Saturday 18 April 2009 The day started well and we were looking forward to our first caravan trip in what was at least spring, if not early summer. By the time we left home at 11.00am the sun was starting to shine through. I soon got into towing again and in no time, we were headed up the M23, quite pleased with being out and about with the caravan again. We stopped for a break from the M25 at Wisley, feeling that we'd cracked the problem of "no services on the M25" by finding a decent layby on the A3 just a few hundred yards from the motorway junction. The rest of the route was straightforward enough, aided by the Satnav and even at Henley on Thames negotiation of the bridge and one-way system was easy enough (probably not quite so good at Regatta time). The day before, I'd downloaded all the Caravan Club site data to the Satnav and as we neared Four Oaks site I was pleased to hear a chiming bell warning me of the site entrance. We soon found a suitable pitch and set up the caravan with no problems, and within no time our relatives from Henley arrived for a cup of tea in our new caravan.  My sister in law was struggling with a huge plaster cast on a broken leg but she managed to climb up inside the 'van, while my brother in law helped me put up or new awning. I bought some rock pegs from the site shop and they kindly leant me a lump hammer, so the job went quite easily and will be a doddle next time by the look of it. Later on we all went back to their place and we enjoyed an over-specified Indian takeaway (rather too many dishes!). Sunday 19 April 2009 Another glorious sunny day, and as I went out to the car, I saw a red kite circling above the site, and later a sparrow hawk patrolling the trees around us. We had a nice slow morning , reading the papers and sitting in the new awning, and then went off to my sister in law's for the rest of the day. We went across to their boat which was moored at Caversham and had a cruise down the Thames towards Sonning which was very relaxing and peaceful. We caught on camera many black and white swans and different water fowl. Its strange that in the last year, they've bought a launch and we've bought a caravan - both appropriate to our own lifestyles.  After the cruise we went back to John and Pat's house whereupon Margaret cooked a lovely roast dinner. Afterwards we watched a fascinating family history DVD which one of John's relatives had made. Monday 20 April 2009 We woke to quite a lot of aircraft noise as business executives zoomed off to New York via Henley on Thames. We really hit lucky with the weather this time and had another slow start to the day sitting in the sun. We drove off to Marlow later, and found a car park near the river then took our chairs down to the promenade and had a picnic.  It was a perfect day - summer weather, warm and sunny, more like June than April. We wandered down to the town and had a coffee then drove back to the site and relaxed in the late afternoon sun. In the evening we watched The Sixth Sense - a brilliant film, particularly for Margaret who knew that the main character was actually dead for most of the film! Tuesday 21 April 2009 I was awake from soon after dawn and after struggling unsuccessfully to get back to sleep, got up at some ludicrous time and drove down to Henley for an early morning walk.  There were the usual jogger and dog-walkers around but they did not disturb the peace of the river as the morning mist was slowly burned off by the sun. We packed up the caravan things and left by 11.00am, having an uneventful drive back home. Our usual sense of achievement came on us as we arrived home - caravanning is not simple in the way that booking in and out of an hotel is, but I think we can say that the routines get more established every time you go. Whether I still feel the same after our next trip, to the continent, remains to be seen. |