Nature's Bounty

Last camping weekend of the season - back to Laneham where we went last year and got flooded! Got there nice and early, tent went up very easily, and we were soon sitting with friends with a cucumber g and t.

I love my tent, but this might be the last time we pitch it - I'd quite like a new one for next season...
In the evening we walked by the River Trent

into the village and the pub for fish and chip might. unfortunately they'd run out of fish and chips :-(

Still, a good night was had, and we were up bright and early for our famous communal breakfast, and a walk to the next village to get the bus to Retford (my home town).  After a coffee we joined the canal towpath for our usual walk - the Chesterfield Canal is lovely.

The sun was shining, and we soon made it to my favourite-named lock

where some took the opportunity to strip a nearby bush of sloes

Others played with the lock!

There was a goit by the lock which was full of trout. We carried on, past many fishermen, swans, ducks, moorhens, coots, and past the wild hops in the hedgerow, just past a pub called The Hop Pole.

 We also saw this

which we later discovered to be a rose bedeguar gall, or a Robin's pincushion gall, on a rose hip. Fascinating.

Eventually we reached another pub, The Gate, where we had a lovely lunch.  A walk back to town

Some shopping for the meal later, and the bus back. We stopped for a drink at the local brewery, and managed to pick up bramley apples, eating apples, plums and eggs from honesty stalls outside peoples houses in the village. Back at the campsite we picked a bag of lovely blackberries, and made a blackberry and apple crumble for tea. Yum!
As we thought it might be too cold for a BBQ (we were wrong), we had a chilli, rice, garlic bread, jacket potatoes, and pudding. Lots of music, and some wine and beer to wash it down with.

Then we walked to the pub and met my family for a drink - a lovely evening, and followed by a nightcap or two in our friends van.

Lazy Sunday morning, another communal breakfast, including a lot of fried bacon

and I managed to pick a carrier bag of wild damsons from a tree on the riverbank. Eventually got the tent down, and drove home, where I began the task of turning our wild pickings into sloe gin and damson vodka. A great end to the camping season.

Camping and floods

September is always the end of the camping season for us - not least because we're not old enough to have a camper van yet, so we still have our lovely, spacious tent :-)

This year our last trip this weekend was to Laneham.  We've been before, and thought we'd try it again - it's a lovely campsite, just a couple of very flat fields on the banks of the River Trent, and a good facilities block.

So, after torrential rain at the beginning of the week we were a little apprehensive, but when Stu and I got there Friday afternoon it was glorious. We've been camping a few times this summer, and I think this is the warmest weather we've had for putting the tent up. Perfect afternoon - tent went up easliy (it doesn't always), no arguments, and in an hour we were sitting in the sun reading the papers and enjoying a well earned g and T. With a power station in the background!

Our friends arrived later (one of them delayed because their camper van wouldn't start - more on that later), and soon we were set.

Eventually we set off to walk to the pub, only about 10 minutes away along the river. A good meal of fish and chips followed, and we set off to walk back. That's where the problems started. The Trent is a tidal river, and as we got to where it runs by the road, it became apparent that the road had disappeared, and there was a lot of river where there shouldn't be! It was very dark but we had torches, and managed to scrmable up a grass bak to get round some of it, but there was no alternative but to paddle through some of it. Of cousre, the more sensible people rolled up their trousers, but most of us just walked through. Back at the campsite we had wet feet, jeans, socks and shoes, but a warm camper van, a change of clothes, and plenty of brandy to warm up!

Next day was sunny again and we dried the wet stuff on the handy camper van rack!

We had to walk through the floods again to catch the bus to Retford. Luckily the tide was a little lower, and it was daylight so we didn't get quite as wet.

 Had coffee outside in the sun,

then joined the Chesterfield Canal, and walked to The Gate at Hayton - just over an hour's walk. It was lovely, very quiet apart from the odd boat, lots of wildlife, and an interestingly named lock along the way.

Met family at the pub for lunch, then walked back to town via the Hoppole pub, which had wild hops growing in the towpath near it. Bus back to Laneham, and walked back to the campsite - about a mile. After a rest, and a play with Stu's new telescope looking at the very bright full moon,

We walked to a new pub opened by a local brewery, about another mile, and met my family again. We played dominoes and cards, and ate excellent sharing platters - cheese, pate, pie, dripping, pickles, and a mound of bread. As well as sampling the real ale on sale of course. Then walked back. We walked a long way that day!

Sunday morning was a leisurely communal fried breakfast - each of us contributing something, and although not sunny, the tents were dry.
Then we started packing up and our friends set off in their camper van, only to ring us about 10 minutes later to say they were stranded, they'd obviously had a petrol leak, and needed assistance. Stu set off to help, and left me. Sitting in a field, on my own, in a half taken down tent, which I daren't complete taking down because he'd gone off in the car and all of our stuff was in the field and I had no shelter if it rained....

Still, he came back eventually and we got the tent down just before it rained!  All in all an excellent end to the camping season. Can't wait for next year!

The Sexton Heritage Weekend

We're always on the look out for interesting paces to go camping over bank holiday weekends, and with the Peak District on our doorstep, that's not difficult! However, last weekend we decided to try something different - we went to Laneham.  It's a few miles from where I was born and brought up, Retford, and is on the banks of the River Trent. On a Sunday afternoon or evening when I was young we used to drive to Laneham, park the car on the edge of the river, and together with many other families, watch the river and boats. there was usually someone water skiing, and a converted railway carriage served tea. So it was a bit of a nostalgia trip for me.

We took the bus into Retford, and everyone had to take part in the "Sexton Heritage Trail" as I pointed out where I'd worked as a Saturday Girl (a pork butcher's called Bacon's....)

Where I'd been to school (now demolished), pubs I'd drunk in, where I'd fallen off my bike, and other gems. We went to the park I'd played in and looked along  the picturesque River Idle

And then we walked along the Chesterfield Canal towpath which is very pretty. Quite a few locks, and lots of wildlife, including the tiniest baby moorhens I's ever seen. Eventually we arrived at  what used to be my local pub, and is still is for Mum and Dad. As my family still live close by it was nice to see them for lunch at The Hop Pole.

That night we had a BBQ at the campsite, and the following day walked along the River Trent to Rampton for Sunday lunch. The whole area is under the shadow of a number of power stations, we were very close to Cottam, which is very dramatic.

Family came out to visit us in the afternoon, and we paid a second visit to a newly opened brewery in the village for some very nice Springhead beer. Another BBQ, during which we saw a Vulcn bomber fly overhead, and then another night in the tent - and later our friends' camper van as it's warmer!

The next morning we woke to the worst sound you can hear on the day you're taking the tent down - heavy rain!  So, the tent ended up being thrown in the back of the car, and dried in the garden over the next few days.

So, a slightly different camping weekend, but a good one.