Tour of North Yorkshire and Northumberland - day 6

Morning

Knowing that we didn’t have far to drive, and an 11:00 entrance ticket, we took the opportunity to do a few little jobs… vacuum the motorhome out (how much hair can one dog produce?!!) and ensure that water was full to the brim and waste and toilet empty before leaving to go off grid again.

Our journey out was well planned to avoid the road closure, and it worked fine. I had hoped that the A road stretch would feel more, well, A-roady, which it didn’t. At some point, I must find out how they define and A and a B road, as some are decidedly similar.

Chester’s Fort and Hadrian’s Wall

I’d booked this one because it is an English Heritage site and so, as members, it’s free to us. The car park wasn’t huge but there was a section for coaches, so we parked there. Apparently, when we joined, we got a car sticker, which we should have put in the window. I can’t remember seeing one, though I may have stuck it in the car and forgot about it. Anyway, it wasn’t in the motorhome window, so Neil went to find out how helpful the staff were feeling. Thankfully he returned with a second sticker.

This was a definite mountain trike day, as most of the site is over grass. They have allowed some of it to grow into wild meadow areas but have mowed quite wide paths to show where to walk. It was very beautiful and interesting to look at the ruins of the fort and read about life there. Unfortunately, all the ruins were fenced and the entry points were by steps, so Neil could have a look round but I couldn’t. Whilst I would have preferred to be able to join him, I had half expected this, and was happy to just do what I could.

The path down to the river looked too steep and tricky, so I let Neil take Liggy down for a paddle. She seemed to really have enjoyed that, as she came bounding back to me, with all the enthusiasm of a small child, desperate to tell me about her adventures. Neil tried to persuade her to jump up on my lap with her wet paws and harness but she flatly refused. Clever girl!

Lunch

Lunch was a bit of a disaster. We decided to buy something from the tea rooms but they didn’t have a huge choice and weren’t very sure about allergy information, beyond the allergens book. This is the problem with having a non-standard allergy. Beta-carotene is in so many things, you can’t even begin to list them all. I ended up getting a sausage sandwich, and they said they’d use butter instead of marg. Unfortunately, when it came, it was on seeded bread, and that generally means pumpkin seeds, which I know from prior experience is not a good move. A bit disappointed, I ate the sausages, gave Neil the bread and then headed back to Zerubbabel to toast a couple of crumpets.

Museum

The museum was pretty basic, a collection of engraved stones and artefacts. It was nice to be out of the sun for a while though, as it was another hot day. The only thing that really struck me, when looking at the stones and their inscriptions, was that verse in Acts 17:23, where it says, “For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found and altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.” They really did have altars to every god you could possibly think of. The contrast between that and the monks at Lindisfarne and Whitby was quite stark.

NE98/21

Mrs Google had kindly offered us three options for our journey south. They all included long stretches on windy B roads and none looked particularly appealing, so, on the advice of a lady at Chester’s, we popped into Fourstones to fill up with diesel and then took the most direct route down the B6319.

The first part, whilst pretty, was very narrow and windy, and had a lot of trees over the road, making it feel quite dark and enclosed. After a while though, the trees thinned out and although the road was still narrow, the views were spectacular! We realised afterwards, we were driving right through the centre of the North Pennines.

At some point, Mrs Google decided we were becoming too familiar with B roads and took us on some (fortunately not too long) detour along what was little more than a farm track. It was one of those situations, where it looked a little narrow but still a road but soon had us wondering whether it was actually a real road. I have to confess feeling more than mild panic at one point, but then it spat us out, back onto B roads. By contrast, the B road suddenly felt quite wide!

Then we began to climb… higher… higher… over cattle grids (at least three)… higher. It was stunning! I was really hoping that when we reached the top, there might be a viewing point, but alas, no. However, Neil spotted a couple of Chinooks coming our way, and this motivated him to pull over and give me chance to take some photos.

The BritStop

I get the feeling this is one of the more popular BritStops. The car park is huge and you just give the staff your registration number and that allows you to park overnight without paying for parking. When we arrived, the car park had many day trippers parked up, some lying in the sun on the grass, just enjoying the atmosphere. By now, it was full afternoon heat, so we treated ourselves to an ice cream – expensive but much needed and very tasty.

The hotel isn’t wheelchair accessible, so that confirmed our decision to order a meal to take to the motorhome. There wasn’t a huge choice and again allergy information was lacking, so I ended up with a burger. It was okay… wouldn’t have been my first choice, but it was tasty and filled a hole… quite a big hole actually. In fact the hole might not have been quite as big as the meal! I swear, I’m going to start ordering my meals from the children’s menu!

After dinner, by early evening, we were alone in this huge car park, and we took Liggy for a little walk before retiring to a game of cards. It was fascinating, watching out of the window, as wild rabbits and even pheasant came out of hiding to reclaim their environment.