Touring

Another weekend escape with the caravan and this time we chose Hargill House, a quick drive down the A1 and easy access off the A66, perfect for a stress free break in the gorgeous land of North Yorkshire!

The site is fairly small, but very popular as a convenient stop-off for North-South tourers. With the weather being very typical British summer time, the site had experienced a lot of rainfall, producing some problematic manoeuvers on-site, therefore we directed to only one of a few grass pitches which were easy access, drive on-off. The one we chose was at the North end of the site, near the A66 so produced some road noise, but provided excellent views of the countryside. The pitch wasn’t exactly level, but with some careful manoeuvering we got the ‘van fairly level. We were going to deploy the Milenco aluminium leveller for the first time, but with the wet grass, we couldn’t get the leveller under the wheel! We weren’t far off level, so we decided to live with it and save the leveller for another day The service point was right next to our pitch, so that made life easy for the water management! Indeed, the toilet block was also near to us, so to sum up, it was a good pitch albeit being on a slope.

Reception sold a few basic items, which would have been handy as we needed some more ‘pink’ – but made a detour to a caravan store prior to collect, if only we knew! The toilet block is of the usual standards for the CC, not keys or codes required which is nice.

The village of Gilling West is only a short walk from the site, albeit down hill, so a bit more effort required on the return journey! There’s not much there apart from a couple of pubs, post office and a village hall.

Richmond is further away but provides a lovely day out. Plenty of small shops along with a larger Co-op if you run short on food supplies. Lots of good walking along the river Swale, a visit to the castle, the cobbled streets of the market square, the Friary Gardens. Plenty to do and see, well worth a trip.

The weather turned nasty following our outing to Richmond, and gale force winds prevailed. So in came the satellite dish and we battened down the Heki’s  to sit the storm out. A session on the Playstation, a good movie coupled with some refreshments and snacks brought the Sunday to a close. We were up bright and early the next morning, well the A66 traffic had begun! Our preparations to head home were well under way. The weather had settled, so an easy drive back up the A1 so us conclude our weekend outing yet again. Phone reports of the daughter not feeling well, vomiting etc had been received. Still, I expect it’s early days for us to escape with no daughter mishaps!

• Date: 12th May 2012
• Nights: 2
• Pitch #: 17
• GPS: 54.452736, -1.705019

For our next weekend trip, we chose to head North and try the well acclaimed Caravan Club site of River Breamish.

The site is easily accessed from the A1 and then onto the A697. A short road from the A697 takes you to the site entrance. We arrived around 12:30pm much to our surprise to find the reception closed until 1:00pm! Arrivals were from 12:00pm according to the club site, so we decided to head into the site and find our pitch. This we duly did and chose pitch #40, one of a group of pitches which are South facing. Once we had set up we went back to reception and reported our presence. A first for us was the fact that the toilet block was key less and code less entry, very nice!

The pitches are of usual club standards, nicely spaced and positioned. Service points adequately placed, although we noted one which was closed, so a bit of extra effort with the Aquaroll for that section of the site! The toilet block is worthy of note. Probably one of the best facilities we’ve ever seen during our touring days (ok, this is still only our second year – but I bet it will take some beating!). The block is like a small complex, with all the various parts accessed from one central lobby, so to speak. Full heated as well, bliss! Needless to say they were always clean and well kept, full marks here River Breamish.

Eager to don our walking boots, we decided to head off to Powburn, a walk of around 2 miles round trip which should get the appetite going for tea! The location of River Breamish is set in the remote farmlands of Northumberland, so lots of good country lanes and public footpaths to trample through! Powburn itself doesn’t have much, although there is a pub there called ‘The Plough’, where a good Sunday lunch can be had – something we may sample! There is a garage with a small shop which provides many of the basic necessities if required. Further up there is an antiques store, which is worth a little nosy!

Back on site, we noted that a fish & chip van visited the site on Saturday’s – that was that settled, tea would be coming from this travelling food machine! Time for a bit of Saturday night TV – aerial up and let’s see what kind of signal we can get. As it turns out, some channels are good whilst others are poor. Therefore I took the decision that the satellite dish would have to be deployed!

