Escape from the weather

Winter proper started here in East Yorkshire mid-November.  Frost followed by snow followed by yet more snow and ever lower temepratures.  Normally we try to get away for a holiday in January or February, before the season proper starts, this year I suggested, why not holiday before christmas? 

Where shall we go at such short notice, where do we actually fancy going to?  As many of you will know, we visited Kenya back in Februay 2010, stopping for once in what is termed a  proper hotel.  The ones that have piped musak absolutely everywhere, the ones that have buffets positively growning under the weight of vast amounts of frankly, booring food, you know the ones that have organised activities and have large perimiter walls & fences to keep the locals & wildlife out. So, after scrabbling around on Trip Advisor and researching flights out of Humberside our local airport, we decided to go to Kenya again, this time staying in tents and trying our hand at what can only be termed 'Glamping' at Gazi Beach Retreat.

We booked our flights independently with KLM from Humberside via Schiphol & then on direct to Mombasa the accommodation through africasky.com.  All pretty straight forward really.  We duly arrived at Moi International Airport, Mombasa obtained our visa, collected our bagage, cleared customs and then walked out in the bright sunlight and tropical heat, from -10C to 35C not much of a temperature shock really?  You know when you fly somewhere and then walk out through the arrivals door you see people holding up cards with names on? Yes, well there was no one there with our names on.  Yes, OK we were'nt so daft as not to book transfers.  Fortunately, we had contact phone numbers and began dialing, assisted by a very helpful young taxi driver called Simon.  The mobile phone signal kept cutting out.  It was Jamhuri Day, a BIG public holiday, everyone was partying.  Simon spoke to our contact who asked him to bring us to the resort.  So, off we went in a bright yellow taxi, roaring through mombasa at great speed, through the arched elephant tusks, over the Likoni Ferry, past the street parties, southward heading to Ukunda and then turned off to Diani.  Diani?

Turning south at the T junction at Diani, we drove past the high walls of the BIG hotels, where are we going?  Simon indicated left, pulling into the driveway of Galu Beach Retreat, security guard opened the barrier and in we drove.  Deadly silence.  We were met by beaming staff clutching trays bearing fruit punch for the weary and, to put it mildly, somewhat suprised travellers.  'You will be staying here', we were informed by the jovial Whitecliff, 'Doris is on her way'. as we were shown our room, and given a guided tour of the retreat.

We sat, sipping ice cold Tusker, looking out across the white coral sands and turquoise blue of the Indian Ocean.  We paid the Simon and moved in!  One look at that view was all it took.  Superb, awesome, fabulous.  So this was where we ended up, not really sure why we were here, but we didn't mind at all, in fact Farmer said he prefered this site much to the relief of our new best friend Doris, was somewhat relieved to discover that we weren't bothered at all about the morning's potential disarster!

Galu Beach Retreat is owned  run by Destination Adventures Kenya whose other resorts include, Gazi, The Cove and Sable Valley Tree Houses.  All the resorts are pretty small, no more than 8 rooms each l think, hence us booking.   The meal plan is all inclusive, OK l hear you groaning, but this was AI with waiter service, choice of menu and you could eat either in the treehouse banda or ourside your room, we chose the former.  The place is so relaxing, no need to 'dress' for dinner or slap on the make up, this was my idea of heaven.  I would have gone barefoot all week if the pathways wern't so hot!

The rooms themselves were of a good size & for life's little luxuries there was air conditioning.  There was decent sized bathroom [though the original taps were a bit of a pain to use], proper fridge filled with soft drinks / Tusker plus the really nice touch of a water dispenser, nothing is worse than being somewhere hot and having to keep buying drinking water. The bed, traditional Lamu style, came complete with mozzie nets. The covered terrace with comfy day bed was a favourite lazing spot and wasn't it great to not have TV or internet access or crappy music wafting past the frangipani trees.

