Touring

A slightly different start to this weekend, as the ‘van was in for servicing at Motorhome Kings. So we picked the ‘van up from there on Friday and headed direct to Thirsk.

A lovely weekend at Hillside again, so glad it’s back on our radar. The pitches are really spacious and open in the new section and this is where we like to be!

Weather has been a mixed back over the weekend, from glorious sunshine to torrential rain and thunder storms. All good fun 🙂

Finally sussed out the ‘disappearing’ tv reception. The site is covered by three transmitters, one being Pontop Pike which our aerial naturally falls on due to the orientation of the pitches. This is a variable reception transmitter for here though, hence the sudden loss of signal, The other two transmitters, whilst being fairly consistent, lack a good signal and choice of channels. A satellite site me thinks now!

• Date: 18th July 2025
• Nights: 3
• Pitch #: 38
• GPS: 54.297324, -1.304653

We fast tracked in via a warden outside? Go figure that one. Then onto the new section of the site and found a nice pitch. Site was quite full already, but maybe a few will be going tomorrow. Setup was really quick as only a few things were actually packed away. Soon we were enjoying some cooler weather and the start of our second week of our summer holiday.

Sun: Early doors, great weather, perfect skies. I took a wander around the site and snapped some photos. They always look better with a blue sky! Then, following breakfast, we picked up some shopping from Tesco’s to top up supplies. Plenty of units have left today, so the site is a lot quieter.

Mon: Good weather again, so we headed off to the walk along the promenade of Bridlington. We parked in the Sewerby car park and then walked along into the town. It really is a lovely place, very clean and welcoming. In the harbour/town we stopped for a coffee and then returned back to the car park via the ‘Land Train’. This is a great feature and is a joy to aid in the adventure of travelling around the town and beaches.

Tue: Not a very good start weather wise, but regardless we decided to push on and visit the seaside town of Hornsea. This was a shortish drive south from Bridlington. There’s not much there to be honest, so we didn’t spend much time here. But we did enjoy a walk along the promenade and a coffee in the Hornsea Hub.

Wed: A pleasant start to the day. Had a coffee and a read outside as I normally do and then brought the laptop outside onto the table, to enjoy some alfresco admin! This worked well and will be something I’ll do more of in the future. Following breakfast we took a trip out to the South promenade, which we didn’t get to last time we were here. Again it’s a very nice place, a pleasant walk along the promenade. As usual, there are plenty of shops, cafes and toilets – all well kept, tidy and clean. This is Bridlington as a whole though, a well kept, active town. The council do a good job here from our perspective.

Thu: A visit to Danes Dyke today. This is just a 5 minute drive up the road from the campsite. It’s accessed via a single track (1 way), which then leads to the car park. From here you have access to walks and the beach itself. We did the latter, although it was quite a steep descent down. On the beach there are rocks a plentiful, with tremendous views across to Bridlington and Flamborough. We wandered the beach a while and then returned back to the car park, slowly up hill. A quick detour following this to fill up at Tesco’s, ready for the return journey tomorrow.

Fri: As usual, a final relax-on-site day. We cleaned the ‘van interior and then chilled for the rest of the day.

Sat: More good weather, pack-up and return journey home was fine. Wetherby was full, but we were advised to park in with the lorries by the attendant, so at least we got a break! It’s been a great week, we really enjoy Bridlington. The weather has been great over the past two weeks, in fact a little too hot sometimes. Indeed, Europe is suffering a heatwave at the moment. Looking forward to the next visit to the Yorkshire Riviera sometime in the not too distant future.

