Our weekend escape this time saw us heading for Bedale and the site of Burtree House Caravan Site. This is a small private site, catering mainly for seasonal tourers on the main field, with space for touring in the field behind along with a rally field. The site has one toilet block which is of a very high standard and was kept exceptionally clean all of the time. This is also where the grey water and chemical points are. A bit of a trek from the touring field but perfectly manageable.
Pitching up was fairly straight forward despite the fact we were located at the end of a cul-de-sac with no room to reverse the caravan onto the pitch with the adjacent pitch being occupied. So once again the mover showed its worth and eased the caravan into place. The ground not exactly even saw us use the 6in1 again. And before the clock struck 1, we were pitched!
Saturday afternoon and we followed our usual plan of heading off into the nearest town or village. So off to Bedale we headed. Bedale is a small village with the usual compliment of shops and pubs. It didn’t take us long to work our way through the assortment of shops and we were soon heading back to the caravan for tea, compliments of a frozen Sainsbury’s meal! Following which we absorbed some more great entertainment from the Olympics.
It had come to my attention that we were in fact within the vicinity of a lovely heritage branch line, namely Wensleydale Railway! It was therefore decided that Sunday would be spent there!
The line runs from Leeming Bar through to Redmire. They run both diesel and steam on the line. Luckily for us, steam was indeed running that day and to further enhance the experience, there was a 40’s weekend taking place in Leyburn. So after a little wait in the buffet carriage with a cup of tea and a sandwich, we were soon heading West on a steam train, bliss!
The engine in question: J72 class locomotive No. 69023 Joem
The 17 mile line has 5 stations in operation: Leeming Bar, Bedale, Finghall, Leyburn & Redmire.
On the return journey we stopped off at Leyburn to sample the ‘war’. Brass bands, military vehicles, steam traction, market – all very enjoyable. Concluding with some chips, we headed back to the station and did the return journey by diesel. A thoroughly enjoyable day! The evening brought more Olympics and once again we retired for the night.
The following morning, we were once again packing up and heading for home. Until next time …
- Date: 28th July 2012
- Nights: 2
- Pitch #: 54.313039, -1.629295
- GPS: 54.312221, -1.628138
