We left off where we started the camping season – at bobbybees campsite in Burton Fleming. My birthday and the last camp of the year (probably.. although I won’t rule it out entirely)

The site itself has the feel of a part built sculpture. An installation of art – of sorts. Quite a fascinating mix of things to look at (a few snaps over here)  A small contingency of us – 18 in total –  ascended for the Saturday night (we got the place warmed up on the Friday by selecting a top spot up the top of the tent field).  Hanging out, drinking, talking, chucking the very last of the summer wood on the fire on a beautifully warm and calm evening. I got to try out my new toy – a telescope – and drink rum and beer and cider and Jaegemeister (not in the same glass).

A lovely birthday surrounded with a bunch of lovely people. Smile on face inducing memories. I feel very lucky to have such nice friends and family.

I’ll miss the summer, but the impact winter hasn’t kicked in yet largely due to an Indian Summer that we’re being blessed with at the moment. Looking down the barrel of winter and we’re battening down the hatches. We’ve just commissioned secondary glazing with K glass to keep our house a bit warmer in the winter. I’ve got the a romantic notion that I’ll be hibernation, reading and cyber whittling.

It’s could be considered a ‘bit of a risk’ going camping in September – but when isn’t it in these fair isles? I love the summer (it’s my favourite day of the year) but don’t shy away from camping ‘off season’. We’ve been in wind, rain and even snow.

The weather was kind to us this weekend though after a forecast of doom. We headed back toBudle Bay in Northumberland campsite – a campsite we have been to before about three and a half hours north of Harrogate. New ownership, new rules, no stickers (they used to give you van stickers. They don’t any more. I want sticker.). Around 20 of us piled up from theHarrogatearea and filled out boots with a triple birthday celebration bonanza.

We arrived on Friday night just after nightfall and drove Clover (our van) straight into the throng of people sitting and chatting and drinking. Not literally – but alongside. Fire torches and lanterns lit, we established one-ness with the group. A reasonably steady away Friday night followed by a reasonable amount of kip.

Saturday saw me and my clan go on a solo mission to find a geocache. More than that – it looked liked (and proved to be) a beautiful walk around Budle Bay. Not sure what it was – perhaps the full moon – but our boys we’re about as argumentative as it’s possible to be with each other. They we’re even arguing over things that don’t actually exist – along the lines of – if one of them has an Xbox 360, would he let the other one play on his save? Crazy hypothetical arguments that we desperately to tried to ignore enjoy the nature abound but unfortunately eventually had to intervene.  Quite glad we had the brunt of that storm away from other people. We hung out with a local family for an hour or so as they waited for the tide to reach their (maHoosive) jet ski. Got some local knowledge. Always good.

Late afternoon, we got a bus into Seahouses to go to the ‘tacky shop’ as it was described to us, and get some chips. Nice chips, timed to perfection as the heavens opened as we stood in the chippy eating them. 15 minutes later, it was blue sky again. 22dec C type temperatures as well. Oddness. With tacky shop filled bags, we headed back to camp.

The evening blessed us with an incredible sunset – pictured above – and was perfect for sitting around a fire bin (ahem, self contained, LNT, off the floor renewable fuel outdoor heat source – defiantly not a “campfire”). Drinking and laughing. Stories under a still and crystal clear sky.

A top time.

We came home via the Metro Centre to grab some Lamb (M&S) and some shin-pads for Felix (a sports shop). I played in the Apple store. The recession doesn’t seem to have hit that particular retail indicator – it was packed (Although I didn’t do anything nerdy like a ‘how many people are actually carrying bags’ type survey – just the gut feel.

Again… it all went by in the blink of an eye.

At the weekend we headed out to to top left hand corner of Yorkshire to celebrate Jaygo’s 10th birthday. We wanted to make it brilliant for him – regular readers will know he’s had a rough old time this year. I think I can safely say we ticked all the boxes.

