Saturday morning, 5.30am and we awoke for our Easter weekly break to Cambridgeshire. With all preparations done the night before, we soon headed off for our quite decent size road-trip, which should take around 5 hours with a couple of stop offs at the usual, as we were basically making the same route as a France run.
Ferrybridge, nice and quiet in the caravan bays, we enjoyed our breakfast and then continued on to Grantham, very quiet, almost deserted! Then following a fairy short journey we soon arrive at Roseberry Tourist Park. We pulled up to the barrier and pressed the button for assistance. A very friendly chap met us and booked us in, explaining the usual campsite rules and regulations. We were then taken to our pitch, where we made quite a tight reverse onto before beginning to do our set-up routines. The pitches are of a good size and have room for ‘van, awning and car. Good hardstanding, pegs went in fairly easy, although it killed the Kampa storm strap pegs (these are quite light and flimsy in all honesty). We had the choice of two carpets this time, as the other Easytread had arrived, so we decided to put them both down! It was then that we noticed that the Aldi header tank wasn’t filled correctly. The ‘van had just been in for a service, looks like a fairly inadequate service. Luckily I carry some fluid with me so I soon topped it up and had the heating running smoothly again. Tea time came and went as we settled into the evening. We are both battling a cold presently, so relaxing is the name of the game.
Sunday, a trip to the Nene Valley Railway was planned (by me!) but due to our (not) well being, I decided against it. Unfortunate, I was looking forward to it, with it being one of the more elite heritage railways of the UK. Never mind, another time will do. So we stayed on-site all day, just the ticket when you’re not well. Relaxing with books, magazines, model railway planning, phone apps (rocks Cath!), we let the day drift by, why not, we’re on holiday!
Monday brought an outing to Cambridge. We left for the Park & Ride which was only down the road from the site, ideal! We parked up and payed the parking charge and then tried to purchase a bus ticket, alas the machine wasn’t on a happy day and declined to take payment with a card processing error, no fault of our card, just the machine – honest! When the bus arrived we purchased our tickets and enjoyed the ride into town. This journey was unlike any I have ever been on. There was no road for this bus, but a concrete railway – brilliant! This bus railway or bus guide as locally known, takes the park & ride buses near to the centre of town and then they resume on normal roads for the final mile or two, superb. We alighted in the middle of the town between the river and the shopping complex and began to explore.
What a beautiful place, full of the most tremendous architecture. Churches, university buildings in abundance. Bicycles are the order of the day here, they are everywhere! The river Cam offers punting tours along with many places to relax and eat and drink at. We wandered around for quite a while, whilst eventually returning on the ‘B’ route bus back to Longstanton P&R, From here we headed off to the Argos at the Cambridge Business Park to purchase our new Egg Poacher, as the microwave one was past its day. Back at base, we had tea and settled for the evening.
Tuesday, a day on-site, total relax! Weather was a little cooler with more cloud, but we don’t care, on with reading, TV, films, books, magazines, internet…
Wednesday, the weather looking brighter we headed off for Ely following breakfast from our new Poacher pan, woohoo! The cathedral was obviously on the agenda, and what a magnificent sight it is. We also saw Oliver Cromwell’s house along with the local Waitrose – well we needed some more milk! Back at base the sun continued to shine and we relaxed for the evening again.
Thursday, the last day so on-site relax it is! I had a play about with the spare wheel carrier, in preparation for tomorrow where it would be returned to its natural home. The clearance was certainly an issue, looks like we’ll have to up the levelling and drop the nose for the wheel to clear the chassis, not ideal but hopefully we won’t be doing this often, if at all! The weather was again very pleasant, we had another little walk around the campsite, duly noting that the approach road (B1050) was not a walkable road, very fast traffic and quite busy, with no verge to walk on. This road was a little more noisier than I had imagined it would have been. Certainly in the mornings, you notice the morning traffic as you awaken. After that you get used to it, so not really a problem.
Lovely site overall, very clean and tidy. Even noticed the EHU points being cleaned, that’s a first! Toilet block very clean again. Showers a little small with no drying area, but very good showers: home style thermostatic, so very good with the variable pressure and able to move the head around with no time pushing buttons, fantastic! CDP a little flat, so rinsing down takes a little time. Grey water no problems at all. Fresh water tap sited on a few pitches on our row, so very good again. EHU is 10A, so again very good, just got to watch it a little during the colder months – you can overload quite easily! Pitches are of a good size, although we noted that not many would take ‘van, awning & car in a line – as ours did, most would require car parked in-front if awning was used. All staff very pleasant, we even saw gravel roads being topped up whilst we where there. £5 deposit is required for the barrier card, which is absolutely fine. Top quality site, no doubts. Lovely area as well, lots to see and do. Recommended 🙂
- Date: 12th March 2016
- Nights: 6
- Pitch #: 23
- GPS: 52.334646, 0.064270
- A14 > B1050