I know, it was by no means a holiday but it was a lengthy hiatus. Here follows the briefest of summaries.
17th February, Mr Snail travelled back from Yorkshire to collect Vincent, Nell and myself from a cold and wet Lathus.
18th February, we all left Lathus and put in as many miles as possible on Sunday-quiet roads. We covered about 400 miles in all and came to a stop in Montreuil-sur-Mer.
19th February, Nell went for her worming tablet certification at the vet’s in Montreuil. We stopped a second night as she needed a full 24 hours before being allowed to travel.
20th February, from Montreuil to Calais and on to Pocklington via le Shuttle. We stayed at The Mile, as usual.
During the following days our time was spent with family rather than in swanning around in the van. There was a family funeral on the 26th February.
The so-called Beast from The East took a hand in matters when we decided to take a few days break in Northumberland.
Monday the 5th March we were planning to go to Masham for two nights but due to heavy snowfall the owner telephoned to cancel our booking, the ground being too waterlogged to take us. We hastily Googled etc. and ended up booking two nights on a site (CCC) just outside Barnard Castle, at Lartington. The snow had cleared at Pocklington by the time that we left and all was well as we journeyed up the A1, until we reached the A66 and found not only lying snow but also fog. The Lartington site was shrouded in fog when we arrived.
Tuesday 6th was a far better day and we managed to get some walking in, strolling via Deepdale in the woods with the dog all the way into into Barney and back again.
On Wednesday we treated ourselves to a trip to Wark and stayed at The Battlesteads for two nights. Still plenty of snow around up there but we had a day of brilliant sunshine and a lovely long walk with Nell. There was also some camera action!
Friday 9th saw Vincent hauling us up over Carter Bar and the new Forth Crossing, to Fife, where we stayed at Silverdyke once more and had another excellent meal at The Cellar.
On Sunday 11th, we turned back towards Pocklington and got as far as Belford, near Bamburgh and stopped overnight at one of our favourite Britstops.
Monday 12th saw us finally at Masham, where the ground had recovered sufficiently by then.
On Wednesday 14th we were back at The Mile in Pocklington, where we stayed until we had to leave a day early due to the forecast snow for Saturday. We re-booked the Shuttle and got off to a flying start in appalling weather conditions.
Thankfully the rain and mist cleared from around Newark onwards and we had a good journey thereafter with no significant difficulty until the Shuttle itself was delayed.
So, that was us, back in France again by bedtime on Saturday. Sunday and Monday nights were near Abbeville, as already noted.