• Date: 21st June 2025
• Nights: 7
• Pitch #: 125
• GPS: 54.114394, -0.157315

Sat: Lovely journey to the site, good weather and traffic. We stopped as usual at Wetherby, enjoyed a good 1hr stop here, as arrival time at Flaxton was 2pm. It’s nice to have a longer rest than the usual 30min stops, taking things easier. We were parked next to a horse trailer, whose horse wasn’t too happy and kept lashing out inside the van with its rather powerful hooves! This caught the attention of a few vanners and the attendant, but the owner eventually showed up and left. Following this and a brief delay on the A64, we arrived at Flaxton Meadows. Entry is via a barrier which is monitored so opens automatically. We were then greeted at reception and shown to our pitch. A nice grass pitch in some nice weather, just what you want for your summer holidays. The pitch was serviced with water and grey water – empty somewhere on the pitch! The wind had picked up a little, so pitching the awning was a challenge, but managed, if albeit a little wonky!

Sun: Another nice day, wind has died a little, but first thing in the morning, it looked like France with the grass and the trees behind us. We chilled for the day and relaxed into the holiday. Unfortunately, we were parked next to the owner of the site, who stated that our car was too close to their van and needed to be moved in front of out porch awning. This didn’t reflect the instructions given by the wardens or the information sheet. A little off hand to be honest, but we’ll ignore that and enjoy the rest of the stay.

Mon: A trip into York via the Park & Ride, bus number 9 for future reference! We alighted at the train station and then waded through the road works to get to the National Railway Museum. It’s been a while since we’ve been here, so it was good to catch up again with what is going on. And by the looks of it, there seems to be a lot of development going on. We enjoyed a coffee and then headed back as the walking was getting a little too much for Cath. Weather has been great again. Back on site, I did the utilities. Elsan point is a one and only for the whole site and it’s just a toilet with push water and finger hose. So basically, it requires two hands to get the water out, so you can’t hold anything, not the best. Grey water is deposited on your pitch! Very French like, but makes life a little easier. Water on the pitch, so basically we are fully serviced. Toilet block is very nice, but not without faults. No private sinks, showers are push button and only one hook for clothes. Water temperature was a little hit and miss also. The two open sinks were a little tired looking, but functional. Music playing is always good in my books,

Tue: A relax on site day. We were subjected to a site electric failure at midday, so a couple of hours without the leccy. Not too much of a bother, we put the fridge on gas and then enjoyed the remaining battery life of our devices. Cath replaced the bungee cording on her Lafuma, which was getting a little worn after numerous years of use. Weather was more cloudier today, but still very warm.

Wed: Another relax on site day, as best as you can with the noise. The Pea Hen makes a racket from dawn ’till dusk. Road noise, works by the farm buildings, dogs barking – not exactly countryside peace. Weather this week has been just like France, a little too hot! No doubt it will rain next week.

Thu: A trip into York again, this time to take in a river cruise, something we’ve never done before. We picked up the boat at the station bridge, it was quite busy, especially with having a school trip on board as well. It’s a 45min cruise which takes you a little up the Ouse, down and then back to one of the two landing points. Very pleasant, especially on such a nice day. We called into the supermarket on the way back home to pick up a couple of things, filled up with diesel and then returned to the campsite. On the way back in one of the grass cutters shuffled up to my car which I couldn’t see being in a blind spot. So the warden again wasn’t too happy with this and we exchanged a few words. I’ve heard of bad wardens before, but this trip was making that very apparent of how some people shouldn’t be in a position of ‘power’.

Fri: Relax on site day, but finished the day with a games evening. It was a lovely temperature to sit outside in and play a few games of cards and connect 4 3D. Brought back some good memories.

Sat: A gentle pack-up and we left the site approaching 12pm. Weather was too hot again, so we took things as easy as we could. Thank goodness for the air con in the car. We had a good journey over to Bridlington and arrived just gone 1pm. The usual bottleneck at Stamford Bridge helps to delay the journey a little!

• Date: 14th June 2025
• Nights: 7
• Pitch #: 20
• GPS: 54.045385, -0.990777

Approach: A64 > Scotchman Lane > Bull Moor Lane > York Lane

Cheeky weekend time again. Nice weather and a new satnav to test out! The screen on this one is a little larger and makes viewing and entering details that little bit easier. So with this running sweetly we arrived at Durham Grange and swung straight in off the A690, first time not having to wait for a suitable opening!

