The Great Goodbye, the last time all remaining 6 A4 locomotives would be gathered together, at Shildon NRM. Where to go for the weekend? Fir Tree, near Shildon!
Fir Tree Caravan Park is a small CS site found in the grounds of the Greenhead Country House. It is easily accessed from the A1/A68 and provides space for about 7 pitches, 2 hardstanding for use during the winter months. We were given the hardstanding by the wash block which gave us plenty of room for the caravan and the car. Thankfully not as much rain as the last trip, so set-up was fairly swift and straightforward, fish and chips were cooking in no time!
Sunday turned out to be a glorious day weather wise, just perfect for a visit to Shildon NRM. Off we headed on the short trip to Shildon where we were soon greeted by a queue of traffic. Luckily an industrial estate near by proved a worthy car park for quite a few of us, saving the hour long wait to get into the official car park. First time we’ve been to Shildon NRM and I have to say it was quite impressive, even without the A4’s there. We had a good look around and took as many photos as we could, dodging all the other keen spotters and their DSLR + big lens cameras! A purchase of the obligatory thimble and off we headed back to base, a chicken Sunday lunch awaits us!
The site is just off quite a busy road, so a fair bit of noise was heard during the day, but we can quite easily switch off to this. TV and mobile signal both very good. CDP was a little drain hole in the trees accompanied by water hose, perfectly adequate. The wash block comprises of two toilets, shower and a washing-up sink. All perfectly clean and functional, no complaints here – although Cath found it a bit cold! The waste water drain seemed a little clogged, as emptying the wastemaster set off a little stream from the drain down the site into the road!
We managed to view a few movies over the weekend, including Robocop the original (1987), which we hadn’t seen in a long time, great film! The new lip seal that I’d put on the toilet seemed to work fine, no more dribbles on the way to the CDP! Free WIFI was also offered on the site, very useful! Not very quick, but usable!
A great weekend, looking forward to the next trip, which is a week long trip – hooray!
- Date: 15th February 2014
- Nights: 2
- Pitch #: 54.702110, -1.774577
- GPS: 54.702052, -1.774687
