Day 69: Monday 26 May – Farnham to Ashford In The Rain, by Ken

We awoke to the sound of rain on Mabel’s roof, Thomas and Kirsty had been extremely fortunate with the weather for their wedding day. We ate a leisurely breakfast and, just as we were about to head off, Thomas came over and thanked us for coming. We chatted briefly, they were off on their honeymoon today, initially to South Africa and then on to the Maldives. 

Mabel and Smarty In Their Overnight Park At Bury Court

Young Horse Rider Seen at Bury Court

Geese On A Family Outing

We were heading for Ashford in Kent. I had wanted to reach Dover today, but the camping ground would only accept bookings for three nights as today was a public holiday. The camping ground in Ashford was not so picky and was less than 50km from Dover from where we were booked to take the ferry across the English Channel to Calais on Wednesday.

It rained on and off as Jane drove us up the A3 and part the way round the M25 where we stopped in a service area to change drivers. I finished the M25 leg and then it was down the M20 to Ashford. There were showers all the way. We stopped at a large Tesco Superstore on the outskirts of the town. It was busy and there were no parks large enough to take Mabel and Smarty. I found a length of service road that fitted the bill and stayed with Mabel while Jane went off to buy supplies.

Not Much Fun In The Rain On The M25

We had some time to kill before the 14:00 check-in time at the camping ground so we ate our lunch of bread cheese and dips while parked at Tesco.

The coordinates we had for the Broadhembury Caravan and Camping Park must have been slightly out as we were in a narrow country lane when it announced we had reached our destination. Fortunately, we picked up signs at the end of the lane and found our destination without too much difficulty.

There were just a few caravans and campervans in the very pleasant camping ground. We had our pick of a number of hard standings and chose one within striking distance of the amenities.

By the time we were hooked up to the mains and turned on the gas it was raining heavily, the rain continued for the rest of the day. I spent the afternoon sorting out some photographs of the wedding and sent them to Harry and Ella with a summary of the event. Hopefully they would be of some value in planning their wedding in 2016. Then we watched the very old ‘Sink the Bismark’ movie starring James Mason. Virtually the whole cast had upper class English accents – was that compulsory during World War II we wondered?

Dinner was sausage, tomato, onions and cannellini beans cooked by Jane. It was still raining when we went to bed.