The Fifth Year.....

Yes .. this will be the fifth year that we will have spent Christmas and New Year in Eva the Eriba....

 Every winter season we have over wintered down here in Devon and this year is no different.

 For the first three years we spent the season at the C&CC site near Tavistock and we really enjoyed ourselves there with a good group of people and some fantastic site managers who always put on a get together on Christmas and New Years Eve.
 They then moved to a different site in a different part of the country and the new managers didn't exactly fit in with the 'friendly club' tag line...

 Last year we found our current location just a few miles out of Tavistock....
 It's a private site and we enjoyed it so much last winter that we are back again for our second winter season here...

 It's quite surprising the number of people who decide to spend the Christmas and New Year on a campsite in their RV.. motorhome or caravan with some even braving it in a tent.. although with all the wet weather we have been having it would be only the very brave or foolish that will attempt tent camping this year I think......

 Anyway we are now preparing for our Christmas here on the edge of Dartmoor and I would like to wish everyone out there on the 'blogosphere' the very best of Seasons Greetings to you all.

 The Purpletraveller blog will be back again early in the New Year....

Back up to Dorset ......

Sunday 15th December 2019.....

Today we have travelled back up to Dorset to visit my daughter and also to attend yet another MRI scan at Poole hospital.

 We didn't leave the campsite until about 1400hrs and the morning was quite dry and sunny although it was cold....
 About 45 minutes before we started our journey the heavens opened and it poured with rain...
 The roads were very wet but it didn't seem to slow people up as lots of cars flashed past us at silly miles an hour.... 

As we approached Honiton we encountered a really bad hail storm which turned the road into a skating rink and one car seemed to have braked too hard and spun out of control careering straight through the centre reservation destroying the reservation cables as it carried on across the opposite carriageway ending up embedded into a bank....

 The hail that had fallen had not melted but had frozen as it hit the road and had just accumulated on the roadway making it take on the characteristics of an ice rink...
 Perhaps if the driver had kept his speed down he would have avoided this accident...

 Anyway we stopped off in Honiton for a natural break and when we set back off again we found that the eastern side of the town had really dry roads with no sign of the previous bad weather so the rest of our journey proved uneventful.

 A couple of images below showing the ice rink like conditions in the main car park at Honiton....

My MRI scan is scheduled for early Wednesday morning and following lunch in Poole we will be heading back to Devon in the afternoon. 
Hopefully our return journey will be less eventful...    
If there are any further developments I will keep you informed.   

More Huff & Puff.... it's more Gales .

Yes. .the settled weather didn't last long before we had more strong winds and rain...

Walking on the moor there are signs of damage caused during the last bout of strong gale force winds....
 The trouble with the moor is that it is so open that there is nothing to break the speed of the winds..
 Having said that I have to admit that one of the things that I have always enjoyed about walking in wild landscapes is the wild weather that goes with the territory....

Back at the caravan site we have had to close our pop top roof yet again... It's no real problem for us as we both have headroom with the roof closed..
 Looking at the weather forecast for this coming week it seems highly likely that we could have the roof down for most of the week....

Today we went into Tavistock to visit the Christmas tree festival at St Eustachius church.
 We have visited the festival most years that we have stayed here over the festive season....
 It's always nice to see all the trees that have been dressed by various local businesses and organisations in the area and it helps to raise funds for charity..... 

Following our visit we went across the road to the Bedford Hotel for afternoon tea .. and very nice it was... although probably a bit too civilised for me :-)

Doing not a lot......

Over this past week until today we seem to have had wall to wall rain and strong winds.....

 The campsite that we are staying on is towards the top of high ground overlooking the river Tamar and across to Cornwall.
 Any strong winds coming in from the south west can hammer across towards us and on a couple of occasions over this past week I have had to lower our pop top roof both for safety and also to make it a bit quieter for us to allow us to get a good nights sleep.

 The constant bad weather has really restricted our activities...
 We really have been doing not a lot.
 No cycling and no walking on the moor that is unless you wanted to end up completely soaked.

 Even the best wet weather gear that you can buy wouldn't have been able to keep you dry over this past week...

 Then today arrived...

 What a lovely day we have had....
Yes it has been cold but it was dry and the sun was out and it does really brighten everything up including our mood. 
 The cold I can live with much better than I can the rain.....
 Mind you having said that looking at the national weather forecasts we always seem to have some of the warmest or should I say less cold weather down here in the southwest than the rest of the country...

 The forecasts are telling me that we should be able to enjoy some more settled weather over this coming week so walking and cycling should be back on the agenda.
  Below are some images of our campsite..the lane outside the site and this evening's sunset looking over towards Cornwall.... 

