BritStop – Page 4 – WanderLeefy Adventures (formerly Adventures In a Motorhome)

Feb Half term- The Peak District, Pt 1: The Crooked Spire of Chesterfield

February 16, 2014June 2, 2014Posted in 2014 Trips, Ale, BritStop, Historical places, Local Food, Wild CampingTagged ales, BritStops, Derbyshire, peak district, tourist attraction, town, trails, walking, wild camping6 Comments

Bluebell the motorhome is parked up in the car park at BritStop 518 (2914 book) overlooking the Derbyshire Dales and the town of Chesterfield.

We didn’t leave Norfolkshire til lunchtime as we’d had a busy day yesterday moving Keefy’s mum. We weren’t in a major rush, as all we wanted to do was see the Crooked Spire of Chesterfield, and then chill and have a couple of beers in the pub.

It was a very blustery journey across the fens, but we still made good time, despite us rarely going about 50mph. We passed through rain and sun then rain again, but by the time we reached Chesterfield we had a break in the rain so found a car park right by the church and so set off for a quick explore.

The spire really is worth a visit to see, the crook in it is believed to becau sed by untreated timber being used when it was built 700 yrs ago- it’s very Tim Burton like.

After a good circuit round the church ( there wasn’t much else to see in town) we drove the 4 miles or so out of town to our rural retreat of a pub which is on a hill so overlooks the valley. We had a good chill, watched a film, napped, went for a couple of beers and watched the International Space Station pass overhead, then turned in for the night.

It was so peaceful during the night, and this morning we were treated to a gorgeous sunrise over the valley. We are feeling chilled to the max, and are looking forward to driving up to near to a Chatsworth house today for a good walk – and weathers looking promising so hurrah!

In other news, I’m somehow picking up 4G from here which is a first for me, and although we weren’t able to pick up wifi from this site, my 4G on my phone is tethered to my ipad and Keith’s ipad and seems to be powering it very impressively. Currently I’m online uploading photos and writing this blog post, and Keith is online streaming music from Spotify, and enjoying his new Bluetooth speakers, which are fab btw (more on those another time). I will just have to keep an eye on my data allowance! :-/

Have a great Sunday folks, and happy half term to fellow teachers out there!

Until next time

A lovely day on the Norfolk coast

February 10, 2014June 2, 2014Posted in 2014 Trips, BritStop, Mini Break, NorfolkTagged beach, britstop, coast, Norfolk, winter1 Comment

Bluebell the motorhome was parked in the huge carpark of BritStop 219 on Saturday night. On one side was a large field where we were lucky enough to watch the deer, on the other side was my dad and Jenny’s motorhome, behind us was the sea ( well half a mile walk away) and in front of us was a rather exquisite restaurant.

We started the day with a good leg stretch (4 miles no less!) around the pretty village of Burnham Thorpe, which is where Lord Nelson was born and raised. There are some beautiful country cottages in this part of the world including a gorgeous refurbished manor house complete with moat! Gorgeous and a very pleasant way to spend an hour or so, drooling over everyone’s houses and debating on what we will buy when we win the lottery!!
Haha

The weather was bright and blustery and certainly blew away the cobwebs that had accumulated after the previous nights tipples in the pub!

After our pleasant walk we drove the 6 miles to our next destination, Britstop 219 on the coast, and waited for Dad and Jenny to arrive. We’d planned to get supplies from the farm shop that we knew was nearby, but travelling out of season put a stop to that, as it was closed. So we ended up having our lunch at our host pub, despite being booked in for dinner also.

It didn’t matter- lunch was delicious and was taken in front of a roaring fire with a pint or two of Aspall cider. I can certainly think of worse ways to spend a winters weekend! Feeling slightly guilty after a couple of pints and a luxurious lunch, we went for another leg stretch, down to the beach. Unfortunately the recent high tide flooding had resulted in the access path being shut off so we wandered the mile or so circuit round the village, stopping at another pub for a wee break and a wee dram!

It was soon time to get our glad rags on and head to the restaurant for our dinner. Keith and I had fresh Brancaster mussels to start (yum yum) and then I had fish pie for main, whilst Keith had cod in red wine sauce (yes, red wine!) – Dad had the biggest portion of battered haddock I’ve ever laid my eyes on and Jenny had fish cakes. The whole meal was delicious and we enjoyed a good catch up.

The sea air and hearty meals (not to mention the booze) soon took its toll though and we all started fading at around 9:30pm, so we bid farewell and hit the sack. I’m glad we had an early night, as the wind really picked up and we* didn’t sleep too well, fearing we were going to blow over (* I say we
– more me – Keith managed to snore his way through the storm!) Luckily we didn’t blow over and the early night meant we woke up fresh as daisies ready for a morning trip to Brancaster beach.

We’ve never been to Brancaster beach before, I don’t know why- it’s gorgeous! There really is something about visiting the beach in the middle of winter, when it’s deserted and blustery don’t you think? We loved every second- the wind was doing its best to knock us over, the dog was going nuts running around and exploring, we had so many layers on we looked like we’d gained 5 stone each, but my goodness it was exhilarating and we couldn’t stop smiling!

