Well, we had a surprise on this visit. Just as we thought nothing would be different at our most visited site, we had the pleasure of being ‘upgraded’ to a new pitch! We had booked a grass pitch for this visit, but due to the wet weather we were moved to a hardstanding pitch instead. Not only that, but we were given a new pitch that had just been constructed following the new developments on the site. This was a pitch sited where the tent pitches used to be, but have now been converted to hardstanding caravan pitches. Not only that, pitch 34 is the one and only 11m length pitch! So plenty of room and in a good spot, at the end of the the new 5 pitches, so a good open view from one side at least. Set up was routine and we enjoyed the new ‘vista’ from our new pitch.
Sat: A quick journey back home in the morning to pick up the bird feeder, as Cath didn’t bring it thinking we wouldn’t be in an appropriate spot! Breakfast follows and then I enjoyed my birthday, a little belated but that’s the way it goes! Weather has been poor so far.
Sun: A quick tour around the site to see the new pitches and storage section. It has been done well I have to say. Weather cleared up a little, so we took down the awning whilst it was dry. Relaxed for the rest of the day.
Sat: Early start, forgot to check the battery as we hadn’t been out for a month, the motor mover died within a few minutes, but thankfully we got the ‘van out just enough so that I could get the car onto the ‘van and hitch up from there. Pleasant journey encompassing the A69 and M6, although we had a bird strike on the A69, one less pigeon on the scene now. Usual stop at Southwaite on the way to refuel with a bacon buttie, coffee and some diesel. Following this the journey became stop and start with the volume of traffic. We ended up being delayed by 45 mins in total, pleased to reach the M53 where things finally settled down to a steady flow. Arrived at the site with no issues and used the fast check-in which worked faultlessly. The site was pretty full naturally being the holidays, be we found a good pitch and settled in for the night. No TV signal whatsoever, so a film it was – Beauty & the Beast (live action).
Sun: Railway trip time – Llangollen was the heritage line to visit on this occasion, a very rewarding 10 mile trip with gorgeous vistas along the way. We got there early doors as it was only a 15 minute journey from the site. We enjoyed a drink at the cafe (well I did, Cath didn’t enjoy what was supposed to be a hot chocolate!) and then embarked on the 10.30am. The journey pretty much hugs the river Dee along the way, making for some spectacular views. Following this we had a little wander in the town itself, very pleasant and quite busy, we managed to secure a couple of thimbles I’m pleased to say. Returning to the site and I attempted to put the satellite dish up to get some TV, but the trees were getting the better of me!
Mon: Relax stay onsite day!
Tue: Weather good, so first job before breakfast was to wash the ‘van. Following this, we headed out for a walk encompassing the aquaduct/viaduct in Chirk. This was a pleasant hike, quite undulating, but worth it, a total of 3.5 miles. Back at the site, I posed for some photos from the club magazine photographer and then we relaxed for the rest of the night.
Wed: A rainy start, but this cleared in time for us to head for the Cambrian Railway in Oswestry. This is a small heritage line with just two stations, resulting in a 20 minute return train journey, although you do get 30 minutes in Weston Wharf, which has just recently been completed, very nice it is as well. We managed a drink in the buffet car and then returned along the line, passing a large corn field, which triggers watching ‘Field of Dreams’ tonight! Back at Oswestry, we took a look at the railway museum as well. Picked us some fuel at a rather busy BP station along the return journey back to the campsite.
Thu: Onsite relax day!
Fri: Onsite relax day, complete with fish & chips from the visiting site van. It’s been a nice week, the site and surrounding area are very picturesque and worth exploring. The Llangollen railway was spectacular and well worth a visit. The site has recently been updated and the toilet block is first class, complete with dual access, so it doesn’t close completely for cleaning. However, there is no TV signal and no booster signals on the bollards, so most pitches can’t access TV even with a satellite due to the high surrounding trees. A little cut-through from the lower level to the toilet block is complete one side, but then just exits behind two pitches with no official cut-through – a bit awkward! Some pitches are car in-front pitching, being quite small width wise, so not the best especially as some of these are fully serviced pitches. There are no bins at the service points, being centrally located at the toilet block. This didn’t bother us, but it was strange never seeing a warden, as they didn’t have to collect the waste and we didn’t have to book in! I’m sure they were active and on-hand however. Despite this, a quality site and worth a visit for the area.
Sat: Rained through the night, but clear for the pack-up! Good journey back home, albeit we took the M62 route as I missed a turn on the M6! Worked out well though, we managed to stop at Hartshead Moor which we haven’t used in a while, nice and empty! Passing Wetherby further up proved that Hartshead Moor was the correct choice, as it was very busy and we wouldn’t have got in. A little busy passing Leeds, as the festival was on, but then back to storage as usual.