Jaygo wanted a camping weekend. A couple of years ago we had a fantastic time in at Hoggarths (blog post)  - so I emailed them to ask how they were fixed for a large group – and they said they had another field nearby that we could use. From the map and photos I scoured of the area, it looked idyllic – an oxbow field surrounded on 3 sides by the River Swale .

Hogarths is billed as a wild camping experience. Friday night was textbook wild! Rain in biblical proportions hammered down – luckily after we’d set up a waterproof gazeebo and various other dry hangouts. A fairly chilled night around the fire ensued after the rains. The River had ‘doubled’ in size and was roaring and sandy brown with mud that it had ripped from the sides of its valley. Quite an impressive sight.

Saturday morning -I started the day by making a damper. A trip into Kirkby Stephen for supplies and a pint on the way back at the rather nice pint serving Black Bul Inn, Nateby.  Whilst England were winning the ODI cricket series on the trusty Roberts radio (one of my only concessions to electronics for the weekend bar my Nikon D70s camera) we saw our party pad out to it’s full compliment size of 31. Our field was not only home to Clover (our land ship) and all who sail in her, but Olive the Hymer,  A pop up waterproof gazeebo (brilliant invention), Bingo Bongo, several tents, a Yurt, a composting toilet tent and a battle arena which all the boys waged nerf battles all day long and absolutely loved it.

Sunday –  Jaygo’s birthday.  Beautiful day ensued. A happy chappy was presented with a scooter and an MP3 with some music on it. We pottered around and slowly packed up, soon after giving Jaygo is cake before heading up to the Tan Hill Inn (Britain’s Highest Pub) for a pint on the way home – a truly memorable weekend, shared by a lovely bunch of people.

Wild camping prep tips

We’ve never quite prepped as much for a camping mission as this one. The latest addition to our camping kit was a composting toilet – a ‘models changing tent’ from Argos for £16, coupled with a toilet seat on a sturdy wooden box, a sack full of sawdust and a spit for digging big ‘oles with and some sanitiser. We moved the toilet every 12 hours or so and capped the old one with a plug of turf we’d saved. This was suitable to service 30+ people amicably. As well as this, we’d previously acquired sails to act as shelter for the side of our van, and Tibetan Prayer Flags to act as pretty things and guy rope don’t trip over signallers.  The barometer was also quite handy, being utterly removed from the usual methods of telephone and internet signal luxuries. We had asked everyone to bring some wood for the fires, and sawdust – in the end I acquired a boat load of sawdust, but was very grateful for everyone’s wood contributions.

Best clothing for wet camping tips

Friday afternoon brought with it torrential rain. I actually quite liked that. My rain kit comprises of a Driza-Bone Sou’Wester, A Barbour Wax Jacket, trawler fisherman  waterproof trousers, RAB Gaiters and Asolo boots. A sou’wester is one of the best things I’ve purchased in recent years – they don’t restrict head movement like hoods tend to and gaiter / boot combo mean you don’t get cold and / sweaty feet like you can do with welly boots after a prolonged period.

Campsite midge protection tips

Near inland water, in North England and Scotland at this time of year – until mid September ish, midgies can be an extreme irritant. We’d purchased full midge protection – including mosquito head net hoods (although they look silly, and are a bit restrictive do the trick). Avon Skin So Soft (as used by the Royal Marines, so I’m told) – which acts as a base layer that midgies cant bite through and some deet wipes. All based covered. I also find smoking helps (although wouldn’t recommend unless you already smoke!) and a woodfire also help.

Best clothing for hot camping tips

As little as possible. Don’t forget the sun block!

