Category: 2021

Lockdown 3 continues…

Three go Travelling
Nortia in the snow

We’re almost seven weeks into Lockdown 3, and still waiting for an announcement regarding its end. An announcement is due on 22nd February. Restrictions mean we can not travel more than 5 miles without a valid reason, meet up with other households in or outdoors and definitely not stay away from home.

So far, there’s not been much to write about…. We’ve updated our blog site, cleared out the motorhome garage, watched more television than we should, played computer games, and puzzles on paper and still we’re not done! We have a few tasks to carry out, but they’re outdoors tasks and require the air temperature to be above 0°C and dry! But, we’re very fortunate to be safe and well, quietly tucked away in our little parking spot.

This week the weather has turned very cold and snow arrived on Sunday and carried on until Thursday, with some thaw and refreeze inbetween, making some walks a little more hazardous than others! On top of the snow, we met Storm Darcy, with strong cold winds and more snow. The temperatures this week, have been below 0°C continuously, with a wind chill taking it to -11°C one night.

We’ve found various little gems on the dog walks, from wall art to old cars and the first signs of Spring (before the snow)! We use this time to train Reg, although the weather hasn’t been to favourable to do too much. Don’t get us wrong, we’re not southern softies, but the fields have turned from waterlogged mud baths to a frozen wilderness. Reg likes to lick the snow and ice, before completely turning into a looney – we’ve put it down to brain freeze (or ice-cream head)!

On a positive front, we’ve now got over 500 followers, across all platforms – we thank you all for your support. We know we’ve not been to active recently, and our posts have been few and far between. This lockdown, seems to have affected us a bit more and although we’re safe and well, we’re definitely feeling our wings have been clipped and we’re itching to get back on the move. Where and when we’re not able to plan yet, hopefully the Government’s announcement in a week (or so) will enable us to start thinking.

Hopefully, our next post will be more positive, the weather might have got warmer (hopefully without rain but…), we might know when we can leave Lockdown and our parking spot and vaccinations might be on the horizon. Thank you, again for reading and your support. As always we hope you and your families are safe and well and there is some hope on the horizon (fingers crossed). We’ll be back with an update soon….

2021 continues: Another two weeks in Lockdown, and no end date yet!

Three go Travelling

We’re still locked down in our little parking spot. We’re safe and well so we do have that to be thankful for.

Storm Christoph hit the UK, this week. We weren’t too badly hit in the south, but know there is a lot more damage up in the North,almost a year to the day that we hankered down outside Valencia, trying to avoid the fierceness of Storm Gloria.

Reg had his first birthday, this week. It seems like we’ve had him for so long now! Although, he has only had minimal travelling, but has certainly seen a lot of England and a bit of Wales. He has so far spent five months in Lockdown, with us, and we are looking forward to being able to travel freely (and safely).

We haven’t been able to go out and about too much. The local parks and nature sites are too busy with people to be able to safely venture too, when the weather is fine, when the weather is bad (it is January), you don’t want to venture too far. We’re hoping the weather might improve slightly and we’ll be able to get out on the bikes and get Reg back into the trailer.

We are missing our time in the sun, our memories on Facebook, keep reminding us where we were this time last year, but we’re trying to be positive and getting ready for a tour. Where and when are still undecided. We are waiting to get our vaccinations, hopefully we won’t have too long to go (fingers crossed)!

Thankfully, our families are on the mend. The COVID affected are on the mend, still not 100% but back to work and out and about. Fingers crossed the fractured wrist has healed and the plaster will be off in a few days.

As always, thank you for reading. We hope you are safe and well, and surviving Lockdown Part 3. We’ll be back with more news (or no news) soon, stay safe..

2021 and a New National Lockdown – Tier 5

Three go Travelling
Another Day …. Another Place… A DIfferent Year 2019 – Norway

We had thought there would an extension of the Tier 4 Restrictions until the end of January, but this week the announcement is we are entering a National Lockdown (Tier 5) until at least mid February! More bookings to change!

We feel a bit more positive than in previous lockdowns, perhaps as we’d expected it, we’re not sure, but five days in and we’re surviving. We might have to review at a later date!The weather has been relatively nice (cold but sunny-ish), which might have helped. There had been snow forecasted, but it never arrived.

Not bad for a year of Lockdowns : Countries – Spain, Gibraltar, France (and England & Wales)

We’re settled into our Motorhome and have been purchasing a few items, we know we’ll need when Lockdown ends and we can set off again. Thank you family for our vouchers! We’ve bought Reg a new trailer. This time it’s a proper dog trailer, that hopefully he can’t get out of. It’s only just arrived so we’ve yet to put it together and try it out, but I’m sure you’ll see it here soon!

