Lealholm to Leyburn

We’ve been for another walk recommended in our Beautiful Countryside book. It took us to a place called Falling Foss in the heart of the North York Moors National Park, we parked in the car park and followed the footpath down the course of a small river called May Beck where the woodland was beautifully lit by the afternoon sun, and Prince was enjoying dipping in and out of the water. Eventually we came to Falling Foss which is a lovely waterfall cascading over a 30 foot drop. On the top of the waterfall is a remote house called Midge Hall, until 2008 it was derelict and in a bad state of repair, the new owners, a family from Wales have made a wonderful job of the restoration and have opened up the garden as a tea garden, they have some lovely outdoor seating and even a large yurt for functions which has a huge table and chairs inside, as well as a wood burner and a cd player.. We had a lovely pot of tea and slice of cake before following the footpath through the woods back to the car.
That evening Linda went to the local WI meet in Lealholm where they were having a talk from Graeme Aldous about Nell the sheepdog who made 2 films for the York Moors national park, she met a very nice group of ladies who were very welcoming and chatted about our adventures the whole night. By the time she got home phil was tucked up in bed!

The day before we left Lealholm we headed out on a walk from the site, we walked up to the trig point up on Glaisdale Rigg where we had fantastic panoramic views of the moors and dales and could even see as far as the coast by Whitby to the east. To the south we could see the radar base at RAF Flyingdales, part of the US controlled Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, it is a huge square tower that sits on top of Snod Hill. We’ve seen it from many angles while on this trip as it is such a prominent feature in this part of the moors, so much so that we keep thinking it is following us! After having our picnic sat on a grass verge we continued our walk down into Great Fryup Dale where we passed lots of lovely houses as well as a couple of friendly horses, and then as we were passing Fryup End Farm we saw one of Linda’s WI ladies having a chat with a friend, she recognised Linda straight away so we said hi and she introduced her 'man friend' to us!

On move day we awoke to rain and hail showers and so we were up around 9, we made a start at tidying and getting the awning down. This had to be done quick, between all the showers, and proved to be a success packing into its bag no problem, we packed the van and hitched up before going off in search of Martin to say our goodbyes. We found him in his barn, he had been busy that morning inoculating all his calves ready for turning them out into the fields opposite, we got talking about internet and he told us a story about how he accidentally damaged his phone line with his tractor, only for BT to install a new cable which improved his speed by 4 times! We gave him our blog address, and before we left he showed us into the farmhouse to show us the impressive fireplace.. We walked through the lovely kitchen which and through into the lovely comfy sitting room where there was a huge fireplace taking up the whole of one wall, it had a wood burner in its centre and above that engraved in the stone were the names John & Elizabeth Robinson and the date 1777. Martin said the farmhouse had been around longer than that, and prior to the farm there was a manor house on the site, it was really lovely to see, and very kind of Martin to allow us in, we were sad to leave Wild Slack Farm.

We then headed off to Cow Close Barn CS in the Yorkshire Dales. When we arrived we knocked on the farm door and the owner popped out to show us to our pitch which was between 2 other vans, but in a lovely mown flat field with beautiful views from the west round to the east. The farm itself was very tidy and the site well kept, and the welcome was great. We got on with setting up, Linda in the inside and Phil putting the awning up, this was the 3rd time with the new awning and it went up much easier and faster than the first time (which took the two of us 3 hours with the instructions, and 2 attempts at assembling the frame, thank goodness no one was watching then).

Phil got up at 7am the next morning to do a local ride he’d plotted on the gps. It was a lovely clear morning, and looked like being a nice dry day. The 18 mile ride took me over Preston Moor, next to the military firing range, and then down towards a small village called Grinton. The views down to the village were fantastic, and typical of the Yorkshire Dales, the ride then climbed sharply up to Greets at 1,600 feet and had great views over Wensleydale, then it was down a fantastic, fast, descent that had me whooping down to Castle Bolton. This quaint little village is dwarfed by the huge castle at one end which is half ruin and half inhabited, it is now used for functions and weddings as well as being open to the public. After a few photos it was a big climb and some road riding that took me back to the van.

