Journey No 21 – 26th November – 18th December 2012
This journey was our longest yet – 23 days, 2,966 km/1,854 miles.
Our route was Carrick Castle, Glasgow, Beamish, York, Leeds, Frome, Wells, Saltash, Weir Quay, Dartmoor, Stonehenge, Walton-on-Thames, Chatham, Canterbury, Dover, Aldington, Dungeness, Brighton, Hove, Bramber, Steyning, Singleton, Clitheroe, Glasgow, Carrick Castle. We used 75.88 gallons of diesel giving us 24.43 mpg for the journey. The main purpose of the journey was to go to the wedding of Douglas’ daughter, Gemma, in Steyning on Friday 14th December. Before and after the event Liz and Douglas visited many interesting places plus friends and family en route. We took over 400 photos on the journey but just a few are shown here!
We departed Carrick Castle on Monday 26th November 2012 and headed via Glasgow to an overnight stop just short of Beamish south of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. On the 27th, Tuesday, we visited Beamish – the Living Museum of the North, an industrial recreation set in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the layout in 300 acres that includes a town, colliery, school, railway station, garage, farm and much more and linked together with a tramway and period bus service – a great day out…
That night we stayed in not the best layby however we still slept well…
On Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th November we visited York. We parked up in the free motorhome parking area during the day and used the excellent Park & Ride into York at just £5 for the two of us return.
Our first visit was to York Minster where we where given a very interesting guided tour of the cathedral.
Later that morning and in the afternoon we visited the Yorkshire Museum and the National Railway Museum, the world’s largest railway museum, and saw some of the floods that surrounded York.
The next day we visited the Jorvik Viking Centre (where photography is not allowed) and did some Christmas shopping in York before heading off to Leeds to visit Liz’s friends, Jackie and Tony for dinner.
On Friday 30th November, we drove south to Liz’s sister, Gwyneth and Ian’s house at Great Elm, near Frome, Somerset. We stayed there eating very well and walking around the countryside for a couple of days until 3rd December. We stayed in Harrie in someone’s driveway, with their permission!
On Monday 3rd December, we drove first to Wells Cathedral (c. 1230) in Wells, Somerset and then on to Saltash, in Cornwall to visit Douglas’ friends Tony and Caroline.
We had dinner with our friends that night and the following day, Tuesday 4th December, they gave us a tour of Plymouth and its dockyard before we headed off to Weir Quay to see more friends in Devon.
We arrived late afternoon on Tuesday, 4th December at our friends, Mike & Kathy at Weir Quay, Devon.
On Wednesday 5th December, we had a long walk with them in the quiet countryside with a pub lunch and then drove to Dartmoor and stayed high up in a large car park overnight where the Dartmoor ponies visited us.
Thursday, 6th December we drove to Stonehenge, dating from 3,000 – 1,600 BC.
After our visit to Stonehenge we drove to Hersham, by Walton-on-Thames to visit more friends – Alan & Diana and had dinner with them.
The next day, Friday 7th December, we drove to Chatham Dockyard, Kent for a visit, however having previously looked it up on the Internet, it showed it open at the time but it had now closed until February 2013 so we drove on to Canterbury.
Canterbury was not an easy place to park. We did find signs for motorhome parking and spaces set up alongside coaches, however, we thought £10 for a couple of hours was excessive even though you could stay there for 12 hours (not over night) so we parked in Sainsburys car park alongside, visited the Cathedral (dating back to 597 AD) and King’s School and did some shopping in Sainsburys… There were plenty of spaces for motorhomes but not one was parked there – Canterbury City Council review your charges for short stays and you might fill the motorhome bays! We parked up that night 5 miles outside Dover.
The next day, Saturday 8th December, we visited Dover Castle and all the underground tunnels. It took us 6 hours to see everything including having all the tours – an outstanding place to see.
That night we returned to a similar parking place 5 miles outside Dover. In the morning, Sunday 9th December, we drove across to Aldington, Kent to our friends, Sally & Jeremy where we had a walk and a wonderful dinner party with Douglas’ friends from the past as he used to live in the house next door in Aldington. The following day we visited Dungeness and had a walk around RSPB Dungeness and the next morning attended an Art & Music lecture in Aldington village hall with Sally & Jeremy.
On Tuesday afternoon, 11th December, we drove to Brighton to stay with Douglas’ son, Graeme and his wife Anne for a couple of nights (11th/12th) going out with his daughter, Gemma, during the day. These nights were the first on this journey when we couldn’t stay in Harrie as she was parked on the hill outside their house. We did some last minute Christmas shopping in Brighton and visited Lewes as well.
On Thursday 13th December we headed over to Bramber where we stayed in the Old Tollhouse Hotel and had a Locke family and friends pre-wedding dinner. Liz and Douglas visited the Bramber Castle and church in the afternoon. We had an excellent dinner in great company!
The next day, Friday 14th December, was the big wedding day for Gemma and Vassos at Wiston House, Steyning, Sussex. Their photo is at the top of this journey text. It was a wonderful wedding, wedding breakfast and ceileigh in the evening enjoyed by around 100 guests.
On Saturday 15th December we had lunch at Graeme & Anne’s house with Simon & Rika, Gillan & Angela and grandsons Dan & Toby. We then drove to Goodwood where we parked up for the night before visiting the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum at Singleton near Chichester, W. Sussex on Sunday 16th December. The museum was established in 1967 and rescued many very old buildings that had to be removed from their original locations because of new motorways, reservoirs and for various other reasons. It takes a few hours to walk around the area where 47 buildings, barns and the like have been re-erected.
That night, we drove up north, stopping at Pilliton Priers (near Stratford-upon-Avon, we think) for our final wild camping night in Harrie.
The next day, Monday 17th December, we continued north to Clitheroe where we stayed with Liz’s friends, Helen & Keith that night. Finally on the last day, Tuesday 18th December, we continued driving north stopping in Glasgow to collect Calum and reached home in the early evening.
Summary: Although this was a long journey of 1,854 miles, we had a great time seeing some of the many places we had always wanted to see and of course seeing lots of our friends en route too. Although we saw the floods in York and the Somerset Levels, we were barely affected with just a few minor areas where we had to drive though a bit of water. Weatherwise, we were extraordinarily lucky with it being mainly dry for most of the journey as the photos show. We did have heavy rain at times, either when we were driving or at night. Harrie behaved herself – a great drive and our best fuel consumption to date of 24.43 mpg. Don’t work out the cost – that is not so appealing at around 140 pence per litre! We were lucky also to find a wild camping place to park up each night so never had to go to a camp site. There were two places en route that were rather narrow. Coming down from Dartmoor a bridge ahead said it was 2.3 metres wide – we were 2.2 metres wide – we made it with out touching the bridge… Again in Brighton cars were parked on both sides of a road and the Harrie just fit though – phew! A most enjoyable journey, a great wedding, great places to visit and so good to catch up with our friends who we don’t see that often. We will be on the road again – not sure when, not sure where we will go next but we love our motorhame – Harrie!
Total mileage for the trip: 2,966 km / 1,854 miles.
Total mileage to date: 123,935 km / 77,460 miles.