I tell you what, the staff were absolutely wonderful.  Helpful, polite and happy, they even tried to teach us some Swahilli!  Asanti sanna!  Being a bit of a foodie, what is brought to you on a plate is of some importance.  Here the choice of food was fresh, local and cooked to order, not wearing a timepiece for 10 days, the only way l knew what the approximate time was, was when Sieed brought the lunch or evening menu for us to choose from.  Oh, and it was so nice to have cocktails before dinner.  Cocktails whilst wearing flip flops how very funny!

 There were other facilites there, it had been an Holistic retreat before being taken over by the current owners, so there was a jacuzzi, some sort of fancy wooden yoga floor, star baths, [apparently you lie in a buble bath and look at the stars], mud bath and spa treatments.  I did let Phoebe have a go at my nails which she took one look at and then proceded to tell me off whiilst stressing the word 'nail file'!

Whilst stoping here at Galu, we did have one night up at Sable Valley inlcuded in our holiday.  These are two treehouses out in the bush en route to Shimba National Park.  The drive itself, once you left the tarmaced highway at Ukunda, are  along red dirt tracks and are really interesting.  Passing though small villages, seeing local people fetching and carrying large cans of water from bore holes or streams., the strength needed  to do this must be immense?  The houses were surrounded by vegetable gardens where they were growing maize, casava and other vegetables.

The tree house, well words fail me.  Ours was called ndovu in Swahilli, was heavenly, even the no door bathroom wasn't a problem.  We watched the sun sink behind the acacia trees, supped sparkling wine in the jacuzi, then tucked into our 3 course supper prepared by Sieed who came with us as chef.   Then as the bushbabies started to tune up & the geckos emerged from the grass roof, the large mosquito covered bed was rolled out onto the veranda for us to sleep in under the stars.  It was like being 6 again and camping out in the garden and this time there really were wild animals at the bottom of the garden!

The following day after breakfast, we set off to Shimba National Park and spent the morning spotting game with Moulai.  Propabley the best bit was watching the pygmy elephant in the undergrowth.  Yjere he was totally oblivious to the world, calmly stuffing his face full of greenery - and forgetting to chew, when all of a sudden a large agrigate lorry thundered past.  Up went his tail and he began thrashing through the undergrowth trumpeting away.  Poor beastie was terrifield!

 

Our last trip our was 45 minutes south to Gazi, where we took motorboat trip through the mangroves  followed by a guided walk along the  Women’s boardwalk  which was really intersting especially as you could plant mangrove seeds! 

The trip home back to Yorkshire went fine, we heard about the very low temperatures and airports being closed yet again so we were pretty lucky that our flights were unaffected.   We did however land in a snow storm at Humberside, there was 2 inches of snow on the runway!

Would we go again? In a word yes. This is a place to relax and totally switch off, with a ‘no news, no shoes’ feel.   Thank you Doris & your team for such a great holiday!!

The other thing is, my spell checker here on blogger does'nt seem to want to work, hence the mulitude of typos!  Sorry.

Update - Press Awards

So we went along, no l tell a lie, we sent Harry along [Farmer doesn't really like wearing black tie gear] with the promises of good food & a free night out.  As he left, he asked would he need to make a speech if we won? I casually assured him that he wouldn't, just shake hands, smile for the photographer then go and sit down.

I didn't hear Harry come in, but over a late breakfast shared with the previous evening's loot scattered across the kitchen table l was informed that a] the food was blurdey brilliant b] the tables were growning with bottles of plonk and c] he had to make a speech and no he couldn't remember what he said.  The award evening, Harry proceeded to inform us, were more MTV than School Prize giving.

So we are now proud holders of the York Press Family Business Award 2010.

PS: in the photo Harry is right in the middle of the shot stopping down behind a brunette [girlfriend] & blond who are in the front row.

Freezers, Awards & Gales

It's quiet nice really, the end of the season, a little more opportunity to have 'me' time, relax and generally catch up on things that get side lined during the Summer.  The ice cream parlour is now closed on Mondays & Tuesdays, whilst we operate reduced hours during the week, 11 - 4, but remain open as normal during the week end.  Don't get me wrong, we are still busy, wholesale orders still come in, farm shops & restaurants busy ordering seasonal & Christmas flavours, best of these seems to be the new winter flavour, damson & plum crumble with Christmas pudding coming in a very close second.