Sat: A ‘focused’ drive to get us here – nothing too bad, just correct lane watching is in order 🙂 We arrive over the cobbles, lovely and then booked in. Site very full as expected, but to my joy we managed to secure a pitch right in front of the railway line – woohoo! Weather was variable again, but now very windy. So much so that it took both of us to put the awning up as make things a little easier. Somehow though, we managed to loose the pump bag! We managed tea outside however and then relaxed indoors.
Sun: Still windy, but enjoyed taking photos of the trains as they went past. This has to be the best site for train fans, the line is quite literally 20 metres from the caravan 🙂 Picked up some shopping ‘collect & go’ from Tesco in Bury, all went without a hitch – although interesting to note the number of people trying to enter the store at 10am when it doesn’t open until 11am!
Mon: Rained all day – stayed inside and cleaned the caravan.
Tue: Took a trip into Bury, to see the infamous ‘Bury Market’. It wasn’t open today, but we looked around the rest of the shops.
Wed: The day for a trip on the East Lancs Railway! We caught the train from the platform at Burrs Country Park at 10.15am and journeyed on up to Rawtenstall. Here the train runs around and journeys all the way back down the line to Heywood Station. On the return journey, the train stops at Bury for quite some time. This caught us by surprise as we stayed on the train. There was indeed plenty of time to get out and have a look around and a coffee. Never mind, we were soon back at our platform, where we enjoyed drinks and snacks. The line is about 12 miles in length and provides a good day out, well worth a trip. And with the CAMC discount, very keenly priced!
Thu & Fri: Relax onsite days!
Sat: Departure day. Everything went to plan and we had a pleasant journey home.
Sat: An early start, picked up the ‘van and headed south. First stop would be Wetherby, in time for a bacon buttie and coffee. We managed to spend a good hour here, as we were ahead of schedule. It made a nice change not rushing for once, I think I’ll plan in a longer stop for future journeys. The journey to the site took us along the A6, which was a bit slow with all the roadworks. But we arrived only 20mins behind schedule and in glorious sunshine. In fact, it was so hot, we had to stage the set-up at a slower pace due to the heat. We pitched on the lower terrace near the road, as this was all that was available. Despite the road noise, which doesn’t really bother either of us, the pitch is in a nice and open area, south facing, so ticks all of the boxes. BBQ for tea and all is well for the start of summer tour!
Sun: A trip to Foxfield Railway is on the cards today. We arrived, via a very interesting sat nav led journey and enjoyed a coffee before departing on the 11am train. The line isn’t very long and doesn’t have any stations enroute, just a small halt where the train runs round for the return journey. Also onsite is a museum, shop and miniature railway. Once we had finished here, we left heading for Morrisons in Leek to refuel and pick up a couple of items. Back at the site, we enjoyed the weather again.
Mon: Relax onsite day!
Tue: A trip to Leek, despite the weather turning a little. We walked through the town, didn’t take long as there’s not a lot there. Back onsite for the rest of the day.
Wed: Another railway trip, this time on the Churnet Valley Railway. This is quite an impressive heritage line, about 10 miles in length, with a return journey taking approximately 2 hours. There are some nice lineside buildings along the way, goods shed, cafe & gift shop. Steam was supposed to be running today, but alas, due to technical difficulties, it was replaced with a diesel, namely a class 33.
Thu: Relax onsite day, weather much better!
Fri: Weather poor again, stay onsite we will.
Sat: Departure day – a relaxed pack-up as it’s only an 11.30am departure to hit Burrs. A quick reverse to get out of the lower section and we were on our way. Nice site, a lot of pitches that didn’t take our fancy however – along with them mostly being tree covered. Glad we pitched where we did now, road noise not bothering us. Not a great deal to see or do in the area, although a good place for the two heritage lines we managed to see!
Date: 24th June 2023
Nights: 7
Pitch #: 1
GPS: 53.138923, -1.984115
Approach: A6 > A53
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Yet another weekend away in Durham, but boy was the weather glorious! Sunshine in abundance Friday & Saturday, slightly overcast on Sunday but still warm.
I’d booked a grass pitch, hoping the weather was going to behave, so pleased I did now. The pitch was slightly sloping, it’s been a while since we’ve been on the wonk – not enough to warrant using ramps though. Most of the hardstandings were taken as the site was quite busy. Work has started on the area where we used to pitch regularly, sad to see it like it is now. Lots of trees removed, I wonder where our little robin is now 🙁
Picked Cath up from the station, luckily her train was running fine as Friday was a rail strike day. We didn’t venture far, simply soaked up the good weather and enjoyed being outside again.
Date: 2nd June 2023
Nights: 3
Pitch #: 68
GPS: 54.795747, -1.530499
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A stunning weekend for weather, this is more like it! I actually fell asleep outside and Cath caught a bit too much sun! We didn’t venture far, just our usual little walk up to the marshalling yard to see what diesel action was taking place. It was here however that we saw a deer! A deer in Stockton? Who would have believed it!
