Monday 13 to Wednesday 15 April - Cannock Chase

Another retrospective post, catching up on trips taken since my last live blog post in early April. 

Where was Bertie? He spent two nights at Tackeroo Campsite on Cannock Chase at a cost of £18 per night.

Weather:  A few showers, and one night with some rain, but otherwise dry with plenty of sunshine#

After a busy month of house renovations, I wanted to get out with my backpack on three consecutive days to make sure I was in a fit state for the TGO Challenge, a month hence, having only been out for local day walks with it thus far. Options as to where we could go were contemplated, and I plotted a linear (but not overly inspiring) route from Uttoxeter to somewhere north of Ashbourne. Then I decided that, taking the price of diesel into account (I can't remember how much it was at the time, but somewhere over £1.80 a litre, after a recent and rapid rise), Cannock Chase would probably be the most sensible option, with the added appeal that it would allow Mick more freedom to get out for some long training runs whilst I was wandering in a big circle with my backpack.  

I'm not a fan of Tackeroo campsite. Having stayed there before I know that it's not private or secure at all, so there are people walking through the whole time (in fact, last time we were there, a mountain bike coach was giving a lesson on the hardstanding next to where we were pitched). Effectively you are paying purely to avoid doggers and boy racers in the car park opposite (and to use the water and waste points, if you need to, which we didn't; there are no other facilities). They also operate dynamic pricing, but fortunately this week was quiet enough that we got pitches at the cheapest price they offer (there were three units there on both nights of our stay, including us).

The weather forecast wasn't too bad, with a fine Monday, then some rainy spells on Tuesday and Wednesday. Fortunately, as is so often the case, it turned out far better than predicted. Monday was warm and sunny, Tuesday saw a shower hit when I was paces away from Bertie for my lunchbreak, with another hitting shortly before I went back out for the afternoon, and Wednesday was dry until the last 1km, when it rained on me. 

Arguably unexcitingly, I walked fundamentally the same 30km circuit on the three consecutive days. Mick ran an 18k circuit on Monday and Wednesday, and joined me for the final 9km of my route on the Tuesday (I was doing around 21k in the morning, then the rest after lunch).

I don't think there's anything else to report from the trip. It went well and my confidence was boosted that my TGO Challenge route was achievable. (Spoiler: that didn't last. I withdrew from the Challenge a few days before it started, not due to lack of fitness, but lack of health.) 

(Photos are in a Blogger-decided random order)

 

It could be Scotland, couldn't it? 

When I'd driven across Cannock Chase a week or so earlier, the herd of banded coos, with their young, were all in a panic, running along the road. Shortly afterwards a flashing police car came towards me, presumably to control traffic whilst they were returned to where they were supposed to be. I'm not sure this is where they were supposed to be as there are no fences between here and the road (some areas of the Chase were fenced off a good few years ago, specifically for cattle to graze, in a land-conservation sort of way). 

 

25k through the first day, happy to be in such pleasant surroundings.

Mick running away from me after starting out together on Day 1.

 

Saturday 7 May - Calais

I thought I'd drafted a blog post about this day, but if I did, I now can't find it. This is what (2 months later) I can remember about the day. 

Where was Bertie? He spent the night at the large Camping-Car Park in Calais at a cost of €15.25 (including electricity).

Weather: Foggy and cold

Our destination was supposed to be Wissant, where Mick was very much looking forward to going out for moules-frites for lunch, but as we drove north through the fog, and with the thermometer stubbornly in double figures, I checked the weather forecast. It was going to top out at 10 degrees in Wissant, and the fog wasn't going to clear. There is now some electric hook up at Wissant, but there must have been good reason that I convinced Mick that the Aire at Calais was a better bet, and after a poke around on Google Maps I promised him that he could have his moules for lunch.

There are 102 spaces at the Aire, and almost all were full when we arrived, but Bertie was slotted into a free one not far from the entry/exit and I doubt that we were there for long before we walked off into town, with me whinging the whole way about how cold it was. 

Lunch was good but expensive, particularly when there was a confusion in our coffee order that resulted in Mick receiving an Americano cocktail (€9.50) rather than a coffee (far too used to the terminology for order black coffee in Spain rather than in France). The waiter was prepared to put the mix-up right, but in my opinion it was entirely our mistake, so Mick had to make do with more alcohol. 

I would like, at some point, to have a look around Calais, but a cold and foggy day didn't inspire us to do so on this occasion and the sun was showing no signs of fighting its way through, so we went to the museum instead.

We walked a different route back to the Aire, but visibility was so poor that I can't say much about it. Let's hope that next time we find ourselves in Calais, it's a nice sunny day!

We had an early Chunnel crossing on the Sunday, so we were away at around 6am, had smooth passage through the check-in and border process and were back in the UK half an hour before we were due to leave France, having made it onto an earlier shuttle.  

 

Friday 6 March - Neufchâtel-en-Bray

I'm belatedly posting this on 8 May, although I wrote it back in early March. I wonder if I can find a post that I wrote about the final day of that trip?

 
Where's Bertie? He's at a commercial Aire in Neufchâtel-en-Bray, where we've been many times before, but I think the last time was in 2020. I haven't checked whether the price is still €14. I guess we'll find out when we come to leave tomorrow!

Weather: Sunny and warm

There is little to say about today, another driving day.

There was a pause in the village of Monnaie, where I dashed across the road to a boulangerie for croissant (Mick) and an escargot (me), then we drove a few minutes further to the first suitable layby to eat them.

A couple of hours later, it was feeling like time for a break, and noon was upon us, so I opened the Park4Night App to see if there was any parking area nearby (we were on the N154 at the time, which doesn't have regular service/rest areas), to find that we were within a kilometre of a suitable looking spot that was about 100m detour from the road. It was a good find, and the best part of an hour was frittered there (I say frittered, but I did get a loaf going for tomorrow, feed the sourdough starter, make cheese toasties and a pot of coffee, as well as refreshing our travel mugs and eating lunch).

I tried to magic up a better way of getting around Rouen, but there isn't one, so we took the usual route, somewhere along which Bertie's fuel light came on. I was all for stopping, Mick was confident we could get to our destination, 64km away. Fuel was our first port of call on arrival although only enough to get us to Tesco in Ashford on Sunday, as diesel is currently significantly cheaper in the UK than France (we paid €1.959 today; most stations we've passed have been at €1.999). 

It was a surprise to see the Aire here in Neufchâtel so busy, and we took the penultimate space and it wasn't many minutes later that the last one was taken. Good job we didn't tarry longer at any of our stops during the day!

With Bertie settled on his pitch, I soon had my running gear on and Mick and I headed out at the same time - me for a run, and Mick for a walk into town. We were both gone for the same length of time, and thus arrived back onto the site together, with Mick carrying a pattisserie box. If anyone was paying attention to our comings and goings, they must have wondered about my dress sense for a walk to the shops. 

Just a short (2-hour) drive tomorrow, then back to the UK on Sunday. 

Elevenses was excellent. 

 

The goodies with which Mick returned from his walk into Neufchâtel