Ann and Roger travel: July 2021

Saturday 17th July 2021

Today we decided to return to our house in Devon. It was a long hot drive with both M6 and particularly M5 very congested with holiday traffic. We had a couple of stops at service areas along the way.

The drive today from Bainbridge to our house was 346 miles (557 kilometres) long.

Back home nothing much seemed to have changed apart from the vegetation being much more prolific than when we left.

Our journey lasted 34 days. In total we travelled 2488 miles (4006 kilometres).

Thanks to anyone who followed our travels on this blog.

That's all for now. Roger.

Friday 16th July 2021

Today we came south by a rather roundabout route stopping a couple of times.

We saw this heather growing on a little crag.

We stopped to take in this great view from high on the North Pennine hills down into the valley of the River Eden.

There were plenty of others around to share the view. We are gaining the opinion that the main holiday period is upon us and it's time to return to our "other house".

Tonight we're staying in the car park of the Rose and Crown pub in Bainbridge near Hawes, North Yorkshire.

The Rose and Crown is another Britstops host. When we turned up and introduced ourselves the barperson was very apologetic about the fact that they were fully booked for food this evening but they were more than happy for us to stay over in their car park.

The countryside is beautiful around here - this is Wensleydale!

The sun has just gone down at the end of another nice hot day.

Today we travelled 69 miles (111 kilometres). We are at: N54.310 W2.098

Bainbridge Street View

Thursday 15th July 2021

This morning we walked down the small distance from the aire to the salt marshes.

This area is a National Nature Reserve.

The flatness of the salt marshes is in stark contrast to the nearby hills.

We walked through some ancient woodland.

The trees here are mainly oak but there is also birch, ash, alder, hawthorn, hazel and sallow.

Back at the aire we serviced the van before leaving.

The middle van pictured here had come in and parked in our former space before we had even finished taking on water!

Today we travelled east taking on diesel at Annan and then crossing from Scotland to England at Gretna. We travelled through Brampton and Alston and stopped for the day at the Nent Hall Hotel.

Nent Hall Hotel is a host in the Britstops scheme in which participating venues allow motorhomers and campervaners who are Britstops members to stay for free for up to 24 hours without obligation to buy anything at the venue.

I'm sure almost all Britstops members do buy something when they stay at a host venue. We had a really nice meal in the hotel restaurant. Ann had meat pie and I had fish. We both had nice puds to follow all washed down with real ale.

It has been a hot day. We have a nice shady parking place here.

Today we travelled 69 miles (111 kilometres). We are at: N54.806 W2.378

Nent Hall Street View

Wednesday 14th July 2021

Today we travelled east stopping to buy groceries at Newton Stewart and then at Dumfries to buy some bits for the van. This is the fine river bridge at Dumfries.

We stopped for the day at the aire in Caerlaverock south of Dumfries. We are parked in a beautiful oak wood glade. This is the view from the side door of our van. The aire here is a community initiative which is free but donations into an honesty box are welcome. We put in £3.25 which was all the cash I had.

(Regular readers of this blog - if there are any - will know that an aire is a term used to denote dedicated motorhome/campervan overnight parking areas where services such as fresh water and sewage disposal are usually provided).

Today we travelled 89 miles (143 kilometres).

Caerlaverock Street View

Tuesday 13th July 2021

Today we travelled south and stopped to visit Logan Botanical Gardens.

This is a really sensational place.

In a recent poll it was voted the best garden to visit in the whole of Britain!

I could fill this blog with the many photos took on this visit but that would not adequately convey the specialness of this place. You have to come here yourself to experience that,

I liked these white plants. I didn't get their name.

There are the remains of a medieval castle in the garden wall.

This pond is reminiscent of those at the Alhambra Palace in Grenada!

We saw this mega plant in the conservatory.

This is the famous Gunnera Bog. Gunnera are like two and a half metre high rhubarb plants.

These are Tasmanian tree Ferns. They are very large.

We exited Logan Gardens via the giftshop where Ann bought some cards. We travelled a small distance east and stopped for the day at New England Bay. Here's the view from the side door of our van.

Shortly after arriving here we saw a weasel next to this blackberry bush just outside our door. Of course it was gone before I had time to photograph it. I've seen several of its ilk before - stoats, a polecat and several otters but never a weasel.

The area where we are parked is just outside a Caravan and Motorhome Club campsite however there are no nasty notices here restricting overnight parking which is of great credit to the local authority Dumfries and Galloway County Council.

There are a few other vans here this evening.

When the tide goes out there is a really nice sandy beach here.

Today we travelled 49 miles (79 kilometres).

New England Bay Street View

Monday 12th July 2021

I had great difficulty getting the van out of Moira and Martin's driveway this morning. I tried to turn it round twice in front of their garage on both occasions unsuccessfully. I tried backing out three times succeeding at the third try. In the process I scraped the van on their driveway wall. The wall is okay - I checked! We travelled south to Girvan and parked on the seafront. Here's the view from the sliding door on the side of our van.

The local authority here has really got its act together. There are several dedicated campervan only parking spaces along the seafront.

Parking here costs £5 for the night. You can pay online via the Ring Go app or by phone.

This parking scheme is in my view absolutely best practice. Van travellers will be happy to pay £5 for overnight parking and while they are here they will be spending money in local shops, restaurants etc.