Greetings from somewhere in Oxfordshire...

Sorry I can't be more specific, I'm really not sure where we are it's been a long trip today and we had to keep going until we found a campsite that would have us.  They're a bit busier than we thought.  I'll backtrack to yesterday and bring you up to date.

We managed to make our train from Paddington in plenty of time, thankfully we bought our tickets the day before as it was the day of Royal Henley Regatta and Paddington was extremely busy as all the trains from London to Henley go from Paddington.  Great people watching though, very smart outfits, like Melbourne Cup day except many of the guys wear college blazers which are quite colourful stripes. Even managed time to find Paddington Bear in the left luggage office.

Lovely train ride through the countryside to Taunton, very friendly driver to the camper rental firm, which was on a farm at Ilminster. Sarah, the lady who runs it, was both friendly and very hospitable, making us a cup of tea while we set ourselves up.  Even left a fruit cake in the camper fridge for us.

Next the scary part, leaving in the camper.  Wasn't really too bad, we headed south to the coast at Lyme Regis, setting of the novel The French Lieutenant's Woman and centre of the Jurassic Coast.  The cliffs are famous for fossils.  Had a walk on the pebble beach and the Cobb, then enjoyed the best fish and chips I have ever had in my life.   Driving through Lyme Regis was a little frightening as it was single lane in parts, banged mirrors with another van.  

Next challenge was to find a campsite, first one we tried was full, as was the next but they let us stay in an overflow site.  This was after much complex navigation through the countryside.  We headed down a road which the guidebook suggested was not suitable for campers and had to do our first emergency 3 (+ a couple) point turn.  Have become quite good at them now.  Another wrong turn provided no turning opportunities so we had another unplanned drive through Lyme Regis, and opportunity to practice turns.

Today we set out for Bath, managed to park the van well out of the centre of town and had an enjoyable couple of hours wandering through this very picturesque town.  We then did a drive by of Stonehenge on our way to the more ancient and larger circle of stones at Avebury village.  

As our next destination was Oxford and Jane the sat nav had our route heading via Newbury we decided a detour to Highclere Castle a.k.a Downton Abbey was in order.  We knew it would be closed for the day but hoped to get a peek from the road.  Managed to pull up on the front lawn for a photo opp as carpark was empty.  We were tempted to set up here for the night but thought the neighbours mightn't be amenable to this.

An eventful hour trying to find a campsite has led us here to Greenhill Farm who surprisingly have free wi-fi.  Anyway enough for now, time to upload some photos and plan tomorrow.  We're all coping well but getting plenty of chances to Keep Calm & Carry On!