The Green Hills of Home

From the May issue of the Hawkesbury Parish News, a post about coming home from holiday to our Gloucestershire village

It’s always good to come back to Hawkesbury after any holiday, no matter how enjoyable. This Easter was no exception.

We’d just spent two weeks in our camper van, touring the flatter parts of northern Europe. It was unnerving to know we were often driving below sea level, but the flip side was it made cycling a joy. Taking our bikes off the back of the van to go for a family cycle, we didn’t so much pedal as glide. The level roadways provided the perfect surface for lazy, unmuscled cyclists like me.

While we loved the candy-coloured stripes of the flat Dutch bulb fields and the novelty of exploring new, unknown territory (to us) in northern Germany and Denmark, we missed the gentle undulations of home.

My reasons were not solely aesthetic or sentimental. I had a practical reason to yearn for them. I’d acquired temporary deafness in both ears. What I needed to effect a cure was a good Hawkesbury hill.

Townie friends complain that all the roads leading to Hawkesbury are single track. What they don’t mind so much, as they always come by car, is that they are also uphill.

Ideal for guarding against floods, I always think. But there’s a further benefit of all these ups and downs which, unlike flood prevention, never hits news headlines. As our camper van chugged up the homeward hill, the long-awaited miracle happened. My ears popped, and, at last, I could hear. Hurrah for our Hawkesbury home!

 

 

 

• I’ll be posting more about our Easter trip shortly – and also about the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival, of which I’m founder and director, which took place a fortnight after we got back from holiday. No wonder I’m tired out!
• I’m also writing a book about how to travel by camper van on a low budget – sign up here if you’d like to know when it’s available or if you’d like a free review copy prior to publication.

MORE POSTS ABOUT TRIPS IN OUR CAMPER VAN

• The Camper Van Salute – a bit like a secret handshake for those who travel in them
• The Collective Noun for Camping Cars – as they like to call them on continental Europe
• The Unusual Souvenirs of Camper Van Travel – about the bits and pieces that we gather on our travels