Tour of North Yorkshire and Northumberland - day 1

Wolds Village

It's funny how you can live close to somewhere for years but never go there. This is one of those places. We must pass it every time we go to Scarborough but I've never been inside until yesterday.

I wanted to have a look at the gallery (trying to become more interested in visual art) and obviously we planned on having afternoon tea. I later found out it was #NationalCreamTeaDay.

The car park isn't huge but plenty big enough that we could park Zerubbabel (our motorhome) in it. After a quick look around, we decided it was a normal wheelchair venue, as surfaces looked good. Neil took Liggy for a quick woodland walk, which I could have done in my mountain trike but it was too nettley for me and what's the point in getting stressed on holiday?!!

There were pretty flowers everywhere and associated bees and butterflies doing their thing. Liggy obviously really liked the smells as she was trying to get to the flowers as we went in. Some of the paths were a little narrow for me with Liggy attached but she's pretty good now at turning round and walking backwards. 

The gallery and tea rooms were quaint and pretty quiet. My parents joined us for a cup of coffee and a scone with jam and cream. We sat in the gallery area and talked about the different styles of picture. At some point we will go back and buy some pictures. They are all beautifully framed and there was a series of prints depicting vehicles in the 1980s(ish). I liked one with a Mr Whippy van and Neil liked one with a Chopper (bike).

Across the courtyard, there was an accessible toilet which was a good size and well laid out. It was clean and really easy for me to use with Liggy attached to my chair. It's the little things like this that make visits work.

What made it a little more difficult (again it's the little things) was that there were loads of crumbs on the floor. Liggy doesn't understand about allergies and it's difficult to stop her eating them when they are absolutely everywhere. The liquid poo that followed later in the afternoon was inevitable but I find it frustrating. Trouble is, when it's sofa style seating and low tables, people are going to drop bits. It would help us, if there was a broom available so we could clear a Liggy space.

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Arrival at our first stopover was very straightforward. Neil went in with the BritStops book and let them know we were here. We had booked a space with electric hook up (£10) plus a meal to eat in the motorhome. I had spoken several times to a lovely lady called Verity, who had gone way above and beyond to ensure I could have a pie of my choice minus carotenes. Whilst it's not one of the well known allergies, it's a real pain trying to avoid carotenes because they sneak into all kinds of foods.

Dinner was delicious! We set the table in the motorhome and Verity brought it out, all nicely plated up. There was no less sense of good service just because we didn't eat in the restaurant!

After a little walk, allowing Liggy to get rid of the rest of the afternoon's crumb lickings, we decided the pub looked safe enough to enjoy a drink. It was quiet, well ventilated and clean. My only little niggle - why do they do this??? - is that the accessible toilet was down some stairs. To be honest, it was easier to just pop back to the motorhome, rather than them get the ramp out, which would have had to be too steep anyways.

It's funny, it sounds like sleeping over in a pub car park should be an unsafe thing to do, but it's actually really nice. There were quite a few others doing the same. It was quiet and I got a good night's sleep until about 4am. At that point the dawn chorus woke me and the crows especially, were having a right old screech. To be fair though, I only sleep very lightly at that time of the night so anything wakes me. The best sleep is always before midnight!

So this morning, while I type and Neil sleeps, some of our fellow motorhomers have moved off. I've had the hot water on for half an hour or so, and I think I'm going to shower and get dressed and ready to walk Liggy. Then we can head off and start day 2.

Tour of North Yorkshire and Northumberland

I'm posting through the week in a family group on Facebook but I won't publish these blog posts until we get back next weekend. This holiday has been a while in the planning. We were originally going to take a week in April to experiment with a whole week's holiday using BritStops. However, Covid kept us all in restrictions and many of the pubs weren't open and it just didn't feel like the right time, so we postponed it until now.

BritStops

I should probably explain what BritStops is and how it works. Various businesses sign up as BritStops, which means they are happy to have motorhomes and campervans stay over for a night in their car parks. In theory, you don't pay anything and don't have to buy anything, but they hope you will have a look at their offer and spend a little in return for the free night's stay. You also usually have to pay if you want electric hook-up, but only a handful of places have facilities, as they are not campsites.

Each February, the BritStops book is published. It costs £28 at the moment, which sounds like a lot if you're not sure about the whole idea... but that is the average cost of one night on a campsite, so I think it's good value.

The book is divided into areas of the UK and then, within each area, there are many places (pubs, garden centres, farm shops, etc) that are listed with a code number. On Facebook, there is a BritStops group, where members post reviews. The reviews are strictly checked and have to be approved before posting. You can't mention the name of the place, only it's book number, so that there is value in getting the book. The advantage of this is that each place is contacted annually and the book is updated. If it was all for free (say, like searchforsites) you wouldn't know whether each place was still allowing stopovers or what facilities they had.

So, in keeping with the rules, I won't be mentioning the specific places in my blog posts. 

Our Tour

We have planned a circular tour, with day trips and stopovers. Originally, it was going to be all BritStops but we ended up having to make a couple of last minute changes because of the ongoing restrictions and the 21st June becoming the 19th July and all that. 

As I said, I won't mention our BritStops by name, but roughly speaking, here's the plan:

Sat 26th June - Wolds Village and then a pub stopover on the coast, south of Scarborough.

Sun 27th June - Scarborough and then a pub stopover north of Whitby.

Mon 28th June - Beamish Museum and then a pub stopover nearby.

Tues 29th June - Holy Island and then a night at the Beadnell Bay Camping and Caravanning club site.

Wed 30th June - Alnwick Castle and then a night at the Bellingham club site.

Thurs 1st July - Chesters Fort and Hadrian's Wall and then a pub north of Barnard Castle (no eye tests planned).

Fri 2nd July - Hiking around High Force Waterfall and then an ice cream shop just off the A1.

Sat 3rd July - Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Gardens and then home.

Mostly, in keeping with the theme of this blog, my posts will focus on accessibility of the days out and venues... how this kind of holiday works for me as a wheelchair user... maybe a bit about how coming out of Covid-life is going... that kind of thing. 

LPG

I'll leave you with a photo of a pre-holiday visit. Our motorhome doesn't use Calor Gas, where you empty your bottles and then exchange it for a new one. It has a system called Gaslow. It has two yellow cylinders and a fill up point on the side of the van. You have to find an LPG filling station (there's plenty around at the moment) and it's a little like filling up your car with fuel, only the machine is a bit quirky. 

They're all a little different but you attach a hose to the van, remember to open the gas bottles (which should have been closed whilst driving there) and then hold a button to fill it. When it's full, you release the hose and it makes a big whooshing noise, like a mini-explosion. No matter how much you know it's coming, there's always a moment of mini heart attack when it does it. 

The advantage is, you can fill up any time. You don't have to be on empty... and it costs less. We had used about £4 worth of gas since last September, using it for cooking and hot water on every trip. That's really not bad! 

So here's our filling point: