We've been keeping an eye on the weather forecast to see where to go for the Bank Holiday weekend and decided on Cirencester Park Caravan Club Site. We've visited the site several times, including spending Christmas there for a couple of years, and know that the walking from the site is excellent.
The site was quite busy when we arrived on Thursday, but we found a free pitch in the area of the site we prefer. I think we're getting quicker when setting up on site as it only took us about ten minutes. We saw Pizza Alfresco would be on site later that evening, so preordered our pizzas. After lunch we walked through the Bathurst Estate to Cirencester, ensuring we were back in plenty of time for our pizzas.
On Friday we checked the Met Office forecast which showed a cloudy day with some sunny spells, so decided to do a longer walk through the Estate. About two miles into our walk it started to spit with rain, then the rain got heavier before turning to hail so we returned to the site as quickly as possible. After changing into warm dry clothes we put our wet clothes into the shower room and turned the heating on to dry everything out. The afternoon was sunny (as forecast) so we went for a short walk - leaving the longer walk for another day.
Before going away I had downloaded some walks around the town. On Saturday morning we did the 'Field and Woodland Walk' which was lovely as the field paths were through the rapeseed fields. We headed back to Zeb at lunchtime before going out again in the afternoon to do the 'Riverside Walk'.
The weather was more settled on Sunday so we decided to do the longer walk we had aborted on Friday. We didn't really have a plan on where we were going to walk, other than we wanted to find new paths through the Estate. We had our Yellow Map which showed all the rides and paths through the Estate so explored some new areas.
The forecast for Monday was a dry morning and then heavy rain during the afternoon so we walked part of the 'Riverside Walk' and then through the Abbey grounds before getting back to Zeb before it started raining. We had torrential rain all afternoon and most of the night, but thankfully it was dry when we packed up on Tuesday morning although it was still very windy.
We had an eventful journey home as the strong winds lifted the skylight at the front of Zeb, even though it was locked closed. We made a temporary repair to ensure it didn't blow off whilst we were on the motorway and then made a detour to Highbridge Caravans. After inspection of the skylight the technician said it was obviously faulty and would need to be replaced. They secured it for us and are contacting Hymer for approval of the warranty repair. Hopefully we'll get it fixed before we head off on our travels at the end of the month, but at least it's safe for us to travel.
29 April-4 May 2021