We have some new customers this autumn, with  Drewtons Farm Shop holding a very successful opening last weekend with Jenny providing samples of Mr Moo's Real Dairy Ice Cream to the shop's visitors.  It's really great to get direct customer feedback and with the new flavours going down an absolute treat!  Other major projects this year have seen the building of a new purpose built freezer room, this has made storage a much easier task with easy access to stock & reduced electricity bills!  We have also improved the visitor facilities for viewing the livestock.  Not content with the freezer room & barns we have also set up an anemometer care of Fastmast, to record wind speeds on the Hill Top field with a view to installing some sort of wind turbine.  So you see, nothing just stands still we are always busy with something!

On the farm, the sheep have arrived for winter grazing whilst the red polls heifers & Malcolm the Hereford are now inside for the winter.  The sheep today do look pretty miserable as the wind is at storm force and the sharp squally showers seem to resemble water coming out of a pressure washer.  The heavy seas at high tide have resulted in large chunks of the SSSI being washed away, ice age peat deposits stand no chance against the pounding waves of high tide.  The whole beach area looks as though a tsunami had struck, bolder clay, concrete WW2 defenses being strewn like balsa wood across the sand & clay.

Our seasonal staff have now finished with us until next year whilst Harry & Jenny are starting their Advanced Apprenticeships in food manufacture whilst the rest of us have updated our CIEH stage 3 food hygiene certificates.  Some of the photos on food hygiene were pretty gross, the worst being the man from japan who, after eating sushi for many years, had parasitic worms lodged in his brain...............

Well, there go, busy season, sales have gone well with our wholesale customers, we have had some good press coverage in several national publications, and on a whole the summer months have not been too bad.  Bookings are starting to come in for next year on the CL site, though we are now an adults only site, with Bank Holidays about fully booked.  Wish us luck for next Thursday as we are short listed for in the Family Business category in the York Press Business Awards.

Autumn vacation

Autumn came with a suddenness that we haven't seen for a while.  Past Septembers have been more Indian than an early launch into late wet autumnal weather.  Certainly up & down the east coast, the seasonal weather has been, well unseasonal to put it mildly, oh sorry about that!  I do really hope that winter in not going to be a repeat of last year's.  Snow & cold are fine if you are in the Alps & skiing but when you are having to work and rely on the public it is not so good.

 So then, lets get on with the blog.  As you may know, we have bought ourselves a motor home, couldn't afford the holiday cottage purchase on the North York Moors so plumped for a movable alternative. In previous Septembers we have flown south heading to the greenness of Corfu, this year we headed north, north to Scotland.  

I haven't really been to Scotland before despite having an ancestor marrying a Scottish lady, Miss C MacDonald, in the 1820s. Yer, wasn't too bad you know.  Yes it was very wet, the wind howled, the scenery when emerging from the mists was spectacular, the oysters from Kishorn were to die for, the tourist honey pots of tartan & shortcake were, well, not really my cup of tea.

I enjoyed the historic aspects, the harsh northern coast line, the painfully narrow roads that were blissfully empty, was that due to the weather?  Then there were the coach loads of Grannies............. Best bits? Thanks to rain, couldn't explore the Culloden battle field site, but l think the vast emptiness of the Western Highlands was pure tranquility. I really can do isolation, just me & the landscape.

We have been away since coming back, nipping down to Devon to have a look at some wind turbines cited on a dairy farm somewhere at the back end of beyond down a myriad of country lanes.  We have also, no Farmer, has some good ideas how to improve the CL site for motorhomes next year.  Amazing as to how many motorhomes we have had stop here during the summer, Haz thinks it is something to do with being over a certain age, elderly nomads?  

