The skys on fire

It’s all going well with campsite life. The weather has been kind to us for January and February. And with a a few days of sunrises like the first photo it’s a joy to wake up. Well it’s always a joy to wake up, it’s just nicer on a morning like that.

Our heating is now fixed luckily or unluckily for our bank balance. But at least we are nice and warm in the camper now. Good job really because after paying for the repair we have no money to go out with.

At the end of January we had four days off so decided to go somewhere in the camper to give it a run and to get of site. We decided on Southport, just north of Liverpool. Our managers had worked on site there and knew the area so gave us some recommendations of places to go in the area.

The route we were taking meant we crossed a toll bridge which cost six pounds each way but when Niki tryed booking it on line the payment screen was not working. So she rang up and they explained the system had a glitch and our camper was coming up as a commercial vehicle which the chassis is. So he charged us two pounds each way. Bargain.

Southport is a huge town, some say it’s a posh Liverpool. It’s not the sort of place we would go to in the hight of summer that’s for sure and some of the streets we saw you would not want to go down at night. It’s by the sea and has a huge big amusement park which luckily was closed but still made nice photos.

Southport also has the second longest pier in the U.K. second to Southend but is the longest iron pier. When you see it jutting out to sea you look at and think it’s not that long but then I relized that the same amount is in land. At one stage it would have all been out to sea but the land has been reclaimed. I really wanted to walk out to the end but it was closed for repairs.

We had been told of a fish and chip shop that we had to go to. A family run business for years and the food was the best. So as we like food we wandered off into the town to seek it out. We never booked just took a chance we could get in. Our search took us down some dodgy looking streets but we found it. You would never know where it is unless you were told. It was closed but due to open in an hour. We went and had a drink and then came back to it and to a small group of three peaple waiting to go in. As we walked up to the shop the doors opened and in we went, sat down and all of a sudden peaple were coming in the front door and the back door. Our order was taken and the fish and chips, mushy peas and bread and butter was served. And yes it was very nice.

After our feast we wandered around the corner into Lord street which is the old part with all the chopping arcades with canopy’s over them etc. All very Victorian looking. One shopping arcade was a fantastic building with lots of glass and ironwork but all the shops were empty which was such a shame. A sign of the times I think.

Other parts of the town were not to our liking with rubbish everywhere and just not looked after. There are some beautiful old buildings though. We walked back through the park with the boating lakes and in the summer it would have little tea rooms open beside the lake. The grounds were kept nice apart from the odd bit of graffiti here and there.

There were lots of swans, ducks, geese and of course the seagulls all around the lake all looking for the food handouts. I expect in the summer with all the crowds of peaple they double in size with the amount of handouts they get.

Our four days off was soon gone and we headed back to base. Would we go back to Southport, yes we would but not in the summer.

On another day off I managed to get to the bike park at Llandegla. About half hours drive away. It has some great trails, a skills area, a pump track, a cafe and bike shop so it’s my kind of place and I will be going there a lot over the next few months. I went there yesterday in fact and did twenty miles of ups and downs on the black, red and blue trails. Nikki went for a more sedate walk around Chirk castle.