The Strawberry Line - Cheddar to Yatton (and back!)

The sun shone through our rooflights early Saturday morning so we knew that it would be a great day for biking (or so we thought!!!).  Bacon and egg rolls were on the menu for breakfast and they were yummy!  Our friends were off out for the day visiting family in Wookey so off we went back along the Strawberry Line, via Axbridge again and onto our first stop at Sandford....home of Thatchers cider (heaven!).  Of course, I couldn't resist a small purchase and a 3 litre box of Thatchers Heritage fitted nicely in my bike basket!!!

From Sandford the Strawberry Line then takes you literally through Thatchers apple orchards, along small country lanes and back onto the original line, which is very flat and lovely to ride on.  We arrived in Yatton (11 miles from Cheddar) in gorgeous sunshine and sat outside the little station cafe eating chocolate cake!

Then it was time to make our way back.   Black rain clouds were looming in the distance, in the direction we were heading, but we hoped we'd be lucky.  Sadly not!!!  When we were 9 miles from Cheddar the heavens opened. We had taken our waterproofs but they weren't much use in torrential rain.  Paddy's trailer has a waterproof cover so he was snug (or so we thought!).  It was pretty hard going in the rain but we finally got back to site around 5pm.........and the sun came out! 

After lifting Paddy's cover we discovered that he'd not been kept totally dry as we'd hoped and had been splashed with mud from Mike's bike...........and he was not happy!  Mike had to borrow the campsites hose to wash down the bikes and trailer before we could all shower and change into dry clothes.   We had a great time, despite being soaked through to the skin.  It's all part of the fun!!!!

 

  

  

Again we spent the evening in Cheddar with our friends where we had a lovely meal in a Chinese restaurant. 

Sunday, and home time, came around far too quickly again and we now have 4 whole weeks to wait for our next booked trip.  We're not travelling too far in September......we've booked some sites in south Cornwall and on the Lizard and we're really looking forward to it.

Cheddar Reservoir and Axbridge

We were up very early on Friday morning and at our dealers premises for 8:30am!  After being told replacing the step would take a couple of hours the engineer appeared back just an hour later.....all done.  Now that's what I call efficient.  We were back on site by 10am (bonus - it meant we had the rest of the day to ourselves). 

So, after a light brunch we set up the bikes and headed along part of the Strawberry Line (a dis-used railway line that runs from the outskirts of Cheddar to Yatton) for a short ride along the reservoir, into the pretty town of Axbridge and back, a distance of 9 miles all in.

Later that day some friends of ours, who've just bought their first motorhome, turned up on site.  We'd not seen them for 15 years or more so there was quite a lot of catching up to do.  We all sat outside for a few hours before heading into Cheddar later that evening for a meal and more catching up!!!

Back to Cheddar - Motorhome Repairs! - August 2013

Having had continual problems with our electric step over the last 6 months or so, with it not coming out or going in when it should and making a very embarrassing grinding and banging noise each time the engine was started, our motorhome dealer had agreed with Auto Trail that we could have it replaced under the terms of our warranty.  So we decided to make the most of having to travel up to Somerset and have another sneaky long weekend away at Cheddar Bridge.  Oh, the things you have to do!!!

We had planned to travel up early Friday morning, get the step sorted on the way to Cheddar and then pitch up, but the weather forecast was good again so we finished work early on the Thursday and headed north up the M5 that afternoon.  When we arrived on site it was baking hot so we sat outside relaxing.  Later that evening we enjoyed a BBQ, whilst sat outside listening to the music being played by the fair, who were in town for the week!!!