Adventures With Harvey

This place is the pits! Yes, we’re talking about the small town of Blaenavon and Big Pit to be exact!   A former coal mine in the Welsh valleys is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was a fascinating insight into the whole mining industry and how so much of the Welsh culture & way of life had built up around it. The highlight of the visit is a trip 90m underground to the remains of the actual mine itself.   Although 90m sounds like a long way down, by coal pit standards it was one of the shallower ones – many were around the 500m mark with the deepest ever pit shaft in the UK being 1400m deep!   Big Pit had 26 miles of tunnels when fully operational but these days all but approx 1 mile have been blocked off for safety reasons.   However the remaining tunnels provided an impressive insight into life below ground and how the men (and, before 1842, women and small boys) lived and worked.   Also, until 1972 the coal carts were pulled by horses and ponies w...

Harvey is back!!! The update you’ve all been waiting for is finally here – joyfully, the old chap is back with us and firing on all 10 cylinders (yep he is a V10).   Despite recent news saying it would be next week at the earliest, the call came in around lunch time today.   So I write this blog as we excitedly sit on a train to the Midlands for a reunion with our mate.   To be honest it took a little while for the news to sink in but once it did, we noticed each other’s mood improve out of sight.   I don’t think we realised how much the lack of a Harvey had been weighing on us both, just the unknown and lack of future certainty. From here the adventure is back on!!!   This weekend is an overdue visit to our friends in Newport, then back in the other direction for a ferry sailing to France on Tuesday.   It’s no understatement to say we’re rapt to be resuming our ‘Adventures WITH Harvey’! The last couple of days in London have been lovely, ticking of...

On hold in London… but we’re not complaining! Nope, there’s still no Harvey for us to explore in, and I must say it’s testing our patience at this point.   When I ordered the part I addressed it to attention of Scott because he was the young lad who’d been helping us and was very engaged.   Of course, when I placed the order, I didn’t know he’d be away on leave last week and when the part was delivered last Monday, they thought it was a personal delivery… which I didn’t find out until Thursday the day before Easter and too late. Sigh. Today the prevarication at TMD Motorhomes Redditch continues, this afternoon they’re giving me the “it’s a short week and we’re short staffed” line again.   I’ll be honest and say they probably got 3/10 grumpy from Dave – there’s plenty more where that came from however as we sit here let’s just say they know my thoughts on the matter and I hope we’ll be up and running in the next day or 2. My apologies for the delay between updates bu...

Warwick to London We loved our time in Warwick!   Not just because of the spectacular castle and other history but also the friendliness of the people.   The good folk of the Cape of Good Hope Pub in Warwick befriended us and couldn’t have been more kind.   Sean gave us his famous personalised guided walking tour of the town pointing out a load of historical sites and info and also a big shout out to Steve and Emma who gave us the use of Fergie’s Cottage – I’d definitely recommend it if you’re ever in need of accommodation in the area. There is documented evidence of human settlements in and around Warwick dating back to 914AD however the area is likely to have been inhabited for several millennia prior to that.   Built as a walled and fortified town, you can still walk through some of the town gates and see many of the original structures including alms houses (early dwellings for the poor) along with many other Tudor period buildings and houses. The castle it...

5 April 2022 Adventures withOUT Harvey… for now Good morning from Warwick and a slightly warmer 11deg as we speak.   The Woodies are well and happy and most certainly enjoying our adventures, alas they remain sans Harvey L Firstly an update on the old chap.   The good news is that Jason was able to visit yesterday afternoon and, after a couple of hours with his head under the bonnet, has come up with a diagnosis.   I’ll put an addendum below with a little more technical information for those interested but for now let’s just say that one of 2 parts are definitely faulty and in need of repair/replacement.   There is a local company able to assess them so we’ll get that process underway this week and see what’s wrong and whether new parts are needed. So the short answer is that Harvey can be fixed, we pretty much know what’s wrong with him, and in due course our mate will be part of the adventure again but it’s unlikely to be within the next couple of weeks. ...