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
