Reg & Ruby’s Retirement Road Trip
On the 2nd July at the grand old age of 68, Reg finally retired – time to make the most of the wonderful Ruby from Sussex Campervans.
Following birthday celebrations over the weekend we finally set off on Tuesday 6 July. First stop was the Caravan & Motorhome site near Salisbury to split the journey to the South West. Before getting to site, we visited the Rose and Crown in Salisbury – venue for our honeymoon 41 years ago and our first time back since, we had booked to go last year to celebrate our Ruby wedding but Covid put paid to that.
Wednesday morning, we continued our journey to Cornwall with a stop off in Bovey Tracey to visit friends we had known over 40 years ago and had only met once since. After coffee and biscuits, we continued to Pentewan Sands, somewhere we had camped 41 years ago and had a week of rain – great test of a marriage. We spent 4 nights there and had better weather this time. Got the bus to Mevagissey, then the boat to Fowey before getting the bus back from Fowey to Pentewan – stupidly Reg forgot to take his bus pass! While there we drove to the village of Laddock, near Truro, to visit more friends from our youth over 40 years ago, great to catch up again.
On Sunday we had booked into Porth Beach near Newquay, on the way we returned to the Eden Project – we were there last September and if you registered for gift aid you got a free trip back within 12 months. We wanted to go back as we had had to wear masks in September, we thought we would be mask less by July – wrong, but still a great place to visit. We arrived in Porth and the heavens opened, sitting in Ruby watching the Euro final. The weather seemed to reflect our mood – Paula got soaked as she hates penalty shoot outs so walked around the site until it was over!
We walked to Newquay from the site but the weather wasn’t great so got the bus to Padstow (bus pass Reg!). The journey was fascinating but very slow as it visits every small coastal community on the journey and the roads are very narrow so much waiting for cars to back up. In Padstow the sun shone and we had a great afternoon before getting the bus (open top this time) back to Porth, lovely journey if a bit windswept. Getting off the bus we found a little Tapas restaurant opposite the beach and had an excellent meal.
From Porth we headed North to Croyde Bay calling in at Port Isaac on the way, on all these narrow roads we appreciated Ruby’s size over a big motorhome. Arriving at Croyde Bay as the hot weather started, we checked into Ocean Pitch campsite – what a find, only about 30 pitches but sitting outside the van we had spectacular views of the beach. Sadly, too many people knew as there were no spaces across August and September. We had only been able to get 2 nights, but what a fantastic find! Good facilities and a fantastic van doing breakfast and dinner – Mexican street food the week we were there.
We left Croyde with great sadness making our way further North to Woolacombe – Reg used to holiday there as a child, now that’s a long time ago. We arrived at Woolacombe Sands early but couldn’t check in even though our pitch was empty. The site was more commercial than we would have liked but we had fantastic views to Lundy and the weather was magnificent. The site is the nearest to the beach at Woolacombe but is still a good hike, particularly as it’s all uphill on the way back.
We headed home on Monday the 19th, Ruby had been great, Paula and I had been away for 13 nights without a cross word uttered, and we had driven 750 miles very easily. The only blot was that 10 minutes from home there was a massive thunderstorm and we got very wet getting back into the house. We count ourselves very lucky to have had such a good trip and can’t wait for the next one – Brighton in August.
Kate Taylor
Journalist and Writer
