Iona changes her mind

This trip is planned for three nights. we set off heading to a campsite near St Ives in Cambridgeshire. We found the site but there was no-one about, the Orchard site was behind a barrier. There was a rally field with some hard standings but they were all taken up by seasonal caravans that looked a bit suspect. I checked the field which had been mown but it was very soft after the rain.

I got back to Iona and we phoned the site manager, when she answered she told us that she was in Thailand. £8 phone call later I told Sue I was not happy and she agreed that we should find somewhere else.

We left the site and found a carpark where we hit the Mi-Fi and contacted a couple of sites nearby. The first one wanted £22 a night so we tried another, when we told them we had been let down and needed a site, their advertised price of £18 a night became £28.50 a night. We declined and decided to go to a site we used three years ago when we were starting out in Matilda.

Fourwinds campsite is on the outskirts of March and next to the River Nene (old course) before it was diverted. Bev and John own the site and they remembered us or had looked up their records. Anyway we got a good reception and a choice of pitches, plus the electric is on a meter and there is free wi-fi.

 

With high winds forecast we chose a pitch near the boundary hedge and settled in while the rain continued into the afternoon.

The rain stopped eventually and the sun came out so we went to stretch our legs. A quick water along the river and back to the warmth of Iona.

I was charged with cooking tea but I made a bit of a hash of it and Sue took over to rescue it.

Day2:

The wind was at gale force but the sun came out so after the normal jobs we headed out for March.

We walked into March along the river and then headed into town to the Lidl. After a quick shop we headed through town and came to the museum.

We had been here before but one of the staff told us about a couple of local heroes. This gave us sometime to look out for and it turned out to be interesting reading. One story was about an exploding ammunition train during the second WW. The engine driver and the fireman stayed with the burning train to drive it away from the town before one carriage exploded killing the Fireman and seriously injuring the Driver. Both men were awarded the George Cross for gallantry.

Then there was the other hero who was an Australian pilot in the RAF who stayed with his plane after the crew had bailed out, he then steered the plain away from March and crashed in a field.

When we came out of the museum it was raining so we headed straight back to the campsite.

Tea tonight is beef stew which has been in the slow cooker all day. T go with this we have some fresh Soda Bread.

Day 3:

Still very windy with light rain showers. There are not a lot of footpaths around the campsite so not sure where we will head this morning.

We left the campsite and walked along the lane to a footpath that took us to the river Nene. We followed the river for about a mile and came across some gardens. There was an old gate but it had not been opened for some time and we didn’t like to climb over it because it meant climbing gates at the other side of the garden. However this was the Newland Way but here it was not marked.

We tried to walk around the property to get on their access road but there was one of the fenland drains which was too deep to cross. We followed the field along the side of the drain and eventually came to the access track onto the field.

This lead us back to the lane, so we followed it back to the campsite. It was a bit disappointing not to find a decent footpath but the wind was still at gale force so we retired into the motorhome.

Tonight we are having prawn risotto to finish off our three night trip.

In the morning I went to sort out the electric meter, but apparently it had not been cleared from a previous camper. John and I came to the conclusion that we had used about 13kw which equaled £2.50 for three nights. I wish all sites had metered electric.

Trip 3: 145.5 miles, 24 mpg (really windy), 28 mph, 5 hours.