Trumped

There are many enjoyable aspects to our travelling lifestyle, one of which is meeting people along the way. The sites we use are Caravan Club Certificated Locations (CLs), they are limited to a maximum of five caravans. The ones we choose have electric hook up points, but usually there is just one tap for collecting drinking water and a waste disposal point.

Having just one tap means this is usually the point where you bump into your neighbours. I have discovered that by nature the majority of caravanners like to chat. The topic of conversation can be the type of van, awning or other equipment, the places stayed in previously or the local places to visit. It is like a transient village where you are constantly getting new neighbours.

At Little Baddows one of our neighbours knows the area well. They have stayed on this site on a number of previous occasions. I mention that we have been in the Unicorn since March and travelling since 1st April. I am then well and truly trumped, they are doing the same as us, but they have already got six years under their belts. We get some really helpful advice, including the merits of a portable washing machine.

We have enjoyed our three nights at Little Baddows Fruit Farm, the CL has been very peaceful and surrounding scenery attractive. The abundance of wildlife has made our walking interesting. Packed up we head north on the A12 to Suffolk. In less than two hours we have arrived at Briarswood Farm CL in Knodishall and begun unpacking.

After we are sorted on a new site we usually take a stroll to get our bearings. This evening’s wander takes us onto Knodishall Common and then following a footpath across open fields we pick up the Sandlings Way. We immediately comment on the difference in the soil and the approach to farming. We have walked through a field of potatoes and then onions. Back in Pitton when I was a nipper working on Martin’s farm he tried to grow spuds on chalk and flint. Here it is like growing in a seedbed.

We reach Snape Road, turn left and soon cross and join Sloe Lane following this until we turn left at a junction of tracks. We are still on the Sandlings Way but leave it just past Portobello Covert to take the footpath left and follow it until we reach Fitches Lane which leads us back into Knodishall. We have covered about 3.5 miles, a pleasant first stroll in our new environment.

To view this 3.5 mile route on OS Maps Click Here

[To follow our walk you will need Ordnance Survey Explorer Map 212 – Woodbridge and Saxmundham]

22nd May 2014

© Two Dogs and an Awning (2014)