as we had been stuffing anything and everything in all the wrong places, due to lack of time to be organised and the fact that we hadn’t put the bed away for three nights, so we couldn’t even reach half the storage areas until we did.\u00a0 Rodney heated up some leftovers from the wedding, thank you Bradfords, for another delicious meal, which we enjoyed as we watched a spectacular sunset.\u00a0 We both slept long and well and enjoyed our first night back in a campsite, dreaming about what the next few weeks would bring.<\/span><\/p>\n

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On the Kennet and Avon Canal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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After a very late breakfast and a morning spent online banking, washing clothes and a bit of overdue wardrobe sorting, we finally pulled on our shoes and set out for a walk along the Kennet & Avon Canal. We managed to do a bit of yummy blackberry picking along the way and after about an hour we came to the bottom of the Caen Hill Flight. This is an amazing stretch of the canal with 29 locks for boats to pass through and in one short section there are 16 locks right next to each other.\u00a0 It’s an engineering marvel but looks like a lot of hard work.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Looking
Looking back down the Caen Hill Flight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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It must take them hours opening and closing each one, to only move a short distance.\u00a0 The instructions beside the canal state that once you enter the first lock there is no stopping, you have to pass through all 16 locks; I can see Rodney would be desperate for a cup of tea halfway through!\u00a0 After walking to the top, we stopped at a caf<\/span>\u00e9<\/span><\/span> and Rodney had a cup of tea; actually he had a cream tea and the clotted cream was perfect.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

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\"The
The Caen Hill Flight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Having tuned ourselves back in to a camping frame of mind, we got up early on a very damp, misty, Tuesday morning.\u00a0 We left our little spot by the hedge, next to the Kennet & Avon Canal, checked that no rabbits had hopped inside and drove to Melksham for diesel and supplies.\u00a0 At 11am we finally got on the road aiming for Whales;\u00a0 oops no, not the wet ocean swimming ones.\u00a0 I mean Welsh Wales, land of leeks, corgis and pointy black hats.\u00a0 We crossed the huge Severn Bridge…..only \u00a36.50! and continued almost to the end of the M4.\u00a0 At 4pm we pulled in to Bank Farm Campsite near Horton on the beautiful Gower Peninsula.\u00a0 It’s a huge 28 hectare site spread out over a hill with views over the coastline at Port Eynon Bay.\u00a0 There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it was \u2026.almost… too hot to sit outside, but we did. Drinking and eating nibbles while sitting in our deckchairs, made us feel like we were back on holiday.\u00a0 Please, please let this weather continue; it’s perfect.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Eileens
Eileen’s view over Port Eynon Bay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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We started this trip in April and then suddenly we’ve looked up and it’s September.\u00a0 The days are getting shorter and we can actually say we will be back in Sydney next month.\u00a0 But before then we have 57 days to visit Wales, Cornwall, prepare Eileen for another winter in East Grinstead and then spend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-the-road-in-great-britain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8367,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428\/revisions\/8367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}