We then decided to head out to Hawes armed with a Country Walking map and description. Hawes is a nice little Yorkshire town with lots of small shops and a few pubs, we parked on street just outside the town centre and walked back through the town before heading out over the bridge and into the dales, we were soon to be heading through fields with plenty of squeeze styles and ladder styles. After a lot of climbing we were well above Hawes and looking down the length of Wensleydale, this is where we decided to stop for our lunch admiring the view while watching a few jets fly by. We then continued along the track where we stumbled upon an open disused mine entrance, ever curious we both went in for a look, using brief blips of 2 second mobile phone camera flash to have a look, about 30 meters in the mine was blocked, so we about turned and carried on our walk. We walked past High Shaw caravan park and through some nice woodland until we came to the Green Dragon Inn, Our guide sheet said that through the inn was the highest single drop waterfall in England, Hardraw Force, so we had to go through to have a look, to our surprise there was a £2 charge each (which we later realised we could have avoided by sneaking down the alley!) but we paid and went for a walk up to the falls. While very impressive, and the overhanging rocks and trees were amazing, the falls weren’t as big as we were expecting. Prince enjoyed it though and had a swim in the clear water. On the way out we stopped and had a pint while sat out the front of the pub, and then headed back across the fields to Tonks.
That evening we met up with Julian and Carol who we first met when we stayed in Wareham (in the New Forest) and had since been reading each others blogs when we realised our paths crossed nearby again, so I emailed and we arranged to meet at their motorhome. We had a lovely evening and ended up chatting until 11:30, comparing notes on caravan sites and talking about how great life on the road is! It was really good to catch up with them and share notes with someone doing a similar thing to us.

Next day we decided that we should head into Leyburn first this morning to do some shopping and get the car tyres seen to as one of them was suffering uneven wear. First stop was a small industrial unit up the road where there was a tyre shop and a brewery, the tyre shop was useless, and he didn’t even know what tracking was (he seemed more clued up for motorbike tyres), so we gave up on him and went over to the Wensleydale Brewery. There a young lad was on duty and in a very uninterested but friendly fashion gave us a whistle-stop tour of the brewery before showing us the shop where we bought a couple of bottles. We went on into Leyburn where we parked the car in a very steep car park (field) and did our shopping in the market which had sprung up in the centre of town. On returning to Tonks we discovered we were completely blocked in by a cattle trailer and a tractor, so we decided while we were waiting we’d pop across the road to the cattle market for a nosey. After walking round we spotted all the farmers heading into a nondescript door and decided to follow, inside we discovered 2 auction areas in full swing so we watched for a while. The cattle were hearded in one by one, and prodded with a stick round the ring, meanwhile the auctioneer shouted a load of unrecognisable nonsense before the cow in question was chucked out again and the next one arrived. It was hugely entertaining and most of the farmers there seemed more interested in chatting to each other than bidding, we were very careful not to scratch our heads because at one point I think we nearly bought a Limousin! When we returned to Tonks we were free to leave, so we stopped at another garage in Leyburn which was much more successful and Tonks was booked in for a tracking check on Monday. Then we went on to Masham, another lovely little town and the home of the Black Sheep and Theakstons Brewerys. We had picked up a leaflet from the site which gave us a great town walk to do with lots of history attached to the area, we had ice creams on the way round and even went into the church to admire the stained glass. Afterwards we went into the very impressive Black Sheep Brewery where they have tours, a shop, restaurant and a pub on site. We had a pint in the pub before heading home to await the arrival of Phil’s friend Gav who was visiting for a couple of days. Once he had arrived and we had eaten the two boys headed into Leyburn for a few scoops. We went to the first pub we came to which was a busy place with lots of the local kids, we managed to get on the pool table, so had a few games of pool before heading on to the next pub. We went in round the back where we saw people coming out, and the back bar turned out to have a disco! No-one was dancing, and the bar area was much more crowded, so we had one in there before heading to the Sandpiper. This was a lovely place, much quieter and more of a food pub, so we had a pint at the bar before deciding to sample some of the vast selection of whisky they had on offer.. This meant we were suitably oiled for the walk back up the hill!

We were all up early the next day and headed out to Hawes to do another walk from Country Walking magazine.