A bunch more photos:

Click the image blow to see the photo set, or click here to start a slide show»

On Saturday night after a nearly full on Matt Spesh we went camping. It’s getting harder to find a campsite that fulfils my exacting standards these days but I enjoy the hunt. One that allows fire is an absolute must for me. I’ve banged on about this so much before, I’ll spare you the rhetoric but lets just say it’s a must. Another important factor is the place its in. Water is good. Forests / woods are good. Rocks are good. Roads are bad. crammed in regimented plots are bad. Somewhere that I’ve never been to before is good.  In my quest to find campsites that ticks the above boxes (the latter is getting harder and harder) I’d previously earmarked Rough Hey Wood Campsite and clocked a write up on The Happy Campers website.

Arriving at Rough Hey was a bit fiddly for our long wheel base van but we got there without too much bother. Slightly worried caretaker type people living in an on site teepee were unsure about letting me on in the van as it had been raining and as they and I knew,  big front wheel drive vans are rubbish in the mud. After a bit of persuading and noting the clement forecast they let me on. It was really quiet (to be expected for the time of year). Geographically odd place – a flat field with a gorge on one side and an old disused railway track on the other. No end of interesting tracks and walks. It’s a really peaceful safe-and-secure feeling spot surrounded by a sycamore and birch wood. A single portion of dog poo position directly under Eirene’s foot glummed us for a bit – so we moved the van a bit and all was well again. It wasnt long before our friends D & G turned up, and with an hour or so’s light to go we headed out into the woods to gather some wood. The kids loved that. Getting involved with a proper grown up mission. Obviously, years of campers had had the idea before us and we had to treck quite a way in to find a few dead limbs, but we found them and dragged them back so I could saw them up. Luckily, I’d brought a couple of bags of log with us so this was just a luxury top up. They were selling bags for (the going rate of) £5 a bag, but I always prefer free over costs money.

As we were getting back we noticed J&H and their kids and pip the perma pup had turned up. A lovely evening ensued, involving drinking, laughing, stories, catching up and attempted sky lantern launching (we were asked not to launch any more after the first one). Woke up the next morning with a rather thick head but cups of tea and saussage sandwiches soon sorted that out. Spent the morning chilling and chatting whilst the boys whittled sticks and went bear hunting.

A lovely spot – proper bargain price of £10 per van or tent considering it has decent showers and toilets (I’m not sure if that’s the off season price or not though). I’d defiantly stay there again and would  recommend it to anyone that liked proper camping in places that are not purpose built caravan farms.

We’d booked a campsite right on the beach front - Mossiscastle Strand. First impressions (after coming from the natural beauty and ‘right up our street’ style campsite that was Poppit Sands) of this site were.. a bit of a culture shock!  Nothing exactly ‘wrong’ with the site but we were not over enamoured with it – it seemed to be lacking charisma perhaps – The regimented / allotted space for each of the hundreds of caravans and motor homes had the feel of a fiberglass suburbia. The rules and regulations, the high volume of branded sports goods and English football tops just didn’t sum up the true character of the Emerald Isle for us. Our first plot was right next to a water point – mistake! The drains were backed up and it stank. An infestation of mating flying ant type things wasn’t too pleasant either.

We’d not stocked up the van a huge amount and the shops were a mile or so away.I’d read that the shop was “fully stocked with food”. I wouldn’t quite say ‘fully’ stocked – fully stocked with a few tins, and a chiller with sausages and/or bacon and frozen ready meals and frozen pizza. It would have been nice to have some fresh veg – even I, the perpetual carnivore was craving a bit of salad. I popped into the take away around the back of the shop (pizzas and deep fried fayre) and asked if they could do me a salad box. They looked at me as if I’d just asked for a pianoforte. Flat nose, no salad. There was however,one culinary highlight – fresh croissants available every morning.

We moved to a new spot after the first night though and things started looking up. Our new plot had a much nicer feel to it and was right next to the play park – A simple but safe park – a nice hang out for the hoards of kids including ours.

