We cross the border, back to England

6TH MAY 

We got up and the sun was shining. The trains stopped at around 11pm and started up again with a long goods train at 6:30am so no lie in today.

After all of the jobs were done and the pitch was paid for we hitched the trailer up and raced back up the hill and back on the road. 

We are going to cross the border into Cumbria today and so we headed down the hill on Main street to the roundabout and took the 1st exit passing under the railway bridge and across the river Sark which was the Scottish/English border. Our Scottish chapter of the journey is over but, more adventures will come as we travel south through the north west and the midlands.

We will stop at a place called 'Watershed mill' in Settle, north Yorkshire on the edge of the Yorkshire dales tonight, ///perusing.tasters.sobbed a free park up so we will probably have a meal in the cafe.

We crossed the border into England and skirted around the eastern side of the lake district and stopped for a break in a lay-by just south of Carosle for half an hour admiring the wild flowers and butterflies and drinking tea before carrying on to Settle and the Watershed mill, home for tonight.

We parked in a coach bay and hoped that there wouldn't be any coaches turning up and then went into the shop/cafe to see what the rules for parking were. Parking is free but they like you to spend something in the shop or the cafe so we said that we would pop in for breakfast the next morning.

As we had been to Settle before, (on our way to Cumbria in 2019) we thought that it would be nice to have a walk around the town so we trotted off to the Ribbensdale rugby club where we had parked on the field back then and then popped into the Talbot for a couple of pints in the garden until we got cold and found some seats indoors.

When we got back to the van we had a look in the surprisingly massive shop before retiring for the evening.

7TH MAY 

We had a peaceful night until the trains started at about 6:30 am. We got ourselves ready and went to have breakfast in the cafe, £7 each.

There was a museum in the high street so we thought we would pay that a visit this morning, having decided to stay for a 2nd night and enjoy Settle for another day.

The museum was called 'The museum of north Craven life' and it was free. (Donations welcome). It was full of information about the railway and the area around Settle and had three floors of exhibits with one room dedicated to the history of the local railway.

Then we had a quick look at the Settle hydro, a community owned hydro-electric system which uses the river Ribble to produce electricity.

8TH MAY (V.E. day)

Today we are going to visit one of the towns where the TV series 'Happy valley' was filmed, Hebden bridge and we had found a park up at the Heptonstall bowls and social club nearby, ///lushly.liability.overtones so we got up quite early and got ready to go, but first we popped into the cafe to ask for some drinking water as we were getting low. The kind lady behind the counter filled our water carrier up and also gave us a bucket of hot water so that we could clean the flies off the windscreen!

We left the Watershed mill car park and turned right onto the B6479 past the Settle Hydro, which we had visited yesterday, and on through the villages along the winding and undulating roads. It was quite hilly in this 'neck of the woods' and due to the apparent engine mountings problem that the van was experiencing, (Read about this here) we were careful not to put ourselves into a position where we needed to perform hill starts, reading the road ahead to give us time to react at traffic lights and junctions, etc.

We stopped at an Aldi to stock up and then continued on the journey to Heptonstall where unfortunately we found ouselves struggling up some very steep hills which led to our park up for the night and the van struggled in first gear all the way to the top.

We pulled into the car park at the Heptonstall bowls and social club and picked our spot.

We filled with fresh water and emptied the waste water and then parked at the end of the car park. This park up was £5 per night but we found out later that it should have been £10 per night and the contact told us the wrong charge.

After a coffee and a roll it was time to explore, walking past the children's play area found ourselves struggling up the steep, cobbled street as far as the school where we turned around and paid a visit to the pub, The Cross Inn, where we sat by the window and watched the school bus and others climb the hill. It looked like it was about 45 degrees it was so steep!

We enjoyed a couple of 'Blue moon' beers each chatting to the locals, one brought samples of home made chocolate which we tasted.

A very pleasant afternoon that was too. We walked back to our park up in the bowls club car park and settled down for the evening.

9TH MAY 

Today we walked down the hill through the woods to the bottom of the valley. There were some beautiful views as we struggled down the very steep hill and eventually we arrived at Hebden bridge and explored the town.

We found a cafe by the canal and sat with a toastie and drink each and chatted with a couple, Phil and Julie for half an hour before heading back up the hill to the van. The hill was a killer and we had to stop to rest a few times before eventually reaching the 'summit' and collapsing in the van. Phew, that was a workout!

We thought that we had earned a drink so later that evening we returned to The Cross Inn for more beer.

10TH MAY 

Yesterday we had discovered our next stop on Search4sites and had phoned ahead to book a space. Gulliver's valley theme park resort was the name of the place and it looked enormous on Google maps. ///forces.typically.storming 

We paid the £5 fee for one night on the phone and after our porridge we set off for Mansfield road, Kiveton park near Sheffield South Yorkshire, stopping at a lay-by 20 miles for the park up for a rest break, but first we have that steep hill to negotiate!

The theme resort was a very popular place for families with young  children to visit. Read more here. 

We got our chairs out and relaxed in the sunshine for a while. Curiosity got the better of us and we had a walk over to the entrance of the theme resort but there wasn't much to see unless you had a ticket to enter so we wandered around the car park and back to the van and settled down for the evening as the visitors left with their noisy, excited children.

11TH MAY 

There were no services at Gulliver's so we thought that we would head off this morning and find a nice CL to stay for tonight.

We are coming to the end of our adventure and decided that we could afford to spend some of the budget on proper park ups with facilities and some security for our last couple of stops so we looked on Search4sites and found a nice looking farm aire called Iron oak ///statue.shorts.singer and although this one didn't have EHU we knew that we could manage without it so off we went down the A57 and A1 stopping at Lidl on the way to stock up.

FOUND A FARM AIRE NEAR GRANTHAM AND HEADED DOWN THE A-57 AND A-1 STOPPING AT LIDL ON THE WAY. FARM HAS GOATS AND ALPACAS. REALLY HOT AND SUNNY.

12TH MAY

We've been on the road for two months today!

OFF TO SOUTH FARM VILLA CL TODAY. RED HOT TODAY. STOPPED AT PETERBOROUGH SERVICES. WE WERE ONLY VAN AT SOUTH FARM VILLA. LOVELY AND PEACEFUL. BEAUTIFULLY KEPT.

13TH MAY

SUNNY AND HOT MORNING. TEA ON THE 'PATIO' ! 

14th May

Leaving Longview CL