Half term is now almost upon us, Christmas seems to be coming at all local garden centers and  l have surcombed to the fist of the sniffles and sneezes, great.  We are already starting to think about next year, e have erected an anemometer to record wind speed, its standing in the Hill  Top field & already accepted by te local birds population who seem to see it as a rather good 'tree' on which to roost.  

The CL site is more or less closed for the winter, Caravans & motor homes can park at the end of the car park.  Next year we have made the decision to become an Adults Only site, a move widely supported by our regular visitors.  I guess it's just how things are moving forward now.  Footballs and sat dishes don't really go very well.

The dogs are scratching & howling at the back door, they aren't supposed to come into the house you see .  Gordon & Lucy-Piglet need to go and  chase more wildlife; they have been ratting this afternoon with Haz; L-P proved to be pretty good despite being a labrador, Gordon, well, not so good a bit like Anne Widdicombe on Strictly, tried hard but showed no real ability! 

Ladybirds& Filming

Now that the summer season is in full swing bringing with it busy roads and grid locked coastal towns, it is sometimes easy to forget that the farming calender continues to creep along in between rain showers.  Yesterday saw the last field of winter wheat being combined and field headlands baled before the evening's drizzle called a halt to the contractor's square bale machine.  

It always amazes me just how quickly the flocks of geese home in on the newly combined fields, a few small family groups soon become large, sociable  flocks honking loudly to one another as they come into land, an amazing sight as the evenings start to draw in, these large birds just skimming over the barn roofs, altering their pitch and air speed as they glide down onto the stubble.

Harvest also brings with it insects.  Some are OK others are not so.  Thunder bugs, great clouds of them swirl about your head, crawling everywhere on your person when you venture outside, wasps - certainly this is their month - don't they just seen to be all over this summer, haven't found any nests apart from the one that was smashed when the muck spreaders were here, but they just seem to love mr moo's, must be the ice cream?  Have you noticed the ladybirds yet? These little red & black bugs seem to be enjoying the coast, just keep munching away on green fly and other pests please, l noticed this morning that they were all over one of the rubbish bins, a black bin covered in moving red dots!

No, don't believe it, have a few moments of doing nothing time & the dogs start woofing, someone at the door, who needs a door bell when Gordon & Lucypiglet let rip with volleys of deep barks every time a stranger approaches their door.   I was going to write how busy Haz and Jen have been, well you know that, the car park that's been full most days as well, then there was an article in The Guardian newspaper plus the added excitement of the approaching Bank Holiday closely followed by the BBC filming scenes for a new adaptation of Winifred Holby's South Riding.   So not a lot happening really.

 

The above photo is of Haz and Jen plus calf.  They are posing, holding tubs of ice cream for a publicity shot, if you live in Yorkshire you may well see this pinned at point of sale in the ice cream display freezers belonging to Tesco.

Today

 

Today has been mad, no l correct that, ridiculous. OK, so it is august, yes the schools are on holiday. yes the roads are rammed pack full of holiday traffic all looking to go somewhere for the day, no, no l am not moaning about the stay-cationers, l am not actually moaning at all, merely stating that today has just been one of those days when things go wrong, pear-shaped, shit hitting the fan type..

It all began to hiccup last friday in fact, one of freezer vans was following a tractor and trailer on the road than runs across the Beverley Westwood, an open common found on the York side of the town and home to the racecourse, golf club and several small herds of beef cattle.  A popular place to stroll, indulge in strenuous exercise or walk the dog, not really the place to partake in agressive football target practice using bullocks as The Target or so you would think?  Well think again, herd of about 15 beasts average weight about 900kg, bored lads with football looking for something to do.  Imagine then, if you will, the cars slowing down, speed limit 40mph, as the small herd slowly walk across the road, a group of French visitors admiring the quaint English countryside when, WHAM WHAM, footballs whiz through the air, THWACK THWACK footballs hits the head of one of the animals as it slowly meanders along.  In a matter of seconds, the creature had spun around on sixpence, leapt about, well 3 or 4 feet into the air, coming to land, crump onto the bonnet of the Mr Moo van.  Moo crashes into Moo.  Moo van = right off Moo Animal galloped off, boys raced away hotly pursued by one very angry farmer.