Now this has been rehearsed in the garden, I was quietly confident I could set this system up within 30mins and be enjoying Harry Hill, no wait that has finished, I mean ‘The Voice’, ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ & NCIS. First, the tripod was deployed and pegged down. Next, the dish was secured to the stand and angled as per the garden trial! Next the Humax was connected to the TV and the associated wiring completed. Next the Sat-Finder was linked between the dish and the caravan’s connection point. A quick guess and I had latched onto a signal. Back inside the channels discovered weren’t Astra 28.2 – so off to dishpointer.com and my trusty compass!

But wait, an internet connection is required. So a little diversion to set the laptop up. Out came the trusty 3 MIFI, switched on and – no signal! Indeed there is no signal here for T-Mobile either. So the only other option was to connect to the CC site’s internet connection. This I duly did and was expecting to be able to pay online and gain access straight away. But no, I needed a prepaid card from reception. Was reception open? I quickly made haste and discovered it was, to my relief! The CC site’s internet comes via way of pre paid cards of various denominations which are used as log-in session times only and last for 6 months, not a bad system in my books. So I bought a 5 hour session and returned to my laptop to gain access. This soon brought dishpointer.com to my rescue in order to discover the Azimuth reading – 147.6 degrees – a quick rotation of the pole and the Sat-Finder screamed at me again. Back inside and the channels being pulled in were looking far more familiar – Channel 4, BBC, ITV – woohoo, interference free TV and radio were ours for the weekend. The satellite dish had proved its worth for the first time, and probably not the last!

Time for tea and the chip van was calling. We went down, only a couple of people there so not much of a queue. We made our orders, took our delivery and went back to the caravan to consume our efforts. Very nice, but a word of warning, they provide a lot of chips! Far too many chips, it was a concentrated effort to consume this meal, not wanting to waste of course! Night fell upon us and time to retire to bed with NCIS. Not a very peaceful night, the wildlife seemed to come alive at night with many a bird a calling. Not a complaint, love the wildlife, but they were having a party, I’m sure.

Sunday, time for an outing in the car. Nearest town of any note is really Alnwick, so off we went. Not much open on a Sunday, but we perused a few shops in the couple of hours we had parked for. The route from the site took us through some beautiful country lanes, so the trip was very pleasant. Upon returning, we headed off on one the site’s ‘nature walks’. This took us by the River Breamish itself, very pleasant. Not much of a walk in terms of mileage, but a very pleasant outing in itself. There are plenty of other walks available as mentioned previous, but as the weather was turning, we decided to cap it at this smaller outing!

Purchases made for this outing included some suction cups for the shower, in order to hang some coats up. These worked well and provided us now with a suitable place to hang wet clothes and the like. A second oven shelf was also duly fitted, as only one is provided with the oven as standard. The Milenco Aluminium Wheel Leveller wasn’t deployed this weekend, as the pitch was very level. So we’ll save that for another time! In Alnwick we purchased some dedicated coffee, tea and sugar jars. We had been relying on a more temporary solution prior to this, but decided this would be a good purchase. Filling at home, using in the caravan and then returning back home.

The rest of Sunday was a nice relaxed affair and home loomed on the horizon of Monday morning. Where upon we hitched up and returned the caravan to its storage site and we headed home to begin the rest of the work week! A great weekend and a great site, we will definitely visit again.

• Date: 28th April 2012
• Nights: 2
• Pitch #: 40
• GPS: 55.445108, -1.920858

Our first full week away for this season and we chose Hillside Caravan Park, mainly because of the excellent reviews but also due to the fact that it was in Yorkshire and just a pleasant drive down from Catterick where our caravan had just received its first service.

The site is easily accessed off the A19, with just a short drive through the village of Knayton. This is perfectly passable with just the last mile causing caution, as it’s a single track road, albeit with passing places. Entrance to the site is via an electronic barrier, following which we were greeted by Pat, a very friendly warden who duly hopped on her bicycle and showed us to our allocated pitch. Most if not all of the pitches here are fully serviced including chemical disposal. They are of a good size, enough for ‘van, awning and car in front. Pitches are spaced quite nicely, with a nice ‘flow’ around the site, no linear regimental lines of caravans here!