The Old Bike.....

Whenever I see an old bike I can't help but wonder on what sort of life that it might have had.

 At one time the bike in the image above would have been brand spanking new...probably sitting in a bike shop somewhere just waiting for someone to come along and purchase it.

 It would be just waiting for someone to give it some life.... after all a bike is nothing until it is ridden.
 The paintwork would have been gleaming and the chrome would have been sparkling and all shiny and new. 
The rubber handle bar grips..the saddle and the tyres would have had that brand new bike smell.

 Looking at the bike with it's rod brake levers that would probably have been sometime about the 1950s. So this old bike could have had 60+ years of being ridden along the roads....
 That could be many many miles of someone enjoying the pleasure of turning those pedals... and sitting on that saddle and listening to those wheels swooshing along the road....

 Now it is being used as an advertising feature outside a shop in the town of Chepstow.....
 However with just a little bit of TLC this bike could be restored to a serviceable and rideable condition....
 It could still have a good few years of use left in it.

 It might not be as quick and smooth as a modern bike and it might not stop as quickly with its old style braking system but it could still do what it was originally intended to do and give someone the pleasure of riding a bike.

 I have to admit that I can never understand why a lot of people feel the need to change their bikes every few years when the lifespan of a cared for bike can be many years....

 My own bikes are all about ten years old now and each one is still able to give me hours of riding pleasure....

 Maybe at some point in the future my bikes could be sitting out front of a shop somewhere being used as an advertising feature and someone else will be wondering what sort of life they have had....how many miles they have done and where they have been...  

A Change of Perspective.....

I have been visiting Tavistock for over twenty years on a fairly regular basis indeed these coming months will be the fifth year that Anne and I have chosen to spend our winter here.

With all these long term visits I thought that I had got to know the area pretty well but the other day I had a bit of a surprise.

For the past few weeks there have been road works in Tavistock and this has resulted in long queues getting in and out of the town.

 Anne and I had decided to go into the town to do a little shopping  and Anne decided that we would go to an alternative car park than the normal one that we park in.
 This would mean a slightly different route that would avoid getting caught up in the traffic jam.

 The car park was on the other side of the river to our usual car park and provided us with a nice Riverside walk up towards Abbey bridge.....

 I had never approached the bridge from this side of the river before and as we drew closer I suddenly saw the bridge from a totally different perspective. 

From our normal parking place the bridge never seemed to look particularly attractive but by crossing the river I saw it in a whole new light.

 What a difference a change of perspective makes....

A new perspective- Abbey Bridge

A new perspective- Abbey Bridge

Ultra Tough Bike Cover......

Sometimes I come across an item of kit for cycling or camping that I think is really useful and well made and worth sharing information about it on this blog the BTR outdoors bike cover is one such item . 

When we first started fulltiming I would keep my bike in the awning but having lost two awnings to bad Dartmoor storms in previous winters I decided last winter not to bother putting an awning up and I kept my bike in my car.
 It kept the bike nice and dry but I have to admit it was a bit of a faff every time I wanted to ride the  bike. 

This year I was determined to keep the bike outside. My plan was to keep it on the turbo so I could warm up on the bike or have a training session with the least amount of hassle. The problem was finding something to keep the bike in or under that would be tough enough to withstand the strong winds and bad weather that you can get here on Dartmoor.

 Luckily Paul who has a caravan on site pitched opposite us is also a cyclist and he showed me the BTR Cycle cover that he has been using for the past couple of years.... It is made from a really heavyweight material that is waterproof with all the seams fully sealed with waterproof tape.
 Paul assured me that it gave his bike full protection in all weathers and he fully recommended it.

 Whilst we were staying in Dorset I ordered one from Amazon. Since we have been back here in Devon we have had gale force winds and torrential rain on two occasions and I must say that the protection offered by the cover is really impressive.

 So many covers are made from flimsy material and struggle to fully cover the bike but this one is different with thick and hard-wearing material and full coverage of the bike and turbo. In fact it would cover two bikes with ease if you so wished...


The cover cost me £29.95 which I think is really good value for money... I would certainly recommend this bike cover for anyone who needs to keep a bike outdoors...just put a couple of bungees around the cover to ensure that it is fully secure and do up the clips back and front which are fitted to the cover and your bike will be fully protected.

I have no connection financial or otherwise with either the manufacturer or supplier of the BTR Outdoors Cycle Cover and I'm only sharing this information as a very satisfied customer. 

Finally don't forget to check out the latest image at my 'Aura of Past Shadows' blog. My plan is to update the image every Friday and then update Purpletraveller on a Sunday.... 
 There is a link in the sidebar to the blog....