Part 4 – Innocents abroad: English countryside

Follow the travel diary of Val and Rosney (The Man) as they travel to the UK via Vancouver one way and San Francisco on the return trip. The self-drive ‘innocents abroad’ expedition was planned in celebration of The Man’s 70th birthday to walk in the footsteps of their ancestors

Bath – Oxford

Most of our accommodation had to be ‘car friendly’ as a lot of places had no car parking available, also when booking I looked at variety e.g. country-stay, bed and breakfast and hotels. Breakfast was part of all bookings, except when we eventually reached Scotland.

It was not my fault we took the wrong road out of Bath and headed in exactly the wrong direction that we wanted to be going – that was the driver’s decision. After much map reading we ended up heading back the way we came and eventually found that all roads do not lead to Oxford.

The countryside is perfect, stone walls, quaint cottages, and narrow roads, so narrow that in some villages houses are right on the road-edge, unfortunately, it’s impossible to find a park to stop and have a look-see. It’s also unfortunate that these narrow roads often make it impossible to do a U-turn when one finds one is are heading in the wrong direction.

We stopped at Tetbury for lunch (this is where Charles and Camilla live) the food was nice and pleasing to the eye, but I have a note here that the coffee was the second worst in the UK, but the chocolate crunch was a winner. The waitress commented about my accent, and when I told her we were from NZ, she seemed surprised as she’d been told only wild sheep lived there (geeze).

I also have a note here that along the way I grumped at The Man for his distinct mistrust of my map-reading-skills, and seeing we got to where we wanted to be at the end of the day, (even if we were somewhat late in arriving) what more could he ask. Was so pleased with our accommodation, ‘The Tree’ which was out of town at Iffley about 3km out of Oxford and near a lock in the canal.

After settling in we went for a happy canal walk and were chuffed to see boats come through the lock, which was for us was a real once in a lifetime experience. The lock-keeper’s cottage was simply a picture and I could imagine what a wonderful lifestyle it would be, but maybe not in the middle of winter with cold-grumpy canal boaters. We dined at the ‘The Tree,’ and the meal and atmosphere was excellent, can absolutely recommend this as a place to stay, for food, drink, comfort, it had it all. Had a good night’s sleep, but awoke to a rainy morning. We were advised that if we ventured into Oxford on a wet day we would be lucky to find a car park, so had a wee drive around and hit the road for Daventry which is part of the Bird Family Tree scene.

Having problems wherever we go finding a computer to check emails, no on-line cafes etc. Also, I keep reminding myself not to use ‘Kiwi terms of phrase’ when I’m talking to people, I get some confused looks (mind you, that is not unusual).

Comments: The Man now insists it was not his fault that we headed south out of Bath, instead of North. ‘Mmmmm, I don’t know about THAT’, the wife articulated in that certain beware-ish tone of voice. . .

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Our first stop of the new day was Banbury, where the lady with rings on her fingers and bells on her toes once rode a white horse. What a pretty bustling market town! We lunched at a French Pasterrie and were served the first decent cup of coffee since the Methodist Café in London. At this stage I figure NZ cafes serve the best coffee in the world! The Banbury market day was in full swing in the village square, the selection of fruit, veggies, breads, cheeses and cakes were sweetie mouth-watering, I wished we had a little fridge in the back seat of the merc, so we could carry cheesy supplies, I’ve got into the habit of keeping my eyes peeled for goat cheese specialties at every meal stop.

But things can’t be cheesy and sweet forever, when leaving Banbury disaster struck, instead of directing the driver to take the second left turn at the round-a-bout, I pointed out the first left and we found ourselves sitting in a little merc on the M4 to Birmingham – that is, instead of on a quiet country road heading to Daventry. The navigator felt sick to her little toes, while the driver seemed quite tense and teeth-gritty for a length of time, but once we had exited the motorway he acknowledged my existence and even gave me a slight smile – but that was after he worked out if we headed south to Southam, there was a round-a-bout way we could hook back on the road to where we wanted to be. Daventry turned out to be a small, unexciting, quiet, country town. We wandered around the shops, had an average coffee, went to the supermarket and purchased some

Daventry turned out to be a small, unexciting, quiet, country town. We wandered around the shops, had an average coffee, went to the supermarket and purchased some ready-made salads and cold meat for our evening meal, then set out to find Drayton Lodge where we were booked to stay for two nights – anyways, when we got there we found no eating plates etc, only cup of tea-making gear, so we ended up eating our salady-meal out of mugs with a tea-spoons.

Drayton Lodge described as a farm stay bread and breakfast, was comfortable and user-friendly, we were allowed to put our beers in their shed-fridge, and they let me use their washing machines (for a small charge) so I could catch up on some much-needed laundry. The clothes line of was an old-wire-line propped up with a forked tree branch, had to keep my eye on it as it wasn’t very stable and the ground quite muddy underneath. A very homely place to stay, with cocker spaniels waggy-tailing about… the only problems were that it was a wee drive out of town and with no utilities to prepare a meal.

The driver has proclaimed that the driver and navigator (me) shall, the evening before travelling have a pow-wow, with the driver giving both verbal and written instructions for the day-ahead-journey (spare me).

Comments: The Man keeps commenting that if there was a decent earthquake all of the UK would come tumbling down.

 

To be continued….

 

By Val Bird

Read more of Val and The Man’s adventures here.