The showers were 1 Euro for 8 minuites. This irked me. I didn’t clock this fact on any literature or the website.  I understand why they do it I guess – to conserve energy and water (and make a bob or two) but we paid  fee for the site then found we had to pay extra for the showers. If I could have been bothered, I’m sure there’s some kind of Trading Standards argument. Every cloud has a silver lining though.. The Yorkshire man in me decided that Eirene’s whimsical purchase of a solar shower perhaps wasn’t so silly (as my initial assessment had concluded)  after all. I rigged up a shower cubical out of some high windbreaks and brought the shower down from the roof of the van. Perfect! It was so nice! The odd bit was the kids walking past looking at me like I was a freak. (How close to the truth I hear you cry)

The beach was a saving grace – a blue flag beach backed by sand dunes and only less that 100m from our van. Gorgeous sand and fairly quiet on the ‘campsite stretch’.  We really enjoyed playing in the sea, sitting around and reading or just watching the world go by. We’d been looking out over the same sea but from the other side of the pond earlier in the week. Sunrise instead of sunset over the sea.

We had some great success at crab fishing one evening at a tidal swamp creek just north of the campsite.  We bagged 26. Jay 13 (winner), me 11 and Sophie and Eirene one each. We did the crab race thing – where you wet a runway of ground back to the water and tipped our bucket out and watched them break for the border. Much fun. Realised a few days later that we were getting eaten alive by some bugglies biting our feet and anckles – lashings of Avon Skin So Soft. Avon Skin So Soft? the beauty product that has great anti midge qualities - according to the Royal Marines, who still use this curious lotion.

After Wexford, we trucked up through the Wicklow Mountains to Powerscourt Waterfall – fed by the river Dargle. (I just wanted to use that fabulous word. Dargle Dargle Dargle. ) It’s the highest waterfall in the British Isles. Cracking play park for the kids there – one of the best I’ve seen. Nice ice creams which we sampled and Eirene and I knocked back a couple of very passable espresso’s. Good cup of Joe. Pretty little short circular walk through the surrounding woods – mixture of Oak and Fir mainly was sampled and we were also there on a day when they were filming a TV show called Camelot. The best bit of that was watching the climber de rigging the protection for a recent stunt that we just missed. There were some really impressive pop side trailers as well. It felt quite cool as they let Clover park with the big vans.

We trundled over the Wicklow mountains – the scenic route and dropped into Dublin around tea time and got to Eirene’s dad’s house (Hello sir! hope you’re doing good!) . Lovely to see him. Lovely to be in a real house with a real fridge (fully stocked) and  drinks press (fully stocked!) and a cooker. And electric things. And literally all the home comforts. It’s a lovely neighbourhood. Nice bunch of bright kids knocking around. Very safe double cul-de-sac type arrangement with a huge playing field at one end.  I dragged the stumps and a couple of cricket bats out of the van and introduced the Irish lads to a game of cricket. We played a short kwick cricket style game (minus five runs instead of out, if your caught, bowled etc.).

Cooked a lovely bit of Irish Rib Joint on the Sunday to set us up for the early start on Monday. Stroke of top luck on the ferry – we had paid for Club Class (you get to sit in a much more chilled out lounge, and it has ‘free’ cheese, biscuits, fruit, salmon on bread, bits and bobs, teas and coffee and wines) but the ferry was really busy – Manchester Utd’s first game of the season and the she was full to bursting with Irish Man U shirts so they opened up the club lounge to all. My name was called over the tannoy. Uh Oh thought I. When I arrived at the desk, they apologised profusely and gave us 5 meal tickets (full British fry up with all the trimmings, thanks very much) and keys to a private suite. The James Joyce Suite it was called – second biggest (after the Presidential suite) on the whole ship. Lovely it was too! We made full use of the sitting room, kettle, bathroom and then had a refreshing kip on the super comfortable beds.

From there on in there was a bit of a chug from Holyhead to home but we’d had such a lovely restful, fulfilling holiday that we didn’t mind it. Such a nice adventure. Super strong family bonding.

