Long journey home from North Yorkshire to Whilton - 21st Nov ‘19

It really is true that you only miss something when you haven’t got it!!

We knew the lack of gas would mean no tea but no omelette and nighttime hot water bottle too!
We had the electric heating on low overnight so the gas fire wasn’t missed too much but no tea and omelette was hard to handle!!? Coffee made from hot tap water is just about drinkable but a far from pleasurable experience.

We were aiming for a noon leave time so leaving at 11.45 was a wee bonus. Kim gave Brunnehilda a good clean inside and I went through the usual pack up process - probably slower than normal as a luke warm cup of coffee and toast was far from rocket fuel!

We arrived back at Whilton at 4.30 - just in time for the 5pm closure, although judging by the gateman’s very deliberate look at his watch, a little too near the wire for him?!

I decided to go a different way home - mainly because I didn’t want to have to go through Bradford and the M1 from the M18 to home is incredibly boring. So we picked up the A1(M) south of Wetherby by cutting the corner through Ilkely and Otley. We then kept on the A1 all the way down to Newark and joined the A46 to Leicester. A bit longer in time but a much more pleasant journey.

We had a short stop at Blythe services to take onboard a veggie Greggs and a rather nice cup of coffee. We were overcharged by a couple of quid and the fact we didn’t get a receipt makes me suspicious it wasn’t a complete accident?! As always, the caravan lane was full (of non caravans!) so Brunnehilda moseyed up to the HGVs.

Brunnehilda was filthy by the time we got back to Whilton but I’m afraid she’ll have to stay that way until the next trip - next week to Cornwall ... can’t wait!

Wharfedale Caravan Club Site:

Pros:
1) Great position with lots of nice places to visit
2) Good facilities with super clean toilets and so many of them!
3) A rare non sizeist washroom mirror - equipped for all sizes
4) Super friendly book-in lady
5) Nice walks from the site
6) Very quiet and no light pollution
7) Considering in the middle of nowhere, easy to get to
Cons:
1) Not much vegetation between pitches - not good if busy
2) I suspect in the summer they may have been more officious with where we put our “foreign” awning?
3) No great view from the van

As you can see by the one sided list, I think this was one of our favourite UK sites so far?

Walking to Grassington & Linton Falls - 20th Nov ‘19

No frost this morning but still cold enough to require a blast of the gas heating to take the chill off before we switch to the less powerful electric heating.

Back to our normal “trip” morning routine. Which of course means a cheese and mushroom omelette with a side of English Muffins to get the day started!

A bit of a lie in - well why get up when it’s cold outside? - so we didn’t leave the site until 11.30. We decided a walk would be nice. There wasn’t a lot of sun but it was dry. We wrapped up and headed for Grassington. It was a pleasant 35 minute walk over footpaths initially then back roads and pavements. We crossed the River Wharfe taking us from Freshfield (where the site is) into Grassington.

It was much busier in the daytime with all the wee shops open. We had a quick look around and then stocked up with some pastries and a coffee from a local bakers called Walkers.

It was then only a 15 minute walk down to Linton Falls. Definitely worth a look but unfortunately no where to sit and eat our pastries!

We walked through the wee hamlet of Linton Falls and found a beautiful little church - St Michaels Linton - nestling by the river. There was a sheltered bench against the church wall amongst the gravestones which made a nice place to sit and eat. We then had a quick look around the church. It was only small but had lots of interesting history and the wardens had the way with all to tell you about it as well with useful information kindly left around the building.

A pleasant walk back along the bank of the River Wharfe and back to Threshfield for a cup of Yorkshire Tea and a slice of lemon drizzle at Hedgerow - a florist / gift shop / cafe. They were very friendly and, as you would expect, the Yorkshire tea was spot on.

We only found out that the name of the river was the Wharfe when we looked it up later. S’funny because Kim had said it looked like the river in Wetherby (30 miles away!). I had laughed at her stupidity to think rivers could look alike 30 miles apart. Oh how we both laughed when we realised she was of course correct and it was the Wharfe at both Grassington and Wetherby!

We got back to Brunnehilda at about 3.15pm. Time to grab the car and head out to Skipton - this time the prettier way through Bolton Abbey. As normal we got to the Abbey when it was shutting up - at 4pm. So we made a note to return and headed into Skipton.

There is so much to do and see around here you really do need a full week to do it justice. 1 day and 2 nights clearly doesn’t cut the mustard!

So twice now to Skipton and both times in the dark! That’s the problem with winter touring, the days activities stop at 4.30pm!! We did manage to have a nice walk though to buy a couple of hats in a Black Friday sale (OMG!) - I look gorgeous in mine! - then found the canal, castle and mill. The latter 2 being shut and the canal being open but dark!

Back home to Brunnehilda for tea courtesy of Mssrs Marks and Spencer. Kim then absolutely slaughtered me at Canasta. To cap it all the gas ran out so no cuppa tonight (and tomorrow morning). So all in all a truly grim end to a smashing day!