So there we have it, one van down and that was last week.  This morning, no today at lunch time the replacement, C/O NFU Mutual Insurance, freezer van arrived.  It was late.  We needed it yesterday.  All today's orders were ready to go, ASDA stores in Hull together with Hull Truck Theatre then the original van to ASDA York, stress levels rising, do you get the picture? We asked that the freezer be turned on so that we could do a quick turnaround, no luck temperature was at +2, today was feeling more akin to the film Ground Hog Day?  Eventually, at last, finally, thankfully the van's temperature had dropped to be usuable, the ice cream loaded on board and within the last few minutes was able to head of with its cargo!

Well, l suppose no real damage has been done, except to our van, life continues, the ice cream has gone out on delivery and l have added three photos from yesterday, one of the Beach Huts from Shanty Town on the cliff top here at Withow, round bales in Colley's Field and one of our Red Polls.

Mid Summer on the Coast

Today the weather forecast is dry with the odd shower if we are unlucky, this past week, on one hand we have been lucky, the weather has been unsettled, which in lay man's terms means wet & windy.  Don't get me wrong, we desperately need the rain, the grass fields are looking to be droughting out badly but then on the other hand the hot, & l mean hot, dry weather of the past month have been wonderful ice cream weather bringing in the punters.  Don't we just love the English weather?

As it is a while since my last blog, can l say, what is it with not being able to upload photos from my pc, this business of web albums is a real pain in the butt, talk about time consuming and low broadband speed.......  So, l am writing before the pics up load & having a brain with the capacity of diving of on any tangent at any moment what l am typing will probably have very little to do with the photos.  At least the spell checker works.

Firstly, Harry &the Brandesburton YFC Team completed this years 50 mile Mega Hike in 23 hours, on what turned out to be a very hot Saturday in late June, 59 teams started whilst only 36 finished. A slight problem for them was that the course took place along parts of the Pennine Way, steep ascents and the like, the bulk of their training had taken place in the flat lands which are Holderness, but they did it with only one member have truly nasty blisters.  They raised over £1500.00 which is pretty good going l think well done you lot for doing the walk and the back up team with Hermie the Hymer getting a special mention for being such a uselful back up bus!

This summer we have had about 40 heifers roaming the stewardship grasses, free range so to speak, all well behaved bar 3.  These are new comers, from a farm near Bedale, and were completely wild.  I say were as they have now gone back to Harpham in disgrace as they did nothing but break every electric fence, knock over as many wooden fence posts as possible on the farm then proceeded to wrap themselves up in the wire or race up to the [fenced] footpath at full speed snorting, bouncing and behaving in a general ASBO style fashion.   The fields seem a much more relaxed place to be now, the dogs especially can root around without having to feel that they need to keep their tails clamped firmly between their legs.

So, news from the walk & the farm is suitably updated, so, how's the ice cream & Mr Moo's doing?  In the ice cream parlour, our new crop of Moo Team Members are settling in nicely, having quickly picked up the art of the perfect Cowpat or making that superbly frothy cappuccino or quickly clearing & cleaning tables before the next batch of customers arrive looking for a seat.  As Captain Cook says 'we have a real good team on for this year!'.  We mustn't forget either the hard work put in by Mr Moo and his wholesale & delivery team, speeding up & down the coast delivering ice cream and meeting with new customers, Mr Moo A boards are appearing all over & l have heard a rumor that there is a facebook exercise to attempt photograph Mr Moo's ice cream  in as many places as possible.

So finally, l come to the last paragraph, the summing up is it or something like that.  It is wonderful or even F.A.B. to have a Proper Summer, sunshine, temperatures in the 80s, blue skies, sun burn which in turn it is  great for business that so many people are not traveling into the Euro zone for their holidays; we are almost fully booked for all of July on the Caravan Club CL site, many visitors being first time caravaners.  Lets hope that this week's blip in the weather is just that, a blip and in a few days time the weather is back to  'temperatures above average for this time of year'.