This was another 6 mile walk that took us up the other side of the valley to the top of Ten End, a climb of over 1,000 feet where we had fantastic panoramic views of the Dales. On the way up a particularly rocky track, just after we had stopped for our lunch we saw a group of motocross riders making their way down a very rocky track. The last rider was making sure everyone got down ok, so he stopped for a chat and told us they had done over 100 miles so far and still had a way to go before returning to base! Not surprising some of them looked knackered! On the way round we took lots of photos and had a really nice time before emerging in Hawes by the Wensleydale Creamery, so Linda and Gav went in and bought some cheese before we headed into Hawes and got some ice cream. We ate it by a nutty horse that tried to nibble Linda’s clothes before heading to the Crown for a pint!
On the way back home we were commenting how inviting the river alongside the road was looking, so Phil pulled over the car and announced that we were all going in for a paddle. We found a great spot where the rocks on the river bed were worn flat and were comfy under foot. We took our shoes off and all ended up in the freezing cold water up to our knees, very invigorating! When we got back to the van Gav realised he had lost his sunglasses, so Phil and Gav headed back to the spot and were up to their knees in the icy water again! Luckily, the return trip was a success, and we found the shades sitting on a rock at the bottom of the water, phew! That evening we headed out to the Sandpiper for a meal, and finished it off with whisky and Grand Marnier at the bar.

Gav was heading off the next day. We walked into Leyburn and Gav brought his car down so we could have a coffee before saying our goodbyes and waving him off.
In the afternoon Phil went off to Hawes with his bike and rode the route that we had walked the day before, but backwards. Up the steep grass climb, then back down to Hawes via the very rocky track that was great fun, but was only ridden at the same speed as the motorbikes, after claiming the day before that he’d go faster!
Meanwhile Linda took the dogs across the local fields where she was harassed by a flock of aggressive sheep and a herd of young cattle, only to reach a high stile that Prince refused to go over, so she had to turn round and be followed back again by the assortment of farm animals!

Tonks had to go to the garage in the morning so that they could look at why there was uneven wear on the tyres, so we dropped him off at half 10 and went for a walk. We went up to Leyburn Shawl, a long limestone escarpment with a footpath running all the way along the top which had lovely views down Wensleydale, and looked down on the town of Wensley itself. When we got back they still hadn’t looked at Tonks, and asked us to give them another hour, so we popped back into town and had a pint sat outside in the sun! Back at the garage again they had looked at Tonks and made adjustments to the tracking, apparently he needed his wheel bearings adjusting, but they hadn’t done that. He charged us £25 “for cash” and we felt we might have been ripped off, luckily when driving Tonks he was no longer pulling to the left when we released the wheel, so they definitely did something!

North York Moors National Park

We have now moved to a wonderful little farm campsite in Lealholm in the North York Moors National Park. Arriving at the site we could tell straight away we’d found a gem, the owner, Martin was straight out to greet us and he walked us down the site and let us choose a pitch, and once we had picked the perfect one with breathtaking views he helped us level the van with some of his blocks! I asked him if we could take some photo’s on the farm sometime, and he quickly said ‘come now and have a look at the geese I’ve got hatching!’ In his utility room he had an incubator with around 9 goose eggs waiting to hatch and one newly hatched gosling sitting there! While we were there Martin said he needed to check one of the eggs to see if it was live or dead as it had not been moving at all, so he filled the sink with warm water and floated the egg to see if it would move, after a while of no movement he said it must be dead, and would have to get rid, it promptly started wiggling round the bowl as if trying to get out, so had earned its reprieve!
We went back to the van to continue setting up when our next door neighbours came back, she was very, very chatty and told us all about the goings on at the site over the past 2 weeks! No sooner was the awning up, and before it was pegged, she was out again saying how well we did and inviting us into her van to meet their parrot “Blue”. She was a rose coloured cockatoo and was very talkative even though you couldn’t understand a word (similar to its owner)! Eventually we made our excuses to finish pegging the awning and left. After taking the dogs a little walk in the woods behind the van we went into Lealholm in the car to have a pint and get some chips for tea!

