TUESDAY 11-6-19

We left home in good time this morning heading for Malvern. Originally we were to park up near the town and hike up to the top of the Malvern Hills, but due to the wet weather decided to chicken out.

Our satnav took us across country on the A14 before joining the M6. There were lots of roadworks on the A14 where they are increasing capacity by creating Smart motorways, which use variable speeds to control the flow and most disturbingly of all, use the hard shoulder as an additional lane at the busiest times. So gone will be the days when the hard shoulder was a place of safety in the event of a breakdown or emergency. Let’s just wait and see what happens to the UK death toll on such roads as they get rolled out.

Following our trip to Lincolnshire I decided to buy a copy of the Haynes Manual for the Vulcan Bomber. It was an interesting read with much of the book covering the restoration of H558 in to airworthy condition. It’s also good to know that should we ever come across a Vulcan parked on the hard shoulder with its bonnet up we can render assistance armed with the motorhome toolbox and the Haynes Manual.

It was a very wet journey to Malvern yet we still did it in three hours using motorways most of the way for safety. On the outskirts of town we called in to the Ford dealer and got them to reset our radio because when the battery was changed the power was lost and we needed the radio’s security code.

We were hoping to park in the Waitrose car park in Malvern before taking a look around town but the satnav wasn't making it easy for us. In the end we parked in a side street on the edge of town. Before setting off for a look round we had a sandwich for lunch intending to buy a hot drink in town rather than mess about in the kitchen area.

Waitrose was the first suitable location we came across for a coffee, however the queue was very slow moving and so we left.

Next it was a look around Great Malvern Priory https://www.greatmalvernpriory.org.uk/ which was quite interesting although fairly dark inside due to the pinkish colour of the stone used to build it.

To be honest there wasn’t much to Malvern really. It’s not very big at all, never mind, it was better than hiking around up on the hills, the tops of which were shrouded in low cloud due to the wet weather.

Before leaving town we had a coffee and dounut before popping back in to Waitrose for some fresh milk, then it was back to the motorhome.

The Caravan & Motorhome Club campsite at Blackmore End (GPS: N52.095034 W2.274280) was just 5 miles away and well located for what we needed to do while we’re here.

We’re not big fans of these big corporate campsites and this one was no exception. As soon as we arrived we were met with lots of signs telling us what to do and not do, and where to park, and that’s before we get to the barriers across the road and CCTV cameras up high on posts. It looked more like an open prison, probably contracted out to G4S to run.

Considering the Malvern Show is on this week at the Three Counties Showground nearby it really isn’t busy here at all, maybe because of the weather. At something like £25 a night you can’t blame people for cancelling their bookings rather than endure all this rain, which is quite heavy at times.

Most units here are caravans most of which have awnings attached to the sides of them. These caravan folk are never settled until the awning is up and their free-standing rotary clothes airer is erected.

Our evening meal was a £3 Iceland lasagne we’d spotted in the store back home, with some salad and garlic bread. At that price you can’t expect fine dining but I have to say that it was excellent value for money. Needless to say there was more than we could eat, due to it being a four portion size.

My new TV aerial is working really well and we're getting good reception even though the campsite say reception here is only average. After the reception problems we had on our last trip out I concluded I needed to get the aerial up higher, hence my creation. I bought a steel biscuit tin, which unfortunately had an aluminium lid which meant that the magnet on the bottom of the aerial wouldn't stick to it. This was overcome by gluing a magnetic piece of metal I had as part of the packaging on a pack of small magnets I had ordered from Amazon a couple of years ago. The biscuit tin was bonded to a round cork mat and then painted with clear resin to keep it dry. When it isn’t being used the aerial and cable sit inside the tin.

Tomorrow was supposed to have been spent hiking but we’re expecting more heavy rain and so instead will spend the day in Worcester which we can get to on the local bus.

On Thursday we'll be visiting a local vineyard, and on Friday touring the Morgan Motor Company factory.