See some photos from it all over here>>

We’ve spent the last week or so doing a bit of chugging around in Clover (a van). We set out for Wales and aimed for this field in Poppit Sands

a wonderful hidden gem of a spot we were introduced to last year – a back to basics camping spot in the with superb views, interesting people,  fires allowed and a very short walk to one of the best beaches I’ve come across. We spent a few days chilling, eating, sitting round the fire at night under the spectacularly unpolluted night sky showing her diamond cloak to full effect. Beach combing, ball and frisbee games, crab fishing, and splatting on the beach – some of the simplest but finest pleasures in life! Our stay in that part of the world took in a walk across the cliff tops to Witches Cauldron with a swim to a land locked sea cove and beach. An incredible stretch of coastline with some of the finest cliff views I’ve seen.

By Saturday we were ready for our next appointment – an evening with William Shakespeare. Our good friend Henry and family have been involved with a company called The Abbey Shakespeare Players that puts on an excellent play each year in St Dogmaels Abbey. This archaeological site of historical might is an apt setting for the dramatic might of the performance we were lucky enough to see – The Winter’s Tale. I’d secretly harboured a bit of a ‘ I just don’t get what all the fuss is about’ attitude with Shakespeare. I’ve seen several incarnations of The Bard’s work including a very fine Hamlet at the Harrogate Theatre, and the obligatory school readings but I’ve never been truly wowed – don’t get me wrong, I’ve liked it all immensely but part of me though – what am I missing? Some people get a whole lot more out of this than I’m doing.   This performance –  possibly assisted by the idyllic and timeless setting, the mesmerisingly  brilliant acting and company but largly due to the plot line and sinker of such a good yarn changed all that. I am now an official, self confessed fan of Billy Bard, albeit a novice one. A few learned stories about some of the times of the man himself added to the allure – he was the Rock and Roll of his day. He is, or rather was super cool.

After the show we joined the after show party which took place at the mill house and mill pond over the way. Good fun that was! midnight coracle races, Welsh language song recitals and the true mark of a successful party – to have people still ‘at it’ the next day was fulfilled (not be me, for a change I might add!). The next day I fought off the hangover with some graft n sweating n drinking loads of water (a winning hangover cure) as we helped de rig the stages.

Following on from that, we went back to Poppit for a night and a day before catching the ferry to the next leg of our adventure – the other side of the St Georges Channel in Ireland. We’ve done Holyhead to Dublin countless times for this crossing we headed to Pembroke, an hour or so away from where we were, to board the Isle of Inishmore Ferry to Rosslare.

NB – the Ireland leg of this adventure and photos to follow…

Got back last night after a lovely camping trip to the Lake District. We didn’t see a single Lake though.

Fisherground campsite – lovely spot – part of this set of photos>>

Fisherground Campsite is reputedly (and I can confirm) one of the best campsites in the country for kids to enjoy. It’s got a really good adventure playground  complete with zip wire. It’s got a pond with an island and rafts. It’s got a train station with trains that go to the coast or up to the village to the East. It allows fire – a massive plus point in our book – an essential part of camping that so few campsites allow these days. It’s got a 3 acre mowed field for games and sports. It’s got a green team that really do look after the place and its residence – perhaps a bit to Victorian Dad about it at times, but at the end of the day – they do a really good job.

We’ve stayed at Fisherground campsite before – when we were there last time it was rather cold but this time we had the weather on our side. After grouping up on Friday night and imbibing a modest amount of alcohol we got up bright and breezy on Saturday. We made a check list of things to do – Play cricket, look at the trains (perhaps go on one), collect wood (they sell it there, but the Yorkshiremen in us knew best) , eat some nice food, have a few beers and play lots of Boules and Frisby. We did all of the above and added ‘game of rounders’ and ‘fly kite’ to the completed action list. The evening consisted of silly story time from the kids round the fire then we all turned in fairly early after all the days excitement.