Following a bit of close-call manoeuvring at storage, due to me parking a little too close to the ‘van, we were en route to one of our favourite local sites. The journey there was text book, fairly good weather, one unit in front of us and then we pitched up. This time, due to the site being fairly full, we opted for a pitch at the lower end of the site, we’ve always wanted to try this, so this was the perfect opportunity! We were soon setup and enjoyed a BBQ tea due to the weather remaining good. The bird feeder was deployed again, our pitch was very close to a rear hedge, so there should be some good bird action!
Saturday: It rained all day. We enjoyed a bacon buttie for breakfast in the awning with the canopy open, very nice. Other than that, we stayed in the ‘van and relaxed.
Sunday: Much better weather, managed to spend some time outside reading. I gave the ‘van a good clean, taking advantage of the weather. I tried using Silky for the first time, to see if it would help clean the mastic – it didn’t do a bad job! We took the awning down, just in time, as it did start raining later on.
Date: 21st April 2023
Nights: 3
Pitch #: 80
GPS: 54.568506, -1.286260
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Another local weekend trip away – it was a solo trip to set-up, collecting Cath from the station mid-afternoon. Weather was a bit dreary, but I didn’t get soaked, so that’s a bonus! We enjoyed Friday evening and Saturday, pretty much just inside all of the time due to the rain. But Sunday was a different day. The sun shone, no winds, we finally managed to sit outside!
The work on the site hasn’t begun yet, but the area in question has now been coned off, so it looks like our favourite pitches are now a thing of the past. It will be interesting to see what they do with the site following the developments.
We packed the (new) awning up on Sunday with the weather being nice and dry and got ready for out departure tomorrow. Managed to do a bit of maintenance on the caravan’s security devices, the ‘van will be due a wash next outing.
Sat: A 7am start to pick up the ‘van and head South to our destination. Everything went smooth and to plan, enjoying a coffee and bacon buttie at Wetherby as usual. Weather was thankfully glorious considering we’ve been under snow for the past few days. Clear roads and skies, the journey was very pleasant indeed. The site can be found just off the A43 from the A1, so a simple drive.
We were warmly greeted by the wardens and told to pitch anywhere we wanted. The site has only opened to tourers yesterday, so I though the place would be empty, but how wrong I was – there weren’t many pitches left at all! We found one which was orientated for the awning facing south, so took that one. We had been instructed about a marker on the ground where your ‘van has to be parked. But this later turned out to be the minimum marker, where your ‘van can’t exceed this point due to fire regulations, all makes sense, although the intro given by the wardens wasn’t too clear in this respect. Pitched up we enjoyed the rest of Saturday with a BBQ tea.
Sunday – the weather turned and we were in for a rough ride with the storm, we stayed onsite and relaxed. The neighbours awning had become loose and they were losing their contents across the field. I notified the wardens and we helped collect and tie things down.
Monday – the winds continued and I mean rough winds, gusts of up to 50mph. This took is toll on the awning and caused some damage. We toughed it out and re-pegged every hour to keep things in place. Not pleasant though!
Tuesday – the winds have died thankfully, so we were able to ‘reset’ the awning after its battering over the last 24hrs. One leg has been damaged and a toggle has stripped, so we’re looking at getting it replaced. A storm kit can be bough for it, so this is something we’re going to get. Following the morning awning work & breakfast, we had a quick trip into Corby to pick up a few essentials and then returned to base, weather still a little mixed.
Wednesday – a frosty morning but no winds, so dry and pleasant. A simple relax day.
Thursday – another relax day.
Friday – best weather of the week! We stripped the awning down in preparation for departure tomorrow as it was nice and dry. We had a chat with the neighbours who had returned for the weekend, they even brought us some beer as a thank you for helping with their awning.
Saturday – a good run back home, Wetherby services was nice and quiet again.
Fri: A smooth collect and drive to the site, although we were lucky in that the A1 was closed in both directions at J60, just as we were turning off onto the A689, so we missed what would have been a fair old diversion should the accident have happened a little further north. The site was very busy, with it being the start of half term. We managed to get a pitch in our usual area, and following a tight reverse, we sere on our pitch.
Sat: Breakfast outside followed by a trip to Peter’s Spares, to pick up a new loco! This is a small but well stocked shop, competitive prices and real time stock levels on their website. Following this we went for a walk, to go and view some bigger trains at the marshalling yard. Plenty of class 66 action!
Sun: More night rain again, so the ground is pretty wet, but looking like we should be in for another clear day. Nothing to do today apart from relax on site!
Mon: Wind picked up again last night, but nice and dry for our return journey to storage.
Date: 17th February 2023
Nights: 3
Pitch #: 56
GPS: 54.568506, -1.286260
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