Booking in was a little different, we were met by a warden who checked our details and then let us into the site. I have to say this is a good idea and helps prevent the inevitable queue that forms near 1pm. Indeed, the wardens all seem new, as I don’t recognise any of them, but evident that they are doing a good job. I noticed that the bollards have pitch numbers for the EHU points and the little grass area behind our favourite pitches has been reserved for a wildlife ‘no mow’ area. All good improvements and along with this, the reception has been renovated. After a while of becoming a little disappointed with the site, these are welcome improvements. Shame it’s still not open all year like it used to be. Oh, and twin axles are no longer allowed on the grass 😲

We helped a couple out pitching their ‘van on Saturday, as their mover wasn’t working and the gentleman was not of good physical health. Then as it turns out, they were on the wrong pitch, they should have been on a black marker and they had gone for red! What was nice to see were the wardens coming to assist in this situation. And rather than making them move, they swapped the pegs over. Good call guys 👍

A double whammy for helping out this weekend, as another caravanner pulled into the pitch next to us. This was a solo female caravanner, again with no mover – so we hand balled that ‘van into place as well. Luckily it was only a compact Bailey Discovery, so not too much of a workout. We had a pleasant chat and then left her to it. She had two dogs with her and kept losing them, but all good fun I suppose. Glorious Monday morning, packed up in the sunshine and headed for home. With thoughts of our summer holidays excitingly dwelling on our minds now.

• Date: 30th May 2025
• Nights: 3
• Pitch #: 19
• GPS: 54.795747, -1.530499

Back at one of our favourite local sites. Nothing planned as such for this outing, hoping to just relax and enjoy it following a busy few weeks. The weather is holding up with good amounts of sunshine, shame the mornings are just a little bleak. Regardless, we enjoyed alfresco meals for breakfast and tea, nice to be able to start them up again. Nice VE Day memorial here as well, good to see. There seemed to be quite a lot of wardens present on this trip, some old and new faces, all very pleasant as usual. Spotted a different pitch which we’re going to try next trip if possible!

• Date: 16th May 2025
• Nights: 3
• Pitch #: 73
• GPS: 54.568506, -1.286260

Collected the ‘van from storage, but as we were departing, a newbie couple were trying to take their ‘van out but had discovered that their tow car electrics were only 7 pin and not compatible with the caravan’s 13 pin plug! The onsite engineer loaned them a converter, so I presume they got away okay. But because they were blocking our exit effectively, we had to detour around the side roads of the site to bypass them. That’s a first for this ‘van!

Back at Durham Grange for a cheeky weekend away. It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these, in fact I was surprised to realise that it has been exactly one year since we’ve been here last. From being our most used site it has fallen from grace a little, following the site redesign and closure over winter, it has lost its elitist status for us!

One of the things we’ve never done here is visit the Belmont viaduct. This we duly did on Saturday. Weather being good, no rain for while so the path shouldn’t be too muddy, we headed out to find this mid 19th century masterpiece of railway construction. The walk takes you from the site, down to the river Wear and then a walk further north to reach it. Most of the walk is fine, but closer to the viaduct, things become a little more challenging, but doable. The viaduct stands at 130ft, so the climb and undulations can be hard at times. A trip worth making if you’re visiting the campsite. It’s just under 3 miles return journey, Cath collapsed and relaxed following this 🙂

The rest of the weekend stayed fine and warm, just a chilly breeze stopped more play outdoors! One improvement to the site of note is the removal of the yellow grass marker pegs. These pegs used to run along the whole of the road here on the back row and were a real nuisance when trying to manoeuvre your ‘van with the car. With them now gone, it makes pitching a lot easier.