Sunday – we got packed up just before the heavens opened. Rainy day activity plan kicked in – Museums. Barrow-in-Furness has The Dock Museum. This was fascinating. A converted dry dock, mainly on the history of (the biggest cul-de-sac in England – ) Bowness. Ships, Trains, Grimness, Engineering, Determination. We all really enjoyed it.

After that, almost by random I discovered that there was another museum on something quite close to our hearts – The Laurel and Hardy Museum in Ulverstone. This consisted of part of an old cinema with anecdotal and historical reference to the comedy duo, as well as memorabilia and a mini cinema showing back to back Laurel and Hardy classics all day long. A very pleasant end to a very pleasant weekend.

These are possibly the greenest words ever written on dragondrop. They are written on a device that is using 100% solar power. Arguably all devices are 100% solar powered really but this particular gadget is currently exclusively powered using energy from the sun collected using a solar panel which has fed a ‘desktop’ phone battery charger.

Here is the kit – guarded by Misty (a cat). The solar panel (eBay, £25 -a bit like this one) comes in a case that can be free standing, stuck to a window or clipped to a backpack and attached to a charger or gadget (eg MP3 player) via a USB cable. I’ve got a rotation of 3 phone batteries –  in good sunlight it charges a dead battery to full in a day – so I can carry on blogging, geocaching, photogro-faffing and generally digitally documenting whilst listening to music etc or using a BlendTec Blender®. even when I’m away from a mains power source – ie camping or a festival or other such deep adventure ops.

Dragongate festival was officially very much fun indeed. After hearing nightmare stories from the crew on site about main stages blowing down, roads in resembling a war zone and a catalogue of other worries, I was, well, worried. Turned up on site around 16:30 and was hit by a wall of positivity. Wasn’t expecting that and I think that’s the thing that turned it into a superb festival. It’s almost like it was a test from the festival gods to see how much the crew could take, testing them to see if they would throw any towels in or if they would come through stronger and wiser (which they did).

Friday night, musically was a bit sketchy – as the main stage collapsed in the tail end of hurricane winds the main stage acts got moved to the 2nd stage, rendering the second stage acts homeless (which I was one off – it was predominantly going to be a FIRE tent). None the less a superb time was had by all of us lot on Friday night.

Saturday the weather calmed down and the festival got it’s act together big time. The kids tent had a stack of activities going on, the Green Dragon (acoustic) also had a top line up as well as the main stage, Xilr8 and the Oblivion Pavilion tents. The Instruments of Jah were a nice bunch with their van full of analogue noise making dub apparatus. Very cool. As the site was near Harrogate, it seemed that most people decided to just get a day pass and Oxfam sold out completely for the day – the place got busy, the music got varied and excellent and sun got his hat on. The bar was the centre of the universe leading up to a crescendo of top acts – Scapegoat Kelly, Bird Man Rallies and Paul Middleton as headliner. I was over by our site in crew camping for most of this as it was Eirene’s turn to go for a wander but every report that came back had thumbs aloft. After 11 the music had to pipe down (licence conditions meets best behaviour) so we had a silent disco. We (FIRE) set up on the main stage. 200 wireless headsets were made available and (the idea I’d initially poo-poo’d) was surreal but fun! As a performer, when I’m playing a gig, a glance around the crown quite often to see who wants to ‘av it, who’s in a groove, who’s listening to the intricate bits, who’s listening to the primal beat of it all. I could still do that but there was such a non connection with people sans headphones. When I took my headphones off it felt very odd indeed. I’d been playing to a quiet tent. After my set (killed even quiet non amplified conga drumming after a while) I went for a wander to discover pockets of people here and there, dotted around the site, listening to our set! How odd is that – checking out a live gig from the comfort of your own camp.

Sunday was a bit of a fuzzy head day. I was massively thankful of Dave who ran the crew mess tent, making cups of tea, soup, foot, sustenance, normality! Pottered around, played a gig with Ricky Hebblethwaite and did some Jam stuff – organized (!) an impromptu kids jam where I had a bunch of kids on stage and let them have a drum and a sing to a backing track. They loved that.

