Motorhome Madness with the Walters

 We woke to glorious blue skys, cold but sunny. A lovely autumn day. Porridge was on the menu for breakfast after we had pfaffed for a bit. We then got our warm weather clothes on and went for a walk. We passed the millions of cars for the market and climbed the hill behind the house to the Hunting Lodge, then back along and down through the woods. The whole walk was stunning with the views, the weather, and the lovely woods. Up at the hunting lodge Down through the woods Back at the market we had gyros and crepes and coffee then did a bit of shopping of the things we had spotted yesterday.  Crepes The wood walk Back at Dame Shirley we chilled for a while before taking a dark starry walk into Baslow. I had reserved a table at a very nice little Italian called Il Lupo. It had a lovely ambience with a large birthday party taking up one end. We both had salmon of different variations and a nice bottle of red. The portions were huge. A young couple behind had a starter, two huge b...

 Despite the cold and rain we had a lovely nights sleep. Dame Shirley really is toastie in winter. A full English for breakfast was of course the first thing on the list for today. While I was cooking it Ian noticed that a pair of ipods had been ‘following’ him. Thinking they were his own he pressed the play sound button. Nothing. He tried again, and again. Nothing. Then it dawned they must be someone else’s, probably the Germans! Oh how we laughed at the thought of them sat in their giant van hearing mad tinging.  Full English After breakfast we had a visit from the resident gang of ducks. I told them we had nothing for them but they were quite threatening. The Duck Mafia After breakfast we chilled for a bit before wrapping up and heading through the secret door and heading for the Christmas Market. It’s always fun to see the surprise of people walking past on the other side. Secret Door Before leaving I had checked my watch. No rain for three days it said. Great! But as we w...

 This time last year I saw a piece on TV about the Chatsworth Christmas market and house decorations. ‘Ooh’, I thought, ‘That’s for me!’ I then remembered the Chatsworth Caravan and Motorhome club site with its secret door into the estate. Then I had a thought. What if we stayed at the site and used the secret door to access the wonder? So I booked us a few days away, luckily as it turns out as the site is always fully booked at this time of year.  It’s so fully booked that the weekends were already gone, so I had booked from Sunday to Weds. Ian was doing the Donny 10k on the Sunday morning so I walked the dogs and finished up the packing while waiting for him to return. He was not happy. Despite having an ankle problem that stopped him running for a month he was disappointed that he hadn’t run faster than his personal best. Ian is Ian.  A sad runner After he returned we had a spot of lunch, hopped in Dame Shirley, and were rolling into Chatsworth CAMC site by 2.30. It wa...