On-site, there is a large grassy play area, perfect for the little ones to run around and play ball games safely. A small information hut provides all the information required on the surrounding local areas, attractions etc. The washblock is of an excellent standard, very clean. A children’s play area near the grassy section concludes the park’s offerings, but for us we don’t need anything else!

This was our fist trip where we decided to erect the awning! We were blessed with good weather, so following the initial trip and set-up on the Saturday, Sunday saw the dawn of the unpacking of the awning! We had already sussed the poles, following a trial run in the dining room. So we confidently laid them out and began threading the canvas through the awning rail. This went better than was expected, we had the correct orientation and the canvas pulled easier than we had anticipated. We had already removed the windows to make this task easier following advice we had read on forums and good advice it was! Next we began to insert the poles, all going well so far. The bracket pads were easily attached to the canvas. Here however we made the mistake of trying to tension everything too soon. We tensioned the poles and began to drive some pegs in to secure it. When we came to zip the doors in and fix the canopy, things started to go wrong and we ended up pulling pegs out and reducing the tension on the poles. Once we had done this and zipped the doors and fixed the canopy, we then drove the pegs back in and finally tensioned. Bingo, our awning was up for the first time and we were pleased. Very pleased, the groundsheet went down along with the Bolon  on top. Bliss, we now had some extra real estate, a mere four hours later! Regardless, lessons were learnt during the construction which won’t be made again and hopefully we can get the erection time down to a couple of hours, which will be perfect!

Purchases made for the awning included:

• Kampa underlay
• Bolon flooring
• Bosch 18v lithium-ion cordless drill (2 batteries)
• Screw-in Rock Pegs
• Awning rail lubricator
• Kampa Sabre 150 awning light
• Zappy bin

Thirsk is the nearest town to the campsite and boasts quite a few independant shops along with the ever formidable presence of a Tesco’s and and Lidl. Very handy for stocking up on essnetials for the holiday.Monday was market day in Thirsk and we managed to pick up a couple of items on our ‘must get’ list, including a lump hammer for tough hard-standings!

There is plenty of scope for walking in the area, which we duly did. The majority taking you through farmers fields and country roads. Naturally a little bit hilly, but walks could be kept to a modest distance of around 3 miles quite easily.

• Date: 24th March 2012
• Nights: 7
• Pitch #: N/A (54.297702,-1.305461)
• GPS: 54.297592, -1.305626

Well it was time for the ‘vans first service, happy birthday! Where has the time gone? It only seems like yesterday since we were perusing magazines looking for our ultimate touring machine.

As well as the service, the following was on the agenda:

• Wheels balanced
• Drinks cabinet door fixed
• Jockey wheel handle replaced
• Two missing screws fitted to dinette table

The outcome? Wheels were done, cabinet door needs to be ordered in as a warranty claim. Jocket wheel handle I forgot to bring in (oops) and the two missing screws not done! The ‘van was washed as part of the service, so came out looking as new.

So we will be returning again once the door is in stock and at the same time we’ll get the last two on the agenda sorted. But the good news is that no major faults were found and no damp! Hooray!

Our first outing of 2012 and we chose a site very local to us, so as to maximise the time spent in the caravan rather than travelling. We needed to get the ‘van ready for the season following its first winter in storage! This involved returning quite few items that we’d brought home to let the ‘van air and to prevent damage due to frost.

Durham Grange is literally just off the A1, so access is very straight forward. Being so close to the motorway, some traffic noise can be heard during the night, but nothing to cause any problems. Wardens were very welcoming and later on the Sunday gave us some good advice re a walk into Durham along the river, along with bus advice on how to return! Site is very tidy, mostly hard standings, some fully serviced pitches, toilet block very well kept. TV and phone reception very good, to my dismay, as we had just purchased a satellite system and I was keen to deploy it! But with such good reception from the Status, it didn’t warrant setting it up.

Regarding the walk into Durham, it is approximately 3.5 miles and follows the river Wear for most of the journey, very pleasant indeed. It does get quite muddy in certain places and does descend a little toward the river. Other than that though, a very enjoyable and pleasant walk. If you don’t want to walk back, take the number 20 bus back into Belmont, where a short walk across the 690/A1 roundabout will take you back to the site – take care though!