Called it a day late afternoon as the kids were back at school the next day.

As I looked back at the site from the car park I thought “yep, success – look at that, a proper festival, in Harrogate. Who’d have thought it”. Hats off to Matt from Oxfam + his lot, Austin from Pro-Tech and his lot, Hats off to Allan from Smyth and us lot, Hats off to all the muso’s DJ’s and their lot, Hats off to Jules and her lot for the kids tent, but the biggest hats off from me are the people who weren’t connected in any way who turned up and had a wicked time, Spread the word, spread the love! See you next year.

Interesting weekend. Road tested Clover (A campervan) to make sure she was ship shape for an up-coming longer away mission. She’s fine. Invented a new rain / shelter system using a huge chunk of tarpaulin that we’ve got. Shanty Camping.

We were over in Markington near Ripon for a ‘festival’. Quite fun. Ace campsite (just behind the Yorkshire Hussar Inn, in Markington).

We got the very last pitch on the campsite – so lucky to get the one we did right behind the outdoor stage in a great spot overlooking the kids play park which meant we could sit and watch the kids from the comfort of our nomadic back yard.

The music was OK. Apart from perhaps one or two songs, it was exclusively a covers showcase of 50’s – 90’s North American music. Lots of blues, rock, a bit of country and some Motown. Rob Donnelly was one of the key contributors.

A whole roast pig, well worth the wait was served with all the trimmings – this was worth going for on its own.

We turned in comparatively early and got up to enjoy a superb morning in the sun where I cooked some top fried fayre in the van and listened t’ cricket on the LW radio. This blended into a lovely afternoon of sitting, reading and chilling. Hope to stick a few photos up on flickr later.

A back to nature weekend for us. I was initially a bit worried about the weather – it was forecast to rain pretty much all weekend but by the time we got the our campsite – it was Sunny and pretty much (bar 1 shower per day) stayed like that.
Hoggarths campsite just west of Keld in the upper corner of Yorkshire is the kind of place we’ve been looking for for years – a really natural chilled out, laid back spot that lets you have fires next to a river. In fact it’s next to my favourite river – the Swale, just where it first gets called “The River Swale”.
A bunch of lovely people made up our camp family, lovely scenery and enough of everything we needed. Friday night involved sitting round the campfire with happy heads on drinking beer n rum. Saturday sunrise I got to hang out with Jaygo for a bit, as the day woke up we dug out the cricket set and had played for most of the afternoon.
J & H turned up late afternoon which was great – we’ve not seen much of them since they left Harrogate – all the kids (6 in total) got on so well. They were so looking forward to seeing each other.
They al loved playing in the river which felt quite safe even for the little ones. Had a lovely fire that evening and the Sunday involved lots of fly fishing on the Swale. Met the owners of Hoggarths briefly after someone phoned through a message that a set of on site truck keys had been accidentally taken back to Harrogate! Lovely couple, lovely spot, very reasonably priced, hope to go back there at some point.

Third time lucky. Sometimes I’m not quite sure how to start a blog and (like just now) started, deleted, started again, deleted. It happens.

The space between the first paragraph and the second paragraph here involved a meeting that I’d forgotten about.

This third sentence I may actually get round to typing something that I was originally inspired to do so.. if I could remember what it was.

Went camping in sub zero temperatures last weekend. That was fun. Merino base layer, as read about on various how to stay warm websites was indeed a fantastic idea and kept me rather warm indeed. It was at an old friends house out in the sticks (ish). big tent, bands, DJ, a fire.. lots of old friends and food and drink and fun. Kids had a lovely time playing in the woods.

Last night went out with an old amigo ‘the gaffer’ from Bar Med. We had curry, beers and good laughs whilst reminiscing.

Anyway – this post has no wind in it’s sails. I’ll leave the waxing for another day.

