Cup O' Tea in the Morning

Saturday - June 11

Neighborly neighbors! It's another sunny morning (we know that won't last). But the brightest part of the morning is our neighbors. As we are breaking camp, a woman comes over from one of the caravan units. She feels sorry for us that we had to endure the rain last night, and offers us a hot cup of tea.

Julie, her son Elliott and husband Peter are also "on holiday". Elliott has a new camera and wants to try it out by taking our picture. I take their picture in return, and give them my blog info and e-mail so he can send it to us. We chat for quite a while before heading out for the morning. Another wonderful moment to treasure.

There is certainly a lot of history in Portsmouth. Since the 15th century, the port has seen many conflicts. We travel up the beach and see long walls of defense with canons at the ready. There are several man-made islands in the bay with small forts. Here I am with the Spinaker monument in the far background, and another monument to maritime fighters just behind me.

Our destination today is a campground outside of Romsey, a small town past Southampton, about halfway between Portsmouth and our base of Salisbury. We reach Fareham and realize that we have some distance ahead of us, and opt to train the rest of the way to Romsey. Good idea, as after Romsey, those pesky roundabouts get us turned around and about a bit until we finally get on track and find the campground.

I should mention that the campgrounds in the smaller villages, or in the countryside, are much friendlier and less adamant about "one tent per pitch." The very nice lady here only charges us one fee for both our tents. She does admonish us though to, "Put your tents on the grass, not on the bare patches. We get a lot of rain here and wouldn't want you to wash away!"

A dinner of lamb burgers, rice, and sauted broccoli with onions finishes out the day. The sun is setting and it is getting a bit chilly, so it is time to turn in. Tomorrow it is back to Salisbury, then just two more days until my holiday ends.