• Date: 25th April 2025
• Nights: 3
• Pitch #: 21
• GPS: 54.795747, -1.530499

Fri: Great weather and a lovely drive to the site. We got held up on the A66 again, as we did last time, but we got through it and arrived in good time. We chose a pitch on the new section again, but this time on the higher level. After a bit of manoeuvring we were set on the pitch. Taking things easy, as it was quite hot, we eventually got everything sorted and enjoyed a drink and relax as we watched the other units arrive. Unfortunately one motorhome decided to park nest to us, blocking our awning vista. Never mind 🙁

Sat: A quick trip to the supermarket to pick up a few extra things for the BBQ we would be having later with Kevin & Carole. Quite surprisingly, you have to pay for parking here! We picked up the necessaries and then headed back to the site. Weather was a little overcast, but still very pleasant. We met our friends and headed off for a walk into town. We crossed the river and headed for the castle, avoiding the steep incline of the high street. We enoyed a coffee in Coasta and perused a few of the local small shops. Upon our return back at the campsite we enjoyed a BBQ and some banter. Following this we relaxed for the rest of the night enjoying a new film, namely ‘Ordinary People’. Quite a hard-hitting film.

Sun: Lovely weather again, but a wee cold breeze kept us from spending too much time outside. We just relaxed for the day, enjoying the site empty and fill up again!

Mon: A frosty start, so the awning was covered in ice. We weren’t expecting that, so back it goes home to dry out. A pleasant journey back to storage and another weekend over.

• Date: 4th April 2025
• Nights: 3
• Pitch #: 86
• GPS: 54.546167, -1.941226

Sat: A glorious day weather wise, we had a relaxed start and then went to pick the ‘van up. The site was really busy, there were 3 other couples collecting their units just in our stretch alone. First time we’ve had to queue to get out! One poor fella had a jammed wheel brake, which we managed to free up with a bit of reversing. Then another chap on the way out was suffering from 13 pin twist sync, which he didn’t know about. So I quickly deployed the ‘green cap’ and sorted him out. Then a lovely sunny drive up to Scotland, stopping at Gretna for a quick coffee as usual. We arrived at the site soon after, no queue in site and were shown to our pitch by the warden, by going the wrong way around! A bit of reversing and we were on our pitch for the week. These are typical C&CC pitches, so limited space for awning and car, but luckily in front of us, there were some ‘mega’ pitches, so we were able to park the car there. This used to be caravan storage, but have been recently converted to these ‘mega’ pitches, albeit no EHU yet!

Sun: The fab weather continues, so we enjoyed alfresco breakfast and tea. I even tinkered with the satellite as the site has limited TV reception (vertical polarisation). I struggled initially, but then discovered 2 faults, namely the wrong (changed) transponder frequencies and a faulty right-angled connector. Both of these rectified and we were watching freesat TV! The site was filling up again with a queue of units arriving at 1pm.

Mon: Weather has turned and the wind is up. The satellite dish needed tightening up as the wind kept blowing it. We spent the morning vacuuming the ‘van as it hasn’t been done for a while. Stayed indoors for the rest of the day.

Tue: The sun is back out, albeit a little cold first thing whilst having breakfast. We then took a tour of the village itself, admiring the wide street, once a cattle market! It’s only a small affair, but has coffee shops, takeaways, garden centre, narrowest hotel in the world, barbers, Moffat toffee, fish & chips and also just outside the campsite, a Coop and the Moffat Mill department store. We picked up a couple of things from the Coop that we needed and then perused the Mill store. All very pleasant and I’m sure popular with visitors to the campsite.

Wed: A bit of rain and snow this morning, so another inside day!

Thu: Weather back to good again, so we took a stroll around the lakes just by the campsite. Not a very large space, but pleasant enough. The lake was undergoing maintenance as it happens, so no ride on a swan boat this time 🙂

Fri: Fill the car up (just around the corner), take the awning down and reflect on what has been a relaxing holiday. The site is of a fair size and being open all year, will make it onto our hitlist. Especially just being 2 main roads away, inclement weather shouldn’t cause too much of a problem helpfully. The pitches are the usual C&CC style, with hardstanding for ‘van and awning, but grass pitch for your car. Although as mentioned, we were fortunate enough to be able to park the car opposite on some hardstanding. TV reception is okay on the vertical, but clear access to the Astra birds gave us all the stations. Toilet block was fine, plenty big enough and perfectly clean. Showers are push button, but there you go! Coop on the corner along with a high street just a 5 minute walk away are major plus points. Looking forward to returning.

