A Mini Tour “Up North”

We’re in the U.K. visiting our family and friends and have decided explore a little whilst we are here.

We spent last night in a lay-by just outside of Tiverton. Apart from a heavy rain squall just as we got to bed, we slept well until the drain cleaning lorry rumbled by at 6am! After breakfast, our first stop today was the new Lidl in Tiverton. Here they have a huge carpark so plenty of space for Kiki. Victualing complete, we had coffee before hitting the M5 north.

As we passed Bristol I made sure the Emma wasn’t getting a nose bleed by being so far north. Leaving the motorway we took the scenic cross-country route to Cirencester. We stopped en-route for lunch and then continued on to the tiny village of Cerney Wick which lies in the middle of the Cotswold Water Park.

The Crown Inn has a tiny parking area for motorhomes adjacent to the pub car park. There were already a couple of parked up so we pulled into what looked like a nice space alongside them. Unfortunately, as it turned out, this space had just been vacated by a long time resident. This meant that the ground which had been underneath his motorhome was very soft….. needless to say we got stuck halfway into the space.

Fortunately, one of the pub’s new owners has a tractor which soon pulled us out of the mud.

Having found a better parking spot and paid our £10 overnight fee we set out for a walk around the lakes. This area is riddled with gravel pits, some of which are still active, whilst others have been flooded to make the lakes. A short distance from the pub we came across a footpath which led alongside a big lake which was used by the local sailing club. We crossed a small wooden bridge which bizarrely went up and over a long conveyer belt carrying the gravel.

From the top of the bridge we could see the conveyor belts stretching off into the distance.

Another track took us between two lakes which had huge, detached waterfront properties alongside. We dread to think how much they would cost!

After a couple of miles the track passed underneath an unusual old brick-built bridge which had about a dozen small arches. We think this was originally built to carry a minor road over the Thames to Severn canal.

A short while later we came to another almost identical bridge which had a wooden staircase up onto the road above. Doubling back now we picked up the canal towpath which we followed for a couple of miles back to Kiki. Along the way there were some interesting locks, a tiny lock keepers cottage and a unusual round lock

Back at Kiki we had our evening meal before settling down for the evening.