Country & western show, Malvern

This is our first trip without our lovely 'D' our border terrier who passed away peacefully on 11th August after a short illness. But we have a wonderful sketch of him which we will tell you all about later in this blog and so he continues his travels with us after all. XX

Country & western? We know, we are not really country & western people but we thought that it would be a laugh! We travelled across country to the Malvern hills and set up camp at the three counties showground.

Once we had set up camp we headed for a pub which we had found on Google called The three horse shoes which didn't look as good on street view but when we rode up to it, it was quite inviting after all so, we parked up and got a couple of beers.

On the way back to the van we stopped off at a pizza stall where Sue ordered her dinner and Andy went to the pie stall to get his. We didn't fancy cooking as we had been on the road for a long time and we were tired. Andy enjoyed his pie, mash and gravy and once Sue had finished her pizzas we got ready to go out, the free entertainment started at 7:30 but as it was the first night we weren't expecting too much!

Mmm, basically professional karaoke, but she had a good voice and it was free!

The next morning, Friday we woke up and someone had stolen the Malvern hills and replaced them with a load of clouds!

Breakfast done, we set off to check out the stalls and touched base with some of the people that we had met at other shows. There were some lovely vans and motorhomes for sale but out of our price range but we took a look at the different layouts to see what would suit us if we ever decided to change vans.

We didn't video the whole walk about as one stall selling motorhome and caravan accessories is much the same as another but we spent a good hour sussing out the exhibitors and met up with our friends who sell the window locks again, 'Lock M out'.

Back to camp and got the bikes out and rode to the North Malvern clock tower monument. A natural spring was discovered and in 1835 a local benefactor, Charles Morris, diverted the flow and built the tank to capture the water for the 'poor and uneducated' people of the village. Since then the clock tower has been built and then renovated so that it is what we see today. The water from the spring still runs.

On the way back from the clock tower we stopped at Aldi to stock up and then back to the three horse shoes for a pint.

Later that evening we went out again to have a couple of beers whilst we were entertained by 'The breeze' and 'Souls n stone'. We went back to the van before 'The best dressed cowboy/girl' competition!

Saturday morning and Andy decided that we should walk up the Malvern hills "because they are there", so we checked the map app and set of at a reasonable pace towards 'them thar hills'. Well, 3 and a half miles and 1,073 feet later we reached the top of 'Jubilee hill' and decided that that was far enough! Our legs had turned to jelly but, wow what views! 

Luckily, we found a different route back down to the showgroung so we didn't have to retrace our (Pixie) steps!

We showered and rested until it was time to go out and be entertained by 'Cash revisited'. We were literally falling asleep in our beer/wine but we managed to stay awake to enjoy the show before staggering back to the van and falling into a restful sleep.

Sunday morning and we both had a lie-in. That walk yesterday took it's toll. Eventually we got up and wandered over to the exhibitors area where yesterday Andy had discovered an artist who was doing drawings of animals and he arranged to have a drawing done of 'D'   On the way over to collect it we met up with a couple, Michael and Pam who we had met a previous Warners shows, and we had a pint  and a chat with them.

When we got to the artists area she had finished the drawing. Here it is and it is also at the top of this page...

We got the drawing back to the van and set it up on it's easel and then got on our bikes and headed for Upton village where Michael and Pam had parked in a lay-by before coming to the showground and we wanted to take a look for future reference. Upton is a lovely village/town with a couple of very nice pubs/bars and a lovely riverside setting. 

We sat and had a pint in the olde anchor which was open in 1601.

Monday morning came and it was time to leave but we will definitely return to Malvern to explore the hills and surrounding villages.