This weekend saw us heading North for a change, to the village of Longhoughton near Boulmer.
I had located a small farm CS site with hardstanding, so it should serve us well for this trip. After a pleasant journey there, despite the A1 roadworks, we arrived and found the site with two other caravans already there. Not quite sure on where we were supposed to pitch due to there being no hardstanding left, I rang the site owner Caroline who promptly came out to greet us. She was a little surprised too with the arrangement, as I understand the last caravan to pitch wasn’t in the correct place, newbies with a new van – honestly 😉
Anyhow, Caroline put us on some grass which didn’t bother us. I still had hard standing up to the pitch so traction in the mud wouldn’t be a problem. After an S snake of a reverse to get onto the pitch we duly started setting up. It hadn’t rained for a few days so the ground was fairly firm. The unico 6 in 1 was also admired by a fellow caravanner. Upon switching the heating on we soon discovered the trip levels for the site! Tripping once I went out and switched sockets as I couldn’t see any trip switches to reset. Upon tripping it a second time I was now without power on both outlets. So a quick call to Caroline and the location of the MCB’s was revealed. They were hiding in a wooden box placed behind pitches 2 and 3. So a quick trip across, invading the rear of pitch 3 and I found the little devils and returned them to normal duty! All utilities connected and a careful balance of electricity between all appliances and we launched into tea and settled in for the night.
Sunday, egg on toast, our official Sunday morning breakfast now and then off for a walk. After setting off I realised I had forgotten to bring the map, not a good idea! We headed through the village noting quite a lot of houses but nothing else much, apart from a spar! We turned back at the end of the village and headed back to the caravan. We were going to go to Boulmer, but without the map I decided a drive there would be the best option. So when we returned we took the car to Boulmer. We passed the RAF site and then discovered that there really wasn’t much in Boulmer either, just a lonely pub right on the sea front. So we soon returned back to the caravan.
The site has basic facilities, a little wooden hut containing a toilet and sink which is also partitioned off for an information room on the other side. Next to this was the drinking water and elsan point, no grey water disposal. All perfectly adequate, a good idea was the outside light which came on when the toilet was occupied. The surrounding fields had horses which were regularly brought through from stable to field. Geese were also loose on the site and boy do you know they are there. I don’t know what a gaggle of geese gabble about, but they do it very loudly at early hours of the morning. The nearby East Coast Mainline pails into insignificance in comparison of noise levels!
Sunday lunch for tea, nibbles, garlic bread, crisps, two films watched and Sunday was pretty much over again. Sunday night brought the rain, which didn’t stop all through Monday morning, so packing up was a little muddy. But what the heck, we are prepared for such eventualities! We were soon back on the A1 heading back to storage. A nice weekend, pleasant site, only two more weeks and we’ll be back on the road again!
- Date: 14th February 2015
- Nights: 2
- Pitch #: 5
- GPS: 55.422242, -1.619228