New Year’s Celebrations (and a wedding Live on YouTube from the USA):

Another of our purchases was a 2021 road map of Europe. Are we being too optimistic? We know what we need to do to take Reg abroad, and our Vet can assist with that – he had his Rabies vaccination at the end of Lockdown 2. Opening the map, was a bit like entering a Sweet Shop for a child, the possibilities are endless. Our plans for 2020 are still in our minds, we had hoped to go to Ireland, Scotland and the Hebrides, possibly even the Shetland and Orkney Islands, so that’s one trip. Another would see us retouring Spain and Portugal, hopefully being able to spend Christmas back in Spain and a third could take us to the Eastern side of Europe – Poland, Hungary, Romania and beyond… Travel after Brexit won’t be as free but keeping an eye on the non-Schengen countries will assist with the amount of time spent on each trip, but we know everything is dependent on being allowed to travel post-COVID.

Reg continues to grow (more mature than size-wise), we’re keeping him active each day, he gets a few walks and training along with playtime, hopefully his recall will progress too. The last session, resulted in him running off across a rugby pitch with a bottle he’d found. He did return but….!

Butter wouldn’t melt!

We’re hoping to be able to take the bikes out soon, the weather has been just too cold (today was -2°C, with a feels like of -4°C) plus our local football team were playing in the FA Cup on the TV, so a must to watch.

General life and chores continue regardless of lockdown, although we’re trying to get food delivered as much as possible to prevent us being exposed to the new strain of the virus. Each time I think about it, it seems like something out of a sci-fi book or film we’ve watched, not real life! We have to stay positive and await our turn for the vaccination.

Dreaming of Travel:

Our families are so close but we’re unable to see them (no doubt as you are too), which is additionally hard with a new granddaughter and one of the sons and his wife testing positive to COVID-19, and having a bad time with their symptoms. We have had to change our bubble already, due to my (Sarah’s) mum’s fractured wrist and having to support her.

As always, thank you for reading, Lockdowns do suck, but they are there to try to keep us all safe. We hope you and your families are safe and well, with as much support as you need. We’ll be back to keep you updated with our news and plans soon…

Good Bye 2020 – Hello 2021

Three go Travelling

Happy New Year!

We had hoped to be spending Christmas and New Year 2020 in Spain, but Coronavirus put paid to that idea. Instead we’re in our Lockdown Parking Spot, as our home postcode went from Tier 2 to Tier 4, on Boxing Day. We’re not surprised or too down about it, we’re safe and well as are our families too, barring a COVID-19 scare and a fractured wrist!

2020 was not the year we expected! I don’t think it was for anyone. For years we’d planned our travel adventure and nine months in, it was curtailed. We’ve still managed to do a few things this year, regardless.

2020 – in a nutshell:

Having said goodbye to Albi in Spain, in January, we returned to England in March and picked up our new puppy, Reg, It might seem quite a short time between dogs but we realised in the two months on the road, life wasn’t the same without one. Reg is not Albi, despite being the same breed, they are totally different!

Spain and Gibraltar: We loved exploring the coast and mountains. We have got several places we want to return to and hopefully Christmas 2021, can be spent out there.

France: Travelling back along the Canal du Midi up to Bordeaux and on to the most westerly cap, in Brittany before turning right and heading along the English Channel.

Lockdown 1: three months with a new puppy in a car park, was entertaining, but we survived. Reg started puppy training, we took advantage of the good weather and the garden. We went out on our bikes and generally, survived!

July – October: We took advantage of being able to travel and visited much of England and Wales. We avoided hotspot areas and were able to see some places, we’d never been to before.

November – Lockdown 2: We returned to our car park, the prospect of another stay here was daunting, but we knew we could get through it. We had planned to be relatively local, anyway, awaiting the imminent arrival of our first granddaughter (she is actually the sixth grandchild, but the first girl in 30 years!). We are slightly biased, but she is a beauty.

December – a mixed bag! We rescheduled our campsite from November to December, We travelled locally and stayed at some places, we’d usually deem to close to stay at (we could day trip from our old house!). We made arrangements for Christmas and New Year, before changing our plans as the sites we wanted to go to were placed into Tier 4 and closing. Then, the big one on Boxing Day our location and our home address went into Tier 4 too. The campsite was closing, so we had to return home to the car park for the New Year.

We’re hoping 2021, is a better year for us all. There is a hope with the roll out of the vaccination programme. We’re planning our adventure for 2021 and hopefully we’ll be able to see it through, but it’s more important that we stay safe and well. Thank you, as always, for reading, we’ll be back in 2021.