A later start to this weekend’s tour due to work and the fact that arrivals are from 2pm – so worked out quite nicely! Food packed, fridge charged, we headed South once more.
We picked the caravan up and had a pleasant drive, down the A1, off at the A61 and around Ripon. The site is is located just off the A61 by Ripley and just ‘down the road’ from Knaresborough. We arrived at reception and were greeted by a very friendly warden, we booked in and were shown to our pitch. To our surprise the pitch had its own water supply, bonus! A bit of an awkward pitch to manoeuvre onto, as we needed to hug a tree and it was a nearside reverse. But we got it there, with just the final shuffle with the motor mover. What a weekend, the sun was beating down!
The pitch was right beside the wash block, so not far to travel there! We were also right beside the bins, not so good. So maybe not the best pitch in the world, but hey but it’s only for a weekend. The site has a small indoor swimming pool, we didn’t try this, as it was quite small. A games room, with ping pong, this was more tempting! And a shop, which we didn’t make use of. So all in all, quite a well equipped site.
First port of call, Knaresborough. Time to find our thimble! Knaresborough is just a short drive away and we were soon parked up and window shopping. We managed to find the tourist information shop, but due to ill health it was closed, rotten luck! As we were leaving, Knaresborough train station caught my eye, a lovely looking station with signal – this had to be viewed in more detail at a later date!
Back on site it was time to queue for the fish and chips, again this site had a visiting chip van, which is always welcome. That was tea sorted. Time to sort the TV out. Tried with the Status, but due to trees ahead and the wash block behind, no joy there. Checked the direction of the Astra bad boys in the sky – right bang in the middle of the trees. So no TV then, film night it was! The Green Mile was chosen, partly due to the sad death of Michael Clarke Duncan, aka John Coffee. The night came as quickly as we had arrived, and once again Sunday morning was here.
We decided to try the thimble shop again and to also visit Ripley. Luckily, the shop was open today and we got to visit the train station. On the return journey, we headed for Ripley. A very small village, with its famous ice-cream! We walked around and visited the castle shop, here we found a Ripley thimble, so we decided to purchase this as well and use the Knaresborough thimble another time!
Our neighbours happened to be quite chatty and were indeed from the North East as well. We got to hear in detail about their caravan tales, to which they were quite new to. And also about gambling machines, bingo and the nearest (proper) swimming pool. Other vocal lifeforms on the site were in the shape of ducks. Quite a lot of them. All keen on eating and boy do they remember when you’ve fed them. We were awoken on Sunday morning to a chorus of ducks at our door, demanding breakfast! The rest of Sunday we relaxed into. Monday came and it was time to depart once again.
- Date: 8th September 2012
- Nights: 2
- Pitch #: Red 34
- GPS: 54.037258, -1.559062
