Devall Travels

If you want to know anything now you just need to go to Google and ask. My search for places to go, hopefully open in February, just after the schools' half term holiday over has come up with quite a few places.  Whether being dog friendly is Reggie-friendly remains to be seen. Luckily we, Claire and me, have plenty of waterproof walking boots and warm coats to wear should Derbyshire turn into the cold and wet place it has a few time I have been before. Reggie though has a choice of waterproof coats and a Rough & Tumble towelling body wrap that we force him into when he is wet, after a rough towelling down! Although he looks more miserable when he is wearing it than the dog in the website photo! In my previous life as a rough-tough biker I have camped often in the Peak District at motorcycle rallies. Mostly around the Ashbourne area.  Usually though in the summer when it has been mostly warm and sunny.   So where to go? Well there are plenty of places here:...

Not heard from the booking company as yet but when I logged in they will take the outstanding balance automatically on or around the 15th December.   I hope that they take it after my MasterCard statement for December is created and so the cost will be on the next one due after 13th January. Spreading the costs! Once it is all settled I can start to look at places to go that are dog friendly in late February!  Still need to have fingers crossed about the weather!   Even though the climate experts were telling us some fifteen to twenty years ago that the south-east of England would have a Mediterranean climate by now, we still have nothing to show for it.   Storm Arwen has recently struck the north east of England and border areas with Scotland and high winds and snow have taken out overhead power supplies.  Some 8 days later people are still without heating and light. Augers well for a carbon neutral future with everyone driving electric cars... b...

I have merged the Cruising merge into this blog. I've not deleted it just leaving it to die a natural death. https://pandc-cruising.blogspot.com/

I have been looking for somewhere to go for Claire's birthday next year and then eh voila, a cottages.com email arrived. Black Friday! Initially I looked at the south coast, Hampshire or maybe Dorset.  It's outside school half term holidays when prices rocket, but even so for a short break prices were silly money. I think that many owners are trying to get back what they lost during the lockdowns. I won't play that game. So I expanded the search and thought about the Peak District and had a look. Even here there are Black Friday discounts.  With the filters set for "dog friendly" and "enclosed garden/patio" there were very few options.  Individually there were quite a few but once both were entered, the choices became fewer and fewer. I bookmarked a few places but in the end decided on The Stables near Matlock in Derbyshire ! It's dog friendly so Reggie can come too.  I need to plan  how to get there. We can't check in until 3pm in any case.  Go...

I've not added any posts to this blog since 6th April 2021.  Many of the UK population had had their second jab by then and we were looking forward to being "safe" from the pandemic. Here we are in late November.  Many of us older people have had a THIRD jab and still there is no light at the end of the tunnel. People are still getting Covid-19. People are still dying. We can hope for a better 2022 but only a fool would bet any money on that being true.

We set off about 1030 and decided to take the route that the Nissan Navigator chose for us via the motorways and the A22. A pee stop at Clacket Lane for Reggie and so we arrived about 1215.  It was sunny.  Remember that! Once out of the car we headed in to visit the loo ourselves before a coffee and a sit down before setting off around the gardens. All areas are dog friendly and they even have indoor seating in one of the tea rooms where dogs are allowed.  Something that other NT places maybe need to think about? Once we had drunk up we set off to find the autumn colours.  There are plenty.  I took a few photos with the Nikon D50 today. They seem to have come out pretty well. Then the clouds came over and it started to rain!  A drizzle turned into a deluge!  As can be seen on the surface of the lake in the picture below! The rain battering down on the lake! There was even a rainbow at one point! Doubt there's a pot of gold to be found! Once we were sui...

It's school half-term and I am on holiday.  So we are looking for places to go. Sheffield Park Gardens is a National Trust Estate and is dog friendly. Their busiest period is in the autumn (fall) when the trees are turning and so they have a pre-booking scheme in place.  I have booked for Monday 25th at 1230-1300. This gives us time to decide which route to take to get there and of course, make the 1h40m drive over there. More to follow. Waterproofs and dog towels?