A Vintage Day out

Having spent so much time around the house last week, I thought it would be nice to have a day out yesterday. I gave David the choice of 3 different places - A classic car and bike show in Matlock, a walk at Otley Chevin or Louth's Vintage day, he chose Louth . Now Louth isn't a half hours drive from us, in fact it took us just over an hour and a half, but it is a pretty run through some lovely villages. We drove right into the center (not my idea) and amazingly got parked quite easily. As soon as we got out of the car we could hear music and so followed it back to the market square.
First stop was the classic cars

a rather nice Porsche with a price tag of £69,950, slightly cheaper ( although it wasn't on show) was a car from my past a 2CV at £9,000

A 'Moggy 1000' police car

Having crawled all over the cars (not literally) David was finally ready to leave and we wandered up to the market place

passed the various stalls with vintage items.

I loved the dresses and hats

At the top of the square was where all the action was taking place - a rock and roll line dance

and of course lots of jiving 

all dancing to a very good tribute band called 'Phil Hayley and the Comments'

Many people were dressed appropriately for the era

For us it was well worth the drive - and to add to the enjoyment, the sun shone!!!

Some of the images are taken from the Louth Festival - Zero Degrees facebook page

Perfect week

Well this week did happen, gosh 3 weeks ago (I really need to allocate time to keep up with my blog!). Having just returned on the Sunday from flying down to Cornwall, Wednesday saw David and I on our way back down, this time with the caravan on the back of the car. We choose to stay near Tiverton for a couple of nights on the way down in order to catch up with some friends on the Thursday night. Our site was 5 van farm site with lovely views.

As we had the Thursday to do what we wanted we took a trip out to Dulverton on the edge of Exmoor We'd been there before a few years ago in the autumn so we were interested to see it in the better weather. We approached it over the bridge, parking just passed it.

It's a very pretty little place with several walks starting there, but we'd not the time to walk apart from through the main street.

We immediately got caught up in the second-hand book shop,

 buying a couple of maps that would be useful for returning trips and our future holiday in Dorset. Coffee (of course) was on the itinerary and we found this cafe round the back which was just perfect.

 On our way back to the car, the Dulverton Heritage Centre caught our eye

and David was delighted to find a model railway of Dulverton station and surrounding area in the building next to it.

You can read more about the exhibition here.

Too soon our time ran out and we returned to the van for lunch before going in a different direction to Exeter in order to meet our friends.

With an early start the next morning, we were down on our usual pitch on Higher Harlyn looking out over Trevose Head by 11-30am.

At this point the site was very quiet. We got ourselves unpacked, awning up and were all sorted when Charlotte arrived with Nina and a friend's little boy who she was looking after. Looking out of the caravan window was a great game.

(We've pictures of Charlotte and our godson David doing exactly the same when they were little)

As the day went on the pitches began to fill, with more arriving on the Saturday morning. What was quite striking this year was that there were so many tents and my goodness they were so big!. By the end of Saturday the hook-up rows seemed really full due to the big tents. However that didn't bothered us, as if you have been reading my blog for a while you will know we meet up with very special friends and along with all our family have a 'French Sunday lunch on a Saturday'. That basically means lots of lovely food and the odd glass of wine (who am I trying to kid?)

This year I had decided to make the salads and some rather pretty little individual cheesecakes down there.

 It's only now writing this that I realise I have no pictures of the finished food, however here we are eating it

Not a lot happens after that lunch and the afternoon drifts into the evening and G&T time!

We woke on Sunday to another lovely day so it was a packed lunch and down to the beach until we were caught by the incoming tide.

We joined forces for a BBQ down at the 'posh' van our friends were staying in

and it was just warm enough to sit out to eat

We woke to another lovely day on Monday and it was more of the same with the day finishing with a wonderful sunset.

And so the week went on. Jonathan arrived 

We had taken our friend's girls to meet him and then we took them to the Kernow chocolate factory which is very near to Charlotte's house

and then it was down to Treyanon for more beach time. 

It was Becky and Tom's turn to arrive the next morning (we got to know Newquay airport very well by the end of the holiday). Nina got a belated birthday present which went down very well.

The week was flying by and we had a photo shoot booked for the whole family on the Thursday and hurray! it was sunny again. We met on my favourite beach - Constantine

and the fun began. The pictures were amazing here are a couple or maybe more than a couple, but not the 177 that  Rix took!

I just adore the last one!

Some more beach time and jumping off Cellar's rock followed 

and to finish the day - tapas for 11, most made in the 2 caravans.

Friday was glorious again and rather than spend it sat on the beach we chose to take the ferry to Rock but not before lunch in the Basement.

We queued briefly for the ferry

 and were taken quickly across the estuary.

We walked towards Daymer Bay until a suitable spot was found for kite flying

and a comfortable dip in the sand dunes for sitting

When we all got too hot we turned round to walk back to Rock and found a free table at the Mariners 

Back over on the ferry and we met Charlotte, Angus and Nina at Bin2. It was beginning to feel like one long pub crawl!

We finished the day with one of the best beach bbq's we've had. The weather was perfect, the tide was out and the company excellent.

Some went home the next day but we had just 24 hours more which we made the most of.

The End