A new venture for us after 7 years of touring, we’re spending the New Year weekend in the ‘van! With the dynamics of family life changing with children growing up etc., we’re in the position to get away for the weekend. So again a local site was required that’s open all year, and Finchale Abbey seemed the natural choice as we normally go there at the end of the year but failed to do so this year due to other commitments.
We packed Friday morning and then the snow began to fall and the temperature was at zero. Hoping it would be just a simple flurry we soldiered on, picked up the ‘van and headed for Durham. The weather got worse and we were soon travelling in the worst snow and ice we had ever been in with the ‘van. After a cautious journey to the site we arrived in duly booked in. Again, we had booked a serviced pitch to make use of the 16A. However the ‘T’ sites are up a hill and around a bend, which was covered in freezing snow. I made an attempt at the hill, but lost traction on the bend and started to skid towards the embankment. Not wanting to pursue this any further upward I tried to reverse the ‘van back down the hill. But gravity won out and forced the caravan to simply head toward the toilet block. After slipping back some more I decided a change of action was required. This was to unhitch the ‘van and use the mover to correct the angle and take her back down the hill. This we duly did and then re-hitched the car to take us to our new pitch which we had been offered, namely B3 which was at the bottom of the site, much better! Unfortunately however, this pitch has a rather severe drop onto it from the road which would have grounded the ‘van. So after some mover, manual pushing and finally back on the car, we eventually got the ‘van sited. That was the hardest arrival we’ve ever had to deal with in our 7 years, but all ended well.
Despite being a serviced pitch, B3 has no water supply, so a trek to the service block it was (uphill!), only to discover that the pipes were frozen, so no water. Returning back to the ‘van our neighbour offered the use of the supply on his pitch, so we managed to fill up. The rest of Friday we spent in the ‘van and relaxed on this most unusual long weekend.
Saturday, the snow was melting, but we decided on a ‘stay indoors’ day and just enjoyed our free time with books, films etc.
Sunday, New Year’s Eve. We headed for church in the morning, thankfully all the snow had now disappeared so it was a very pleasant drive. More relaxing and then night time came, any activity? Well there was a residential party going on in the hut next to the toilet block, but nothing else, very quiet in fact. So New Years’ day came and we packed up and headed home, on dry roads!
We’ve been to Fincahle now 5 times. It’s getting expensive at £29 per night now. The hills and sloping pitches don’t make it easy if the weather is, snowy and icy! It might be time to look for another winter pitch for next year, we’ll see.
- Date: 29th December 2017
- Nights: 3
- Pitch #:B3
- GPS: 54.817486, -1.540929
- Norham Road > A193 > A19 > A184 > A194 > A1 > A167 > Rotary Way > Finchale Road