What a great weekend we had on our first camping trip. The journey got off to a bad start though as we got stuck for over an hour on the M6 near Warrington before we came off onto the M56.

We stopped at the end of the M56 for coffee and to let Boris out for a walk and immediately were hit by people with the usual questions. Unfortunately, we’d not had chance to print out the FAQs so had to field them ourselves.

Onwards towards Wales and it was all plain sailing although there are a lot of roundabouts on the A5. You just seem to get going when you’re having to change gear again. The good news is that I’m getting used to having gears again (after years of automatic cars) although Absinthe seems to prefer 4th to 2nd quite a lot!

The campsite, Foxholes Castle, at Bishops Castle was great even though there were no hook ups. The fact that you can walk into town on the Shropshire Way (only 10 minutes there but 20 uphill beer fuelled minutes back!) is a real plus.

We walked in again on Saturday morning for the Farmers Market but as there were only 3 stalls outside it was a bit of a disappointment. There were a few more in the Town Hall but not what we were expecting.

The people in the town were very friendly and I’d recommend it to anyone fancying a quiet weekend away.

I’d definitely recommend the Three Tuns brewery and pub. We went in about 5pm and enquired about food. They don’t start serving until 7pm and we managed to reserve the last table available.So what to do for 2 hours before we could eat….

120 minutes later I’d worked my way through the selection of bitters and had a pint of mild, shared a bag of crisps with Boris and watched Mrs B drink her own weight in Amstel! The steak was fantastic and Alison’s Morrocan Lamb was even better.

We staggered back to Absinthe and were in bed before 10!

On Sunday we woke to bright sunshine, packed up and drove to Ludlow. Again, a top place, with an antiques and flea market in the main square.

All in all, it was great weekend. Things we’ve learned:

Make sure the van is level – even a slight tilt front to back made sleeping not quite right

You can remove ticks from a schnauzer’s head with your wife’s hairclip!

Copious amounts of beer should only be consumed after you’ve bought a portaloo!