Hillend Campsite, Gower Peninsula, Wales

This summer Me and Grace took a little trip 200 miles up to Rhossili on the Gower Peninsula, south Wales. We stayed in a lovely little campsite called Hillend campsite (http://www.hillendcamping.com/), I have to say this is one of the best places we have been to, Great campsite and an amazing location! we arrived at the site on a Thursday and as you can see by the photos we had a nice spot just two minutes walk through some sand dunes to a spotless sandy beach. Each day we had lovely weather and spent most of the days on the beach surfing (well trying to!) then after a shower back to the beach to see the sun setting.  

We are already planning another trip there next year, 5 STARS from us for this one!

A few pics from the year

Here's a few photos to share with you from the past year, I will be updating the blog with the shows and places we have visited soon

Camping: Hurst View, Lymington

Last Saturday we stayed over at Hurst View Camp site in Lymington for the night, its a nice camp site with nice clean showers and toilets and a small parks for the kids. The bonus on this site is they allow you to have camp fires! nothing beats camping with a camp fire!

Grace built up the wood for the fire then later enjoyed warming up her marshmallows on it lol.

There was loads of room around the camp site to fly a kite and play football without annoying other campers, always a good thing if you have a kid to entertain!

On Sunday we packed up and took a short drive to the seafront, we spent an hour or so crabbing (Grace got 5 or 6) then we headed home to Portsmouth, on the way back we stopped off in the New Forest for a few minutes so grace could have a look at the ponies.

Grace enjoying the camp fire

 

 Arnie hiding in the New Forest

Apex Festival 2014

I'm a bit late posting these, been a bit hectic lately.

Anyway here's a few photos from a very windy but very awesome weekend at the Apex Festival.
This show is a must for any VW/Motor sports fans as there's always action on the track, I enjoyed the drifting, love the smell of burning rubber at a race track!
The only downside to this years event was the lack of stores selling things, last year there were about 15 odd stalls, this year I think there were only 3 or 4!

As usual there was a convoy of us heading up from Portsmouth, one of our lot's break cylinder exploded on the way up and have to be recovered to the show then back home again after, apart from that the rest all ran fine again :)

Apex Festival website click here

Mine, Steve and Sharon's westie and Benders beetle

Sweet Beetle

Nice Porsche waiting to get on the track

Bit of Arnie artwork inside the bus

Portchester Castle

On Saturday after Grace had finished her karate lesson at Southdowns Karate Club we took a trip down to Portchester Castle, Grace has always been obsessed with castles for as long as I remember.

It's a great place to take the kids for a few hours, we had a look inside the keep then headed up the original spiral stairs to the roof, its a great view up there, you can see all of Paulsgrove and the chalk pit to the north, Port Solent to the East, Portsmouth Harbour to the South and Portchester to the West. I cant believe it was built in the 3rd century! When we got back down we popped into the gift shop and Amy brought Grace a sword and shield set, she was a happy little knight after that! 

We then walked over to St Mary's Church which is located inside the grounds of the castle, I'm not religious at all but I do enjoy looking at the church buildings. We wandered around the church then walked back to Arnie around the outside of the castle walls by the sea.

We visit Portchester Castle often so no doubt you will see more photos here over time, If your local its worth a visit especially if its a lovely sunny day as you can have a picnic and enjoy the views :)  

Where's Arnie?

The Keep

Grace listening to the guide

Great views

St Marys Church and Portsmouth Harbour in the distance

Paulsgrove and the chalk pit at Portsdown Hill

 Knight Grace of the round table

about portchester castle

Portchester Castle  offers a fantastic insight into various periods of British history and originally dates back to the Roman era.

Built during Roman times, probably in the third century AD, Portchester Castle is the country’s only example of a Roman fort whose walls still stand complete up to around six metres.

Over the centuries, Portchester Castle has been renovated and rebuilt many times and its use has altered to suit the needs of its owners. In the eleventh century, parts of Portchester Castle were rebuilt into a Norman keep and in the fourteenth century Richard II transformed it into a palace. Like their Roman predecessor, both of these incarnations served a defensive function.

Yet, during the Napoleonic Wars, the role of Portchester Castle changed, as it became a prison for around 7,000 French prisoners of war. This change was due in large part to the reduced importance of Portchester Castle as a defensive structure following the building of the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard by King Henry VII.

Today, Portchester Castle is run by English Heritage who offer audio tours and exhibitions about the site as well as children’s activities.

Portchester castle church

                                      

Church door

Oktoberfest 2013

Portsea Island Dubs on way to Oktoberfest

 In October 2013 a colourful convoy of 6 VW buses headed from Portsmouth to the River Dart Country Park in Ashburton, Devon for Oktoberfest 2013, There was us in "Arnie", My dad & Jen in their hearing aid beige westfalia, John & Tracey in there red & white Dormobile, Kev & Karen in there blue Dormobile, Dave & Tina in the other hearing aid beige westie and Steve, Sharon & Gus in there orange Westie.

This was the first year I took Grace and she loved it, its a great little family show that sells out very quickly every year. She enjoyed looking around all the buses and beetles and making new friends in the park, she even got joint 1st place in the Halloween fancy dress competition dressed as a scary clown lol, she was really chuffed :)

As usual there were some lovely VW Campers on display all being used for what they were made for, Camping!! Thankfully the weather stayed nice this year, last year was terrible rain, typical English weather lol.

I would recommend visiting both the Oktoberfest show and also the lovely River Dart Country Park itself, it has great facility's and a tree top adventure trail for the older kids and adults.

If your there this October keep an eye out for me and Grace in the green machine :)

Dads Westie

Base Camp

Walking the plank

The green machine

Kevs Bus

Arnie and Steve & Sharon's Westie

Me and mini me

Grace got joint 1st in the fancy dress comp!

Dave & Tina's Westie

Kev & Karen's Dormobile and Dads Westie

Stu Mac's Bus