Sat: An early start, 6.30am departure. Although this didn’t go to plan. We ended up leaving 15 minutes late, but hey-ho. The real delay was the fact that Cath forgot to pick up her phone from the dining room table. She realised this just as we were about to hit the tunnel, so luckily we avoided going through. We stopped a couple of times to check the car for its presence, but it wasn’t here and we relented to returning back home to look for it there. Once found we returned and our journey commences, some 40 minutes behind schedule – shocking 😉
Collecting the ‘van and the journey ahead all went smooth. Our usual stop at Wetherby, nice and empty at this time of year! Good to see the warden still directing traffic, something I wish a lot of other places would implement. We passed Birmingham and the usual trouble spots without any issue thankfully and then on to a new service station stop, namely Strensham Services. This has good caravan parking facilities, a rarity, but most welcome! Although it didn’t smell too good 🙁 Following this we crossed the M4 ‘Severn Bridge’ and arrived at our site, having navigated the junction off the M4 which is a bit of a nightmare. I’d sussed it for arriving, but later outings got the better of me! The campsite is on the grounds of Tredegar House, so it feels quite strange literally driving through the quaint grounds, avoiding people and animals, but then you finally arrive at the CAMC gates. The site was pretty full when we got there, so a choice of 4 pitches and we chose 47, which was quite nice to be honest – a lucky find! We got setup and relaxed after quite a journey, 8 hours in total. But to be fair, no queues, holdups or diversions.
Sun: A trip to Caerphilly Castle – the largest castle in Wales! Not too far away, only a 25min drive, the castle is easily accessed via car park which is free on Sunday, yeah!. From here we walked to the castle and what a castle it is, it’s massive. Surrounded by a moat, we eventually found the entrance, paid the fee and entered. There is a lot to explore, with video & audio presentations in a lot of places and most of the castle is explorable, it really is a worthwhile visit. Following this visit, we returned to the site and enjoyed some more good weather, just like yesterday.
Mon: A walk around Tredegar House grounds, or a cycle for Cath! We passed a few shops near the entrance, but most were closed, as it is Monday. Despite this, we headed for the park and walked around the central part, wondering where the lake was! It was a good walk and I’m sure will be popular with the dog owning campers.
Tue: The NEC Caravan Show was on the cards today. A 2 hour drive from the site, but better than 4 hours from home! We had a good run until the actual turn off on the M42 – where they are doing roadworks, so we got held up for approx 30mins. Then we were all directed to park inside the NEC rather than a car park. This resulted in a long walk along the ‘skywalk’ and with the travellator being broken, Cath struggled a little. The place was busy, much more so than I thought it would be on a Tuesday, although it is the first day of the show I suppose. We found the area we wanted following a coffee and perused the Elddis and Bucanneer ‘vans. The Elddis Avante Apex 840 looks like the ‘van we’ll go for, the radical charcoal seats were just a little different however and may take some time to adjust to, we’ll see. We didn’t stay too long as we’d seen what we came for and it was proving a long day for Cath. The return journey was fine and needless to say we just relaxed for the rest of the day.
Wed: What’s occurring today? Barry Island – we couldn’t travel to South Wales and not visit it could we? Only a 45min journey away from the site, we soon arrived and were parked up on the sea front. It’s quite a compact resort, but very pleasant with a nice stretch of beech. All of the rides and entertainment were mostly closed, but we managed to grab a coffee in Marco’s – yeah! I can imagine it being very popular in the summer, really enjoyed it here.
Thu: We stayed onsite and enjoyed another walk in the park, this time around the lake. To be honest, we preferred the park walk, as much of the lake walk is under trees with the lake only being visible at certain points. Regardless, Cath made good use of her bike again. Following this I cleaned the ‘van, although she wasn’t too bad to be honest. I do need to do the roof however.
Fri: The usual relax onsite day. Filled the car up ready for the journey back tomorrow and also took down the awning and packed the roof rack and car, as we’d need an early start tomorrow.
Sat: Aiming to leave by 9am, we got up early and finished the rest of the packing up jobs. All was going well, until I came to remove the EHU cable from the bollard. It’s one of the twist and turn types, so duly pressed the red button to untwist, which it did – but then the cable would not pull clear. I tried for quite a while and then began resorting to some quite strong force and after some combined wiggling, I managed to pull it free. In all our years of caravanning, never had this before! We had a good journey to Strensham, our first stop where we enjoyed a coffee. Then onwards past Birmingham and the NEC roadworks. It wasn’t too bad however and we were soon arriving at Wetherby, pretty much on schedule. Here was the next event for today, I pulled into the petrol station which was quite busy, so chose a lane behind a single car. We waited and waited for this car to go, but it didn’t. Eventually a member of staff from the petrol station came over and informed us that the car would be here a while, as the owner was having trouble paying for their fuel. So I asked the guy if he’d be banksman and watch my rear as I reversed out of the chosen bay and selected a one which was now empty. All went well, fuelled up and we were off. No more dramas, ‘van back in storage and home to relax.
- Date: 11th October 2025
- Nights: 7
- Pitch #: 47
- GPS: 51.561348, -3.032452
Arrival: M4 > A48 > Pencarn Way