Monday 30 April 2012

Tredegar House Country Park, Newport, Wales

Thursday 26th April 2012, we leave Chorley, still in the rain!

We head for Tredegar House Country Park, Caravan Club Site, Newport.

By missing out the rest of Wales, we are now back on track, to our original plan.

The site is within the grounds of Tredegar House, a very impressive Mansion, dating back to the 1600's.

It is nice to be on a site with good facilities, we are definitely not "roughing it" campervaners!, the Caravan Club never fails to please in this respect.



The weather has improved (very) slightly, we even manage a walk to explore the grounds, without getting wet.








According to the BBC weather forecast, on Wednesday, Tredegar was the wettest place in the UK, well, on Friday (27th), it looks as if it is trying to equal that distinction. We wake to pouring rain.

There are few things more dismal than an overcaste wet day on a campsite!

The rain stops for 11:00, and we do the "looking for a Catholic Church" walk, Kathleen encounters a group of Pensioners at a bus stop, and of course gets all of the necessary information, where the church is, bus times etc etc.

What she does not find out is that English bus passes are not accepted in Wales!, so later in the afternoon, when we go into Newport on the bus, it costs £6 return! If you are thinking of doing it, save yourself £6, it is faded grandeur, some smart buildings, but otherwise about on a par with Gateshead, but (if this is possible) with more chavs.

Saturday (28th April 2012), we are told is to be the "best" day of the weekend, if that is true, it is a big disappointment, grey overcaste sky, cold wind from the North, no rain (the only redeeming feature).

We catch the bus into Cardiff (about 10 miles away). Given the weather we spend most of our time in an a couple of "joined up" shopping malls, Queens Arcade and St Davids Arcade. Absolutely riveting.

The monotony is broken by a visit to this rather magnificent church (that will tell you how riveting the shopping mall was, when a church is a highlight!).

I have to say, Cardiff is rather magnificent, and is thronged with people shopping, eating and generally spending money, no sign of recession here, that is for sure.

Sunday and the weather is absolutely dreadful, we are woken at 6:30 in the morning by the site warden, warning us that a tree has been blown down.

At present, it is resting on the fence, the branches are resting on the roof of our van. True to form, I have slept through all of this.

I quickly get some clothes on and move the van to another pitch, before the tree, comes down completely.
All over the site, people are being moved from pitches where trees either have fallen, or look as if they are about to.

But, to give you a true perspective of how bad the weather is, Kathleen misses church, because she cannot face the two mile walk there, in the pouring rain and howling wind. Now that IS serious weather.

It gets better, a phone call from the Site Warden at Tewkesbury Abbey (our next stop), to tell us the site is flooded, and to advise we cannot go there on Tuesday as planned, the bookings are quickly rejigged to go to Cheltenham instead.

Drought!, what drought?

Monday, we have a strange light in the sky for most of the day, a sort of yellow ball, and the sky is a strange colour, mostly blue.

It does not last, by 8:30 in the evening the clouds roll in, and we have a thunder storm.








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