As if to prove the point made above about the hat .... here’s the evidence ...

N

Skipton to Driffield and Jenny’s Funeral - 19th Nov ‘19

An absolutely gorgeous morning. A hard frost on the ground and the sun in the sky. We abluted and were on the road by 8.45. Sat Nav said 2 hours so we had 15 mins to spare for a 11 arrival and 11.30 start.

2.5 hours later we arrived- just in time. What a huge county Yorkshire is - 150 minutes to drive from pretty much it’s Western to Eastern border. Of course we made (sorry, I made) some bad decisions along the way - including going on the Northern York bypass rather than the southern one. Why is it, whenever you are running late every light is on red, every roundabout has a queue and every single carriage road has a lorry crawling up a hill. We did manage to grab a McDonalds drive through breakfast on the way though so it wasn’t all bad.

Jenny’s funeral was at the East Riding Crematorium- a beautiful place on the edge of Driffield. As if on order, the sun shone for the whole ceremony. Luke delivered a fabulous eulogy and the place was crammed full of Jenny’s family, friends and work colleagues. A very sad day but, as usual at these events, huge amounts of pride for my big Sis and her wonderful family as well as pleasure in seeing everyone together.

Thom, Rach, Bobby and Laura had come up leaving George home alone looking after kids and dog.

We went onto Wetwang to the Vic for a very pleasant “wake”. Lots of nice food, friendly chat and fond memories / stories of Jenny. My cousin Alison and her husband, Russ, kindly took Mum and Dad home at the end of the afternoon.

We headed off to the other side of Yorkshire. We did find time for a quick coffee with the kids at the services just off the M62 near Donny. Kim also amazingly found the time to give her youngest son a haircut in the service station car park in the feezing cold and using the light from a car park lamppost!

We went back to Skipton via Wetherby / Harrogate so it would have been rude not to stop at the Wetherby Whaler for a bit of tea. Wetherby looked very pretty with the Christmas lights on and, although we really weren’t hungry enough to do the fish and chips justice, it was a pleasant journey break.

We arrived back at Brunnehilda at about 8.15pm just as the live debate started between Jezzer and Boris - praise the Lord, we don’t have a tele in the van!!

Tea, reading, blogging and another early night. Once again heating systems , water bottles and duvets were essential to a pleasant evening!

RIP, my brave big sister.

Trip up to Skipton - 18th Nov ‘19

A short (and sad) trip started today. We have a few days booked in at the Skipton site so decided to link it into the funeral of my brave big sister, Jenny.

The motor mover is now fixed - it was a loose wire! - so , after picking mum and dad up from Northampton we got Brunnehilda hitched up and were on the A5 by 5 past 10. We arranged to meet nephew Luke (Jenny’s youngest son) at Woolley Edge Services ( just south of Wakefield on the M1) at 1.15pm.

What a place? I think Woolley Edge must be the only motorway services in the UK that has literally had zero investment/ upgrades in the last 10 years. It is old, scruffy, dirty and offers the weary traveller a very limited food and drink choice. Anyway, we successfully played mum and dad tag with Luke and he took them onto Fimber in the East while we headed North to the Dales.

As always, we had our normal Sat Nav drama ... we went right through the middle of Bradford. Well to be fair the inner ring road which is a pretty strange name for a road that heads straight for the centre and then comes straight out the other side. More of a straight line than a ring!

Never less it was quite an interesting drive. Bradford is very run down but has lots of interesting old architecture. We arrived at the Caravan Club site at Grassington (about 8 miles north of Skipton) at about 4pm.

The South African check in lady was incredibly pleasant, funny and chatty. It didn’t stop her giving us “the talk” though about how to park the van! Luckily, no awning on this trip so no issue!

The site is immaculate and about 1/4 full. We are in the North York’s National Park and, although we don’t have a view, the scenery around us is spectacular.

After a longer than normal set up (I don’t know why - except if was bloody cold and dark!) we had a cup of tea before heading out for a look around the immediate locale.

We are a 5 minute drive to the extremely cute village of Grassington - with its cobbled Main Street and many little shops and pubs. Of course the shops were shut and the pubs / eateries were not great for non meat eaters! We thought we might get an Indian and take it back to Brunnehilda but the takeaway only took cash so we just moved in after a walk around.

Grassington was a fabulous place for a walk around though. It was -2 degrees so everywhere felt crisp and Christmassy.

We decided to go into Skipton to stock up on some things and get some cash. After our long journey we decided we would get tea from Morrison’s and take it home rather than try and find a restaurant. Which is what we did - and very pleasant it was too?

An episode of The Wire and then off to bed. The heating - both gas and electric - full on and Kim’s water bottle meant for a very cosy snuggle in Brunnehilda’s big Teutonic bed!