Our drinks cabinet door didn’t fair too well on the journey, as the plastic insert had fallen off when we arrived! Nothing damaged and it should be a simple procedure to simply apply adhesive and re-attach. The ‘van is in for its first service next month, so that can be added to the agenda then. Everything else working fine in the ‘van, so overall we are still very pleased with the Lunar Clubman ES!

There is a large Tesco’s just 10 minutes away, so stocking up on food essentials is simple. The shop on the site doesn’t sell anything, apart from toilet fluids, so be prepared. Security is the usual barrier gate, with remote control opening. There are a few axle spread speed humps, so keep the speed down as they create quite a wobble!

Equipment updates:

• New storage bag for the water mains adaptor pipe, to replace the bin bag currently in operation!
• Garmin 3790T sat nav has had some major software updates, and now works without any glitches in the trip planning.
• Custom hitch cover, after seeing our jockey wheel clamp handle fade to white, we have decided to cover it all up this season, especially as we’re back in the South of France for the summer. New handle will be fitted at the service.
• Mad Suspension Spring Assistors have worked well and have helped in preventing the sag we usually get when hitching up.
• New tow ball looks great, no more rusting looks! And not so much as a murmur from it, which we sometimes used to get with the old tow ball.
• Longer arms for the Milenco Tow Mirrors, much better than clamping the old ones on at the end of their reach. Nice find, wish we’d found them last year!

It’s been a great weekend, feels great to be back touring again! We will be back to this site, especially as it’s so close for us. Incidentally this has been our first outing without the teenager, sorry I mean our beloved daughter. The house has been left in her capable hands – only two problems, the hot water has gone off and their is no sound in the media room! Looks like I’ve got extra work on Monday!

• Date: 25th February 2012
• Nights: 2
• Pitch #: 17
• GPS: 54.795747, -1.530499

With our Hyundai Santa Fe being of the 5 seat variant, it doesn’t come with automatic suspension levelling, therefore I thought it would advisable to assist the rear springs a little in order to prevent too much sag with the ‘van hitched.

Following much research, MAD Spring Assisters seemed to prove favourable, so an order was placed! They duly arrived and I arranged for them to be fitted by my local garage, despite the claim that they are easy to fit! Maybe if you’ve got the time and equipment!

I have to say that the ride does feel more solid and hitching the ‘van up for the first time did reveal less of a sag. They claim that the ride height is not affected, but I noted a 2~3cm increase in tow ball height. Overall very pleased, a worthy addition to the tug.

A fully serviced pitch local to us for another weekend escape saw us visiting the Caravan Club site of White Water Park in Stock-on-Tees. A short journey down the A19 saw us turning into the site quite literally as we had left the Tees fly-over. Surely this site can’t be up to much, being stuck in the middle of an industrial town?

Well it can and is it up to much. Being situated by the recently developed White Water Course, the area is surprisingly remote from the commercial aspect of the area. The site as usual for CC sites is kept to a very high standard. Toilet block was very good. A games room also adjoined the wash block, complete with pool table. The fully serviced pitches are of a generous size and are surrounded by hedges to give that bit of privacy. We arrived and duly signed in, being greeted by a very friendly woman on reception. We were told to find our pitch and report back with the number and collect wash block keys. We chose pitch 7, reversed the caravan on, dropped the legs and began setting up. The pitch wasn’t exactly level, but it would do for the weekend! Grey water disposal, fresh water and electric were all provided by the bollards to the rear of the caravan. Once we were set, we headed for the Asda store just by the site, as we needed to stock up on food for the weekend. We normally do this prior to arriving, but with the supermarket being literally on our doorstep, we decided to do it when we arrived. You access the Asda store by following a public footpath which runs up the side of the site leading you straight to the supermarket, perfect! The route offers some very pleasant views of the surrounding nature reserve, along with the Tees fly-over and Transporter bridge! Stocked up with the necessary goodies, we headed back to the caravan and decided a trip to Saltburn-by-the-Sea was in order.

Saltburn-by-the-Sea is roughly a 30 minute car journey away. We arrived early afternoon to find it quite full! The car parks were all full on the front and people in their masses were down by the beach, on the pier, in the cafes and restaurants. We managed to park up by the town centre on a side street, not too far away and began the walk down to the beach. The descent down is quite steep, we followed the road, but soon discovered steps on either side, never mind – know for next time!

We decided to head for the Woodland Centre. This took us past the Saltburn Miniature Railway, which unfortunately looked closed for the season! When we finally reached the centre, it too was closed! Never mind, it had been a very pleasant walk on quite a nice autumnal day. The walk as it happens took as back very close to where we had parked, so we decide to head for the town and see we could locate out thimble. We found the train station (train fix #4), but alas no sign of the tourist information centre as promised by the town maps placed around the area. To conclude our visit, we decided that a visit to the Saltburn Cliff Lift was a must, so we made our way there. The lifts are apparently the oldest water balanced cliff tramway in Britain that is still in operation, very neat indeed! We decided not to go down in the lifts, but simply to admire them. Well at £3 per person one way, we felt it a tad on the steep side!

Heading back to the site, we returned to our usual Saturday evening routine of Harry Hill, Family Fortunes and X-Factor. That pretty much took care of the night! The TV reception on the site was very good. Other sites have been worse and have caused me to seriously consider the satellite approach! Well things are getting too easy now, need something to challenge us once again!

Sunday brought a lovely relaxed morning, a little overcast thinking our good fortune of weather was over, but sure enough the skies cleared early afternoon, just in time for us to explore the area and Teeside Retail Park! Well our teenage daughter was with us, so it was on the cards! The White Water Course was a very impressive site, we walked around it and also saw the Tees Barrage, a hydraulic barrier that is now in place controlling the Tees, an essential part of the infrastructure that provides the excellent facilities for water sports that the Tees now supports. A short walk over the A66, via some un- pedestrianised sections (look left, look right, check again, run!) and we arrived at Teeside Retail Park. Clothes shops everywhere, one teenage daughter was happy. Happily there was a Maplin’s store there, which gave me some unexpected enjoyment, but alas no model shops! Dinner stroke tea was unanimously decided and we headed for Morrison’s. We have always liked their café/restaurants – so in we went and as usual, we were not disappointed.

Returning to the site later on, we relaxed for the rest of the evening, watching some TV – not even watching a DVD this trip, now that’s a first! Refreshments, food, junk food – saw us collapsing into our beds for again the final night. Rabbits a plenty, even a fox was spotted in the greenery behind our caravan. It had been a very pleasant trip, we would certainly return as it offers a good base for exploring both the more commercial aspects of the area, along with the more relaxed and beautiful town offerings along the East coast. So with a fairly routing Monday morning, we packed up, hitched up and headed back for storage. Would this be the last trip of the year? We hope not! Weather permitting, we’ll try and escape again in mid November. There is simply so much to see and we need to make the most of our time in the caravan to ensure that we do!

• Date: 22nd October 2011
• Nights: 2
• Pitch #: 7
• GPS: 54.568506, -1.286260

Finchale Abbey Touring Park is located between Chester-le-Street and Durham, so is very much a local journey for us. Minimal travelling time ensured an easy start to the day. The roads to the site are all good, nothing too tight. Only when you approach the entrance does the road single out, descending down towards the barrier protected site entrance.

The entrance barrier is automatic, with parking for arrivals immediately in front. Reception is a small porch built onto one of the buildings just by the river. Here we received a friendly greeting, followed by the usual swapping of deposit cash for the combined toilet block and barrier swipe card. As we had booked a super pitch, we also needed a converter lead for their bollards, which are fitted with the larger 32A Ceeform sockets.

There are four fully serviced pitches, all very big with easy access. We were soon pitched and sat outside, enjoying the Indian summer that had descended upon England, with today possibly being the hottest day in October on record! The pitches are next to the abbey and overlook the river, very picturesque. The abbey is free to look around and also provides a small shop which offers chips and hot drinks. After our initial tour of the park we decided to source some food for tea. Apparently there is a pub within 10 minutes walking distance, but we decided to go into the Pity Me where a Sainsbury’s would offer us a good selection of food supplies for the weekend. The evening was wrapped up with a game of Scrabble and a film and once again, night fell on the first day.