Sat: A very pleasant journey back to storage, with clear blue skies and light traffic. Gretna services was empty of caravans so no problem parking. Enjoyed a very expensive coffee as usual, but that’s what we work for isn’t it!

• Date: 8th March 2025
• Nights: 7
• Pitch #: N/A (55.330015, -3.441372)
• GPS: 55.329764, -3.440671

Approach: A74 > A701 > A708 > Ladyknowe Court

Fri: Good journey down to the site, only 15 mins extra from White Water, so a good choice for these out of season trips. It’s an easy trip just off the A19, with only the last mile a little more precarious with it being a single track. We arrived in good time however without any problems. We checked in and were allocated pitch 50 on the super pitch section, different to where we were 13 years ago! These pitches are quite simply enormous and well worth the extra. They are fully serviced with water and grey water waste. We settled into the day after manoeuvring the ‘van on with the mover, as the site didn’t want any grass chewing, understandable at this time of the year. Snow fell later, making an interesting journey to the wash block 🙂

Sat: Weather a bit dreary, but we managed a walk around the site. I couldn’t recall much from last time, but it is a very nice site. There is a lounge section near reception where you can enjoy a cup of self served coffee along with extra toilets, coupled with information and DVD/magazine swap section. Wash block is excellent, no complaints there. The estate itself is vast with many walks available from the site. Something we’ll do next to time we’re here, in the better months of the year!

Relaxed and stayed onsite for the rest of the weekend. A nice dry pack-up day on Monday and back to storage. This site will now become one of the weekender regulars. Quite amazed it’s been off my radar for so long, a joy to discover it again!

• Date: 14th February 2025
• Nights: 3
• Pitch #: 50
• GPS: 54.297324, -1.304653

Arrival: A19 > Moor Rise > Moor Road

Fri: A different start to the weekend away this time. Storm Eowyn was battering the UK, predominantly Northern Ireland & Scotland, but amber force conditions were also in force for Northern England as well. So to go or stay! Checking the forecast, wind speeds were deemed to be 40 max, so I thought it was doable. We would test this though on the journey to collect the ‘van. If we got buffered too much, we’d call it off. The journey there was okay, so we proceeded with the plan and hitched up and left. The journey south on the A1 was the toughest, as it is pretty much exposed. So we endured a little buffering, but nothing we couldn’t cope with. Taking it steady, no overtaking, just keeping in control. We passed 2 overturned lorries on the A1 and another one on the A689, so Cath was a little worried at this point. The A19 flyover was closed to high sided vehicles & caravans, so we had to detour via the Tees Newport Bridge, but this was fine and didn’t add too much time to our journey. From here to the site, things were a lot easier and we made it to reception, with no queue! We chose a different pitch this time, with a view of the A19 flyover. All routines accomplished, albeit no awning this trip obviously. We settled in for the evening and enjoyed our first trip away for 2025.

Sat: A lovely relaxing lie in, had breakfast and then I washed the ‘van. Unfortunately, noticed another crack in the rear panel! Something else to sort for this year. Cath enjoyed her birthday and we simply stayed onsite and relaxed. Weather was much improved today, lovely.

Sun: Relax all day, weather has turned a bit wetter so we stayed inside. Enjoying the views from the pitch however. A little different from our usual pitches!

• Date: 24th January 2025
• Nights: 3
• Pitch #: 73
• GPS: 54.568506, -1.286260

Arrival: A1 > A689 > A19 > A1032 > A66 > Teeside Park Drive > The Viaduct > Tees Barrage Way > Whitewater Way

Storm Eowyn. Spot 3 overturned lorries and the diversion over Newport Bridge due to the high winds.