What’s your favourite beach to visit in the bleak mid winter?

Perfect pilgrimage to Walsingham Abby, Norfolk

February 7, 2014June 2, 2014Posted in 2014 Trips, Attractions, BritStop, Historical places, Mini Break, NorfolkTagged beach, britstop, coast, nelsons blood, Norfolk, snowdrops, walks, winter1 Comment

Bluebell the motorhome is parked up in the car park of BritStop number 220
Her owners have been drinking in Nelsons local tonight after a very pleasant pilgrimage to Walsingham Abby today.

When we left home the weather was gloomy and wet, but we hadn’t even gotten out the village before the sunshine peeped out and the rain stopped.

We’ve visited Walsingham twice Walsingham Abby before and today’s trip was with the intention of visiting the grounds (£4 per person and dogs allowed on lead)

The snowdrops were simply spectacular, there were literally MILLIONs over the large site, all in full bloom- a real treat to experience

The weather was really behaving, so we enjoyed a picnic in the tranquil but chilly grounds and then set off on a little saunter round the pretty village, which is like a time capsule (apart from the shrine building which is in contrast very new looking and made from bricks!)

We’d got a map of a walk from the village off walk4life.com and this took in part of the Pilgrims Way- a very well made track that apparently is ancient. We really enjoyed the walk, the weather was great and it was good to stretch the legs without getting too muddy!

After a good 4 mile circuit, we drove the van the 6 miles or so to our overnight stop for tonight. We visited here back in July and enjoyed it then, and it’s close proximity to both the coast and Walsingham, along with its homemade Nelson’s blood rum (hic) made sure we would return.

We are online using our new gadget- the motorhomewifi directional antenna, which has not only picked up the pubs wifi, but also several bt hotspots. Not bad for a tiny village, so we should get on brilliantly with it on our travels.

Keith’s new favourite thing at home is checking the speed of our newly installed fibre internet, and he’s in his element to discover he can check the connection speed we are getting through the antenna too!

Yorkshire Dales- The final Chapter

November 2, 2013June 2, 2014Posted in 2014 Trips, Ale, BritStop, YorkshireTagged ale, BritStops, drinking, eating, England, food, walking, wild camping, YorkshireLeave a comment

Bluebell the motorhome is currently hurtling down the A1 Southbound, somewhere between Doncaster and Newark! We’ve decided to head homewards today as we both fancy going to the village fireworks event tonight, but my gosh, we are heading home fully relaxed, well fed, watered and a little stiff round the knees from the walks we’ve enjoyed!

We had a fantastic 2 nights at Brit Stop no 713 (near the viaduct 😉 ). We asked them if we could do 2 nights, as there were two walks that we fancied trying out and they were more than happy for us to stay. It was win win- we must have spent £70+ on their legendary a Station ale the first day alone, and day 2 we drank them out of the Ale (whoops!) and enjoyed a hearty 3 course meal off their huge menu! For us, it was really nice to not have to drive, and we found that even after a rather immense walk we totally chilled down and felt tons better for it (if not slightly hungover!!)

We did two walks near Ribblehead, one at took us under the viaduct and another that took on some of the Ribble Way. The latter was really adventurous! We found ourselves having to try out some survival skills fresh off the tele- on finding ourselves at a river that needed to be crossed, with no sign of a bridge, we remembered a tip from one tv prog, take off your boots and socks before wading through- it keeps them dry. So off came our boots and socks, Keefy lobbed them across the river (thankfully he’s got a good aim!) and off we went! It. Was. Freezing! Luckily we got through despite a near miss with Jazz where the current dragged him off and he almost slipped out of his harness! And we were very pleased to have dry socks and boots to put on the other side!

After our two nights at 713 we travelled south to Malham and parked up at the tarn. We had a walk that took in all the main sites, the Tarn, the Cove- a huge natural limestone pavement on the top of a big gorge, the pretty village, Janet’s floss waterfall, and Gordale Scar crag. At 6.5 miles (and a lot of challenging paths) it was a great walk but very tiring, although we were really lucky with the weather! After the walk we headed for our final BritStop of the week, a farm shop about 2.5 miles away from Malham. We enjoyed looking round the shop, and stocking up on the essentials; bacon, beef steaks for tea, local cheese and some veg! All the ingredients for a hearty local tea, beef in reed wine stew from my new campervan recipe book- thanks Sam! 🙂

We had a lovely evening chilling and enjoyed listening to the tawny owl that was on the tree above us. Sadly we couldn’t see it, but it was a lovely sound to hear.

So now we are on the home run, having had a brilliant week of eating drinking sleeping and chilling! We are so glad we chose to do the Dales, we’ve seen so many awesome things here and it’s been nice doing a smaller scale tour with less driving.

BritStops once again has been beyond Marvellous. We’ve managed to centre our tour around a small area taking in local pubs and farm shops and we cannot recommend it enough to anyone.

