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 from the park up for a rest break, but first we have that steep hill to negotiate!

We pulled into the theme park and chose our spot for the night. The car park was enormous so we had no trouble fitting the Mac shack in, we were literally the only ones here!

The resort was a very popular place for families with young  children to visit and there was a steady stream of visitors coming and going. Read more here. 

We got our chairs out and relaxed in the sunshine for a while but eventually curiosity got the better of us and we had a walk over to the entrance of the theme resort to see what was happening. 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 to Grantham stopping at Lidl on the way to stock up.

We pulled into the farm and chose our pitch at the bottom of the drive and right next to the field full of Alpacas, goats, chickens and a couple of short legged cows!

It was a red hot day and the sun was blazing down through clear blue skies and we soon got the chairs out and sat in the shade which the van was providing and watched the young kids (goats) frollicking around just the other side of the fence from us.

The Alpacas were acting as security for the other animals which is what they do naturally apparently!

And that was that for the afternoon and evening, drinking in the scenery and the wine and beers.

12th May

We've been on the road for two months today and we have enjoyed nearly every minute of it. We have had a couple of mechanical issues along the way but have managed to carry on and we will get them seen to when we are back at base.

1. A noise from the rear nearside wheel seems to be coming from the wheel bearing and we have had to take to the slower roads and keep off the motorways and keep our speed down to around 40 MPH.
2. When we have to pull away sharpish at junctions or put the engine under strain we get a vibration and noise which we discovered is due to worn engine mountings which are allowing the engine to move back on the mountings more than it would normally. The noise is due to the exhaust manifold hitting the brake servo unit when the engine moves. We manage this by trying not to put the engine under too much strain as mentioned above but Yorkshire has lots of steep hills and was definately the worst place to have this problem.

So, back to our journey...It rained over night and it was a cloudy start to the day. We got ourselves organised and set off in hot sunshine down the A-1 south until we got to Peterborough services where we stopped for a break. Our destination today will be South farm villa, a CL site just past Thrapston and Clopton on the B662 and north of the RAF Molesworth base. But first, Peterborough.

We like Peterborough services and it is our first choice when we are in this area. Today we tried a different food outlet, GDK, German Doner Kebabs, and we ordered two doner rice bowls and they were very nice.

Leaving the services we picked up the A-605 to avoid the A1 (M) and we were soon pulling into the farm and Sue jumped out to open the gate having been sent the code to the padlock by the owner when we had booked the pitch.

We filled with fresh water and chose our spot and parked, (we were the only campers here so we were spoilt for choice!) We hooked up the EHU, emptied the waste tanks and settled down in our chairs to soak up the rays. What a lovely spot and definately one to remember for next time we are in the area.

The Cost was £14 per night and included all the above facilities and a locked gate for security.

13TH MAY

The next morning was hot and sunny and we took our tea out in the fresh air. The farmer came over and collected the fee and had a chat about his land and the camp site.

We decided that today we will stop at another CL called Longview ///disprove.translated.rents which is in a place called Over, near Willingham and only a few miles from St. Ives. 

We have friends in St Ives and we had arranged to visit them for tea and cakes so we packed up and headed off to our final destination on this adventure.

As we pulled into the CL the owner met us and opened the gates. We parked and got the bikes out of the trailer, secured the van and headed off to Rose and Peter's place stopping on the way at a little convenience store for cakes.

They were so pleased to see us both and we sat chatting for a couple of hours drinking tea and eating cakes until it was time for us to get back to the van.

We stopped at the shop on the way back to the van and picked up some booze for the evening and soon we were putting the bikes away, getting the chairs out and pouring the wine. Ah, what a life!

14th May

Longview is a lovely place to stop, very peaceful and we are glad that we chose this place as our lat stop on our adventure around the UK.

Well, we have come to the end of our journey, a two month long adventure taking in Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Northumberland and Hadrian's wall, Sycamoe gap and across the border into Scotland, around the eastern side of the Cairngorms up and over to Inverness where we travelled through the spectacular scenery along the east coast to Glen Morangie crossing bridges which span the Moray Firth, Cromarty Firth and the Dornoch Firth along the North coast 500 through Wick and on to John O'Groats!

Then heading west along the NC500 to Durness and south along the western side to Loch Leitir Easaidh and Loch Assynt and eventually Ullapool. Still heading south along the western highlands down to Loch Alsh and over the Skye bridge onto Skye and down to Armadale where we boarded a ferry across the inlet of Loch Hourn to Mallaig and Morar now heading east passing Loch Nan Uamh, Glen Finnan and onto Fort William, Glencoe and Loch Lomond staying on the western side of Glasgow, passing the airport and down to Kilmarnock, through the Galloway forest to Dunfries and Gretna, crossing the border back to England and Cumbria.

Then down to the Yorkshire dales to Settle, Hebden bridge, Rotherham, Grantham, Peterborough and then to Over near Willingham where we spent our final night.

Here is a rough outline of our route. Quality not good but it works!

We can't wait to start planning our next trip but first the Mac shack has to have some new engine mounts and a rear nearside wheel bearing fitted .

We will get these jobs done, give the van a scrub and polish and then we will be off to France again, but first we have a little trip to Norfolk planned where we will spend time with friends and family. 

See that trip here.