Sunday brought a complete contrast in weather, so the chairs and table were put away and the heating went on! A trip to the pet store provided some indoor amusement, followed by some more Scrabble and films. We were joined next door by a motorhome later that day, newbies as it turned out! Before we knew it, we were offering assistance on the electrics and water. The couple had hired the motorhome for taking their son to university whilst also combining a tour. It didn’t help that the vehicle had been supplied without a mains EHU cable, I suggested they contacted the site owners who would surely have a spare to loan, which indeed they did.

Monday morning and time to leave, we packed up and hitched up. The ground around the hardstanding was starting to get a little low, so we pulled the caravan off with great caution to avoid grounding it. A quick visit to the reception to get our deposits returned and we were off, back to storage. Another very pleasant trip, another very pleasant site.

• Date: 1st October 2011
• Nights: 2
• Pitch #: B2
• GPS: 54.817486, -1.540929

The route to Silverdale Caravan Park would be our first trans pennine journey. With options of either the A66 or the A69, I chose my preferred route of the A69. A more scenic route with dual carriageway for a good section. The A69 is also lower in altitude than the A66 which would help with the winds which were predicted for the weekend!

Following a good journey we arrived in Silverdale and navigated our way to the campsite via some rather neat roads. We met a couple of caravans head on, but managed to squeeze our way through with some careful manoeuvring. The campsite is near Morecambe Bay and offers some fantastic views of the Bay along with access to plenty of walks.

We signed in at reception, which allowed the number plate security driven barriers to open and we were off, off to find our pitch. We were told to take any pitch we wanted, all were fully serviced, so we headed for a quiet spot in the middle of three adjacent pitches, all of which were empty. Plenty of room to reverse the caravan onto the pitch and before we knew it we were ready to set-up once again. This is the first fully serviced pitch we have been on, so two new toys came into play. Namely the direct water hose connection from Truma, provided with the caravan and some lengths of waste pipe, which I had purchased in preparation of feeding our waste outlets into the drain. Both were easily set-up and we were ready, ready to explore.

We decided the first port of call would be to check out Silverdale itself. This we did on foot only to discover Silverdale didn’t have much to offer other than the usual post office, church and chinese takeaway! So we promptly decided that a longer journey into Carnforth was required. This was too far to walk, so we looked for the bus stop. Failing in this task we ended up back at the campsite and discovered a bus stop on the site itself! Journey times weren’t suitable however, as we were pushing time late on this Saturday afternoon, so we took the car.

Carnforth is a small town just off the M6 on the main West Coast Main Line (train fix #3). It has a beautiful railway station which we visited, just by the shops on the main street. Following this, a quick trip to the Co-Op so us ready to head back to base.

The site has excellent facilities including: swimming pool; restaurant, bar, shop, games room and take-away. It was the latter we chose for teatime, selecting from a good menu which saw us returning to the caravan with some hot food, following a cool pint. We set the main table up and enjoyed the meal we had just purchased. Settling down for the evening, a couple of DVD’s were in order. The wind had already began to pick up, with some rocking of the caravan. The remnants of hurricane Katria were starting to show.

The toilet blocks were of excellent standard, by far some of the best we’ve ever seen. The chemical point is also located in here. For a weekend trip I have to say that the fully serviced pitch was a joy. Not having to worry about the water levels and just relax and enjoy the short stay was very welcome. With the weather turning, we decided that Sunday would be a day to stay on the campsite, enjoying some games, books and films along with a visit to the site shop. The take-away was ordered again for the evening, bliss – this is what a weekend away is all about. Heating on, and we were set for another night, with some more less gentle rocking!

Monday morning arrived and it was time to head back. It was time to head back soon! The winds were forecast to be very strong, and we needed to go trans pennine! This is the first time I’ve driven the outfit in very high winds and I’m pleased to say it handled very well. Keeping the speed well down we sailed through the exposed sections of the M6 and A69, with only a few minor wind generated course deviations. Back at storage we put our baby away and ensured all legs were fully down as the wind whistled around us!

• Date: 10th September 2011
• Nights: 2
• Pitch #: N/A
• GPS: 54.176667, -2.835492