Holiday highlights are Ribblehead, Fountains Abby and Malham 🙂

Until next time

This post is fuelled by the Station inn ale!! ;-)

October 30, 2013June 2, 2014Posted in Ale, BritStop, YorkshireTagged ale, BritStops, drinking, eating, England, food, walking, wild camping, YorkshireLeave a comment

Bluebell the motorhome is parked in the car park of our 4th Brit Stop of the week! We are high up in the Dales, where it is clear but blustery, that sort of weather where after a long walk, it only seems right to take advantage of the log fire in the pub!

We’ve had a brill couple of days, departing Harrogate yesterday morning and visiting Fountains Abby, which was stunning with the autumn colours in the trees. We spent a great couple of hours there (I actually think the £9.50 each entrance was more than reasonable with the Abby, the hall, the mill plus miles of beautifully landscaped gardens to explore- plus Jazz was welcomed in too!)

After our visit to NT Fountains Abby we stopped at Ripon to visit the cathedral to see the 6th Century crypt, very cool! And the prison museum, very creepy! We then carried on to Masham, home to Theakstons brewery and the MAsham sausage- both of which we sampled extensively 😉

We then headed to our stop for the night, an old Brit Stop hotel/bar in the heart of Wensleydale. It had a fantastic roaring fire and we were able to continue our Theakstons and Masham sausage tasting into the evening as I cooked us a sausage stew from some local Marsham sausages, which we washed down with a couple of bottles of Old Peculiar… Hic 🙂

Today, we got up bright and early, and tackled Buttertubs- a high pass that links Hawes to Thwaite. On the summit you can see these marvellous limestone stones that have been caused by years of acidic rain falling onto the limescale rocks to cause these 100 ft deep gorges. It got its name Buttertubs as legend says that in the olden days men used to store their butter there between market days, to prevent having to carry it down the hill then back up the next day.

We then made our way to Ribblehead, which is where we are now. There is this fantastic viaduct here which with the backdrop of the rolling dales, it’s very atmospheric. We’ve had a lovely walk this afternoon, and then a good session in the pub where we are staying tonight and tomorrow. It’s got some brill ales on, wine, whiskeys and food. What more could we want!!!

Until next time

This post is fuelled by Theakstons ;-)

October 28, 2013June 2, 2014Posted in Ale, BritStop, YorkshireTagged ale, BritStops, drinking, eating, England, food, walking, wild camping, YorkshireLeave a comment

Bluebell the motorhome is out and about for half term, despite the weather warnings! We were supposed to go to Kent this week, but yesterday when we were due to leave we (luckily) caught sky news and learnt about this storm that was supposedly heading Kent way. Needless to say, after a few hours of umming and ahhing, we departed East Harling and rather than heading south, we decided to had north. To be fair, it doesn’t take much for me to consider visiting Yorkshire, it’s a well known fact I love it here, and any opportunity for me to carry on showing Keith that it’s not all grim up here, il gladly take.

3 hours later and a very very good journey traffic wise ( perhaps everyone else was taking the advice plastered on the tv- only make necessary journeys….) we rocked up into a rather large car park of the BritStop we had set the sat nav for- a 14th century village pub, promising log fires, real ale, and good grub. Perfect, just what we were after (who isn’t?!) We had a lovely night sampling their local ales, chatting to the very friendly staff and of course, being a Sunday night, catching up on Strictly! That’s right- the pub had strictly on their bar tv- can’t remember watching it in such a brill location- beer on tap, fire… yes I was in heaven.

After a very good, long sleep we had a fry up, and set the motorhome towards Knaresborough. We’d read about its famous viaduct and knew that Mother Shipton, the prophet was born here. Nothing had prepared us for how beautiful it was. The viaduct and river was so pretty, and the old houses stuck out of the rock reminding me of Dinan and to some extent the Dordogne. It was lovely. The weather certainly helped- we kept hearing on the radio about the chaos in the south of England, but here we were in our sunglasses enjoying the autumn leaves and breeze. Lovely

We visited Mother Shipton’s cave and the petrifying well. It was a great place to visit- we liked the fact that our pampered pooch Jazz could also enjoy it with us. The petrifying well was particularly amazing- basically anything that was hung there turned into stone by the minerals in the water after 3 months, and there were examples of teddy bears hanging, turned into stone, hats, gloves and even a lobster shell.

We also enjoyed the Halloween figures dotted around the site…. Creepy or what?!

After a really enjoyable day we headed towards Harrogate, where we found our next Brit Stop pitch within walking distance of Harrogate centre. It’s a not a pub, it’s a shop, but the owner was very friendly and also a motorhome owner. We enjoyed an evening stroll into Harrogate, which is where the Old Peculiar came in… Great night, great day! It’s good to back touring 🙂

Until next time x

Category: BritStop

Feb Half term- The Peak District, Pt 1: The Crooked Spire of Chesterfield

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A lovely day on the Norfolk coast

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Perfect pilgrimage to Walsingham Abby, Norfolk

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Yorkshire Dales- The final Chapter

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This post is fuelled by the Station inn ale!! ;-)

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This post is fuelled by Theakstons ;-)

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