In June we took a trip around the North of England in our motorhome, but did get as far South as Tewkesbury (which I think is considered to be in the Midlands or is it South West?) Anyway our first stop over the border was at Barnard Castle:
Barnard Castle
I know that we have been here before but it is a good stopping-off point on any journey south. We also chose to stay in the Caravan & Motorhome Club site as opposed to our usual Camping & Caravanning Club site. We soon got Vannie parked up in a good pitch:
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| Vannie at Barnard Castle Caravan & Motorhome Club site |
We were only here for a couple of nights and as this site is closer to Barnard Castle I took a walk the first evening down to the town to see what I could see. It was a lovely evening and the first thing that struck me was the magnificent mature trees in the field I walked past:
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| Lovely trees in the field |
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| Sunny evening on the road to Barnard Castle |
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| Magnificent Mature Trees |
As well as trees there were also some pretty wildflowers along the the road-side:
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| Pretty Wildflowers along the Road-side |
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| Red Campion, Cow Parsley, etc. etc. |
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| Bloomin' Luvly |
After about 15 minutes walking I reached the outskirts of Barnard Castle, namely Startforth:
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| Approaching Startforth |
A little further along the road I took the lane leading to the Pipe Bridge. It is a foot-bridge that crosses the River Tees and also supports the pipe that carries the water supply to Barnard Castle:
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| Pipe Bridge to Barnard Castle |
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| Bridge across the river Tees |
The Pipe Bridge has some interesting signage on it:
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| Who Built it? |
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| Who can use it and how? |
Well I thought they were interesting!
The bridge is also a good place to enjoy the views of the River Tees as it passes by Barnard Castle:
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| River Tees with Barnard Castle in background |
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| Evening Sunshine on the Tees |
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| River Tees from the Pipe Bridge |
There was not a lot of wildlife on the river at this time of day, a few Mallard and a couple of Black-headed Gulls:
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| Mallard and Black-headed Gull on Tees |
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| Mallard Family |
It was starting to get dark, and as I am not allowed out in the dark on my own, I decided to head back to the caravan park rather than continue uphill to Barnard Castle.
When I reached the Caravan Park I was confused? Vannie wasn't where I parked it? it was somewhere else!
Had Moira moved it? that was very unlikely! ........................but closer inspection revealed that it was another Vannie, or something very similar:
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| Cousin of Vannie |
We did walk into Barny the next day; had a walk round the town, did a bit of shopping, enjoyed a bar meal then got lazy and took the bus back to the caravan park. I didn't take any photos as you have seen plenty of Barnard Castle before. Well that's not entirely true, I just had to take this photo of the sheep on the crazy golf course:
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| Mind how ewe go! |
After our short stay at Barnard Castle we headed on to our next destination, The Firs Caravan Park near Belper in Derbyshire.
Belper, Derbyshire
I consider Derbyshire to be in the North of England but I am led to understand that some consider it to be in the Midlands. What do I know, I'm from Scotland as far as I am concerned all counties of England are in the South, so I am not going to argue about it, but it has been included in my North of England Trip.
We were staying at The Firs Caravan Park, a couple of miles outside Belper, and on the edge of the Derbyshire Dales. The caravan park benefitted from a slightly elevated position, which afforded us great views towards the Dales:
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| View from The Firs Caravan Park |
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| The Derbyshire Countryside |
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| Towards The Derbyshire Dales |
Later on that evening I went back along to the viewpoint to watch the sunset (which was surprisingly early at just after 9pm) but it was worth it:
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| Sunset from The Firs Caravan Park |
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| Sunset over the Derbyshire Dales |
It really was quite spectacular and a good few of the campers had gathered to watch it. I even managed to take enough photos to create a sort of time-lapse video:
One of the reasons we chose the site at Belper was that our friend Jim lives about half an hour from there, and he kindly offered to come over to see us the next day. When he arrived at the caravan park he joined us for a cup of tea and a chat then offered to take us into Belper in his car.
We visited the Belper River Gardens which sits on the banks of the River Derwent. We had pleasant walk around the gardens and an enjoyable coffee with cake at the Swiss Tea Room in the park. We then had a stroll around the impressive East Mill , a historic landmark in Belper:
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| East Mill, Belper |
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| Jim and Moira outside East Mill (ignore the skip) |
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| Archway at East Mill |
Next to the East Mill is an equally impressive weir which held back the flow of the River Derwent to feed the mill with water power:
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| Weir on The Derwent at Belper's East Mill |
Unfortunately Jim had to go after this, but it was great to see him. We stayed in Belper for a spot of lunch and a walk around the shops before heading back to the caravan park on a local bus.
After a relaxing afternoon we had a walk to the nearby Spanker Inn (don't titter! I am led to believe it was named after a dog) for a meal and a drink. Food was great and so was beer, the walk back uphill along roads with no pavements whilst it was getting dark wasn't as much fun, but we made it.
The next morning we were up bright and early (not) and after removing sunbathing guests we took Vannie out for a little run round Derbyshire:
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| Blue-tailed Damselfly sunning itself on Vannie |
We popped into Belper to top up with fuel before heading to nearby Motor Heritage Centre at Ambergate. We arrived just as the local Jaguar Club and Austin Club were meeting up at the Heritage Centre:
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| Beautiful E-type Jaguar |
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| Moira liked this Jaguar XJS Convertible |
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| I liked this old Austin Campervan |
The heritage centre was very interesting and covered the story of British-built cars over the last 100 years (not that we build many now!). Here are just a few of the cars on show:
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| Austin 1300GT |
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| Mk1 Ford Escort |
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| Triumph Vitesse Convertible |
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| Triumph TR6 |
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| Sunbeam Rapier Fastback Coupe |
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| Mk3 Ford Capri |
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| Mk3 Ford Cortina |
This is only a very small number of the cars on show, there are hundreds there, well worth a visit if you are nostalgic about cars from your youth. We even found an early version of Vannie in the form of a converted Ford Transit:
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| Ford Transit Conversion |
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| Moira checking out our next motorhome (Vannie 3?) |
It really was a great way of passing a few hours, get to the cafe early though or you will have no chance!
After the visiting the Motor Museum we got back in the van and headed further into the Derbyshire Dales. We reached Cromford, where we had intended to stop and have a bite to eat, unfortunately it was so busy we couldn't find a safe place to park.
We headed uphill out of Cromford until we found a parking area near to The Black Rocks, which was too far to walk back to the town. Fortunately we were in a motorhome and were able to rustle up a sandwich and a cup of coffee (jist the dab!).
As we were near to The Black Rocks (which Jim had told us was a large outcrop of grit rocks and worth a visit) we went for a little walk to see what we could see. It was a steep walk and we didn't go right up to the top as it was a bit slippy on the scree at the foot of the rocks, but we did get some views:
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| The Black Rocks near Cromford, Derbyshire |
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| View from The Black Rocks |
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| Looking down from The Black Rocks |
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| Me posing at The Black Rocks area |
We had a leisurely drive back to the caravan park and after dinner we spent some time at the viewpoint enjoying the sunset:
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| Sunset over the Derbyshire Dales |
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| Moira enjoying the Sunset |
This was our last evening at Belper and we headed off to Tewkesbury in Gloucester the next morning.
As this is getting to be quite a long blog I have decided to make it a 'two-parter' and will finish now and share the visits to Tewkesbury and Hawes with you later on.
I will leave you with a little panorama of the Derbyshire Dales at sunset:
Will be back in a few weeks time with the second part of this odyssey, in the meantime take care of yourselves.
Cheers
Teddyedward
