Jim & Happy : The Cotswolds

The Cotswolds are a range of hills between Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. I thought it was a village, silly me. We are staying in a touring park in Cheltenham 6 miles (9kms in our language) out of Gloucester. This campsite is an organised affair with all the facilities. Our first two campsites were on private farms which is more to our liking because of the country feel and surrounds.

Our first full day in Cheltenham rain was predicted so we decided to go on the GWR, (Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway) a tourist train loop. I love the thought of train trips. My ultimate dream would be to go on the Orient Express for an European trip, unfortunately I can't see that happening.
The GWR was good fun. We started at Cheltenham on the stream train got off at Winchcombe for morning tea. Winchcombe Station is set up like the second world war, the cafe, the staff everything. The locals carry out re-enactments of the evacuees of children from London during the Blitz. We spoke to a woman who was an evacuee, she was a volunteer who takes part in the re-enactments.
From Winchcombe we got back on the train and carried onto Toddington, back to Winchcombe over the Stanway Viaduct to Laverton and back to Toddington where we got off and had lunch at a local pub 'The Pheasant'. Funny, because we saw a couple of pheasants in the fields beside the railway line.
We didn't eat pheasant though, Jim had beef pie and a pint I had trout and a cider all English favs.

You know how I love food - well I forgot to say our camp meals have been yummy. We have been shopping at Waitrose. Waitrose has prepared meals which are fresh, delicious and wholesome E.G. Porcini mushroom ravioli with char grilled vegetable sauce followed by New York cheesecake topped with fresh berries we bought by the roadside. We are lucky with berries because it is the summer berry season and they are being sold everywhere.

Back to our travels, leaving Cheltenham for our final nights camping at Mildenhall in Bury St Edmuds we drove through a few Cotswold villages and sites - Cleeve Hill, Broadway and Chipping Campden. Cleeve Hill is the highest point in the Cotswolds overlooking the vale (as the locals say). Broadway and Chipping Campden are showpiece villages of the Cotswolds (as the travel literature brags) with houses and buildings built out of the local honey coloured limestone.
Once again trying to locate our campsite 'The Willows' took a bit of time - for our final night we chose a site close to Ipswich so we wouldn't have to travel too far the next day. The website stated it was a quirky family friendly campsite. It didn't say in what way quirky. When we arrived we soon found out. It was next to an air force base. The campsite attracts plane spotters - after spending the night there we will not be taking up plane spotting. It was an entertaining afternoon and night though. I had a chat to a father and son who often stay there to fulfil their passion of plane spotting. I admit I did feel excited when I heard the first plane revving up ready to pass over head. While we were perched on our little camp stools eating our spinach ravioli (from Sainburys, far inferior than Waitrose) a plane roared overhead (so close), I laughed my head off. I thought this is hilarious how we are spending our year abroad.