Did indeed go camping – lovely site, glorious weather in Saturday over near Scarborough. Went to the Sea Life centre yesterday – top place. Sharks, sea horses, turtles etc. Did the gig last night – sort of.. It was good if not a bit confusing from an organisational perspective! At work now, it’s sunny outside. Wish I could be out there with my clan.

We’re off camping tonight – At Cayton near Scarborough. Nice sounding campsite.

We were ‘booked in’ to a campsite in Goathland called Brow House Farm. Our friends trecked up first from Harrogate (a not inconsiderable distance) to find that the camsite was full apart from a boggy field – not suitable at all for vans (or tents for that matter). The rest of the campsite was full. They had to turn back and we (2 other vans, 3 other tents) had to ‘tell the kids’ that we would not be going camping after all. Very upset. What a time waster. Left it too late to book anywhere else (nice weather reports combined with last weekend of the school holidays meaning all places were full – we were lucky to find a second option for tonight!)

Day 273 – FelixSurf, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

Superb adventure driven weekend. After studying the weather with more than a passing interest on Friday (as I was guest writing about weather for a blog at work) I worked out that the East coast of Yorkshire was looking like one of the best chances of getting some nice weather in the North (the mid and east were looking rainy)

Pretty much as soon as I got in we set off in the van. No real plan – just head east – where the weather was going to be nice. I’ve got an OS map of the area and once we were not far off the coast I got it out and looked for a suitable place to free camp. Horcam Hole was spotted – I’ve wanted to check that out for a while so decided that would be the destination for the day.

Horcam Hole – a huge natural amphitheatre which legend tells us that it was created when a giant named Wade, a Saxon chief, grabbed a ‘handful’ of earth to throw at his wife, Bell – the soil missed and landed to form the nearby hill of Blakey Topping. Quite a breathtaking place. A nice place to camp over – even nicer as there was a lovely couple with their dogs who’d also had the same idea camped next door (safety in numbers and all that). The local constabulary came by a few times and gave us a friendly nod and wave.

After breakfast we headed off to nearby Goathland, where they film Heartbeat. Chocolate box top picture postcard little village that amongst it’s other virtues has got one of the best kids playgrounds we’ve ever come across. After letting off some steam there, we pottered about – ending at the ye old world steam railway station. This was like stepping back in time – the tourists (who’s numbers had greatly increased throughout the morning) looked very out of place.

After that, on a tip off from our camping neighbours we headed for Sandsend – just up the coast a bit from Whitby. We couldn’t of hit the weather better – by the time we got there it was a gorgeous day. We played in a lovely little pool on the beach, I sat in our portable ergo chairs (which come into their own for a trip to the beach), paddled in the breakers (as pictured up top) and generally had a lovely beached afternoon. After that, a bimble into Whitby itself, where we picked up a huge back of fish and chips and drove up to the top of the hill to eat them, looking over Whitby and the abbey. An walk round the abbey and it’s buildings (it had shut by this point, but you can see ‘it’ just as well from outside the perimeter wall.) followed by a drive home.

Still hungry for new things to do today, we visited Alborough Roman Town near Boroughbridge. Not something I’d have been happy to pay £3 for adults for but we’re English Heritage members so were able to have a look for nowt. The ‘museum’ was a small room containing a few artifacts found nearby and the main event were 2 floor mosaics. Beautiful arboretum surrounding the remains of the original wall though – some lovely trees planted in Victorian times and an incredibly pungent Jasmine. which was worth the visit alone.

Stopping off at Conyham hall on the way home for a cuppa by the river, I got to sit in our camping sofa (a phrase which, incidentally has ranked really highly as a search phrase for people arriving at DragonDrop) with my tree identification books learning about trees (a self improvement excersize I’ve set myself).

Eirene had cleverly left some lamb on slow roast, ready to eat when we got back. What a grade A weekend of adventure. I’ve chucked a bunch of photos from this weekend on my flickr site.