Phil got up at 6:30 next morning to go for a ride! Riding from the site and heading on a circular route to Scaling Dam, a total of 17 miles, it was a route downloaded from the internet, and despite having GPS there were a couple of occasions where the track on the moor disintegrated to nothing and I had to take an alternative route. The scenery was brilliant on the ride, and on the way back into Lealholm I clocked 41mph in the 30 limit (what speed camera!). We then went over to Glaisdale, the next village where there is a great butchers who gave us a huge bone for the dogs.

Back at the van we headed out for a walk. We did a 3.7 mile loop that included the hills surrounding our site and gave a great view of the van, also lots of stiles which we had to lift Prince over because of a bruised back (he bumped it while jumping in the car a few days ago). The walk included 2 lovely sets of stepping stones crossing the river Esk, one in a field and one in Lealholm village. After we got back we were sat outside the van when Martin came over to tell us he had someone coming to give his bull a pedicure, and if we wanted to watch we could. The guy turned up in a big 4x4 with a large hydraulic contraption attached to a trailer, they manoeuvred it into place and unfolded it, then after a bit of wrestling with the gates and a lot of wrestling with the bull he was in. Once he was trussed up the whole thing tilted and lifted the bull up onto its side! He didn’t look amused, especially when the contractor took a grinder to his toes.. 3 more cows followed the bull into the pedicure torture, and while they were being done I got chatting to the contractor about bikes, it turns out his 3 young lads do downhill and they have been to Shropshire for races a few times, he’s even heard of Rave Racing!

Next day Phil’s bike had to go to the bike shop in Guisborough, as it needed a service on the forks and shock. We then headed in Tonks over to Grosmont where we hoped to see the steam train on its 6 mile journey into Whitby, when we arrived there was a train arriving at the station, so we took some photos of the engines from the platform.


We drove on to Whitby where we parked on top of the hill on the headland so that we could explore the impressive ruin of the Abbey. After we had a walk around the grounds and the visitor centre we headed down the 199 steps into the town, but not before we stopped at an old Land Rover Series 1 which had been converted into an ice cream van, we both had a 99 each for the journey down the steps! We had a wander around the town, and had a brief stop outside a pub to sample an ale and enjoy some chocolate cakes we had picked up!

On the way back to collect the bike the next day we took a call from the bike shop to say the forks were scored by grit and would need new legs, the mechanic said it may last the remainder of the trip before it comes to that, so keep riding them until they go, then send them off for repair seemed the best option. We picked up the bike, and on the way back we went over the moors for a stop at Danby Beacon, where Phil had been on his bike a couple of days before. The view was panoramic, and the wind was howling up there, we let the dogs out and all had a run around before dashing back into the car.

We then carried on towards Goathland, a village a few miles away from us which is where the TV series Heartbeat was based. We drove up hills and down dales on some very steep, winding roads, and passed through the lovely villages of Glaisdale and Egton Bridge on the way. When we arrived we parked in the car park for free as the attendant had just packed up for the day, walked down to the local shops and took some photos by some of the old cars they had on display, then we went past Scrip’s garage and funeral directors, and called into the Goathland Hotel (Aidensfield Arms) for a pint and a packet of crisps!

Robin Hood’s Bay is a historic fishing village just south of Whitby which hugs the cliff side, the top of the village is made up of more modern houses and shops, and the bottom of the village is the historic fishing port with much older buildings which are making a good job of not sliding into the sea. We parked on street at the top of the village before heading down the steep hill into the old village, the road is on a 30% descent and the houses and shops are all squeezed in together like sardines in a tin. It’s quite a sight and a lovely little place to visit, we headed down to the bottom where the road turns into a causeway for fishing boats to access the sea, we had a look round the visitor centre and Phil had a walk up the stream exit tunnel which heads under the village houses and was once used by the smugglers to hide their contraband as they brought it into Britain. We had a pint in the pub which overlooks the causeway before heading back up the hill. On the way back up the hill Linda popped into a little shop where local childrens author, James David was doing book signings, he was a lovely frielndy chap and very interested in our travels!

We then headed over to Ravenscar to do a 7 mile walk which took us through Ravenscar, the 1880’s holiday resort that never was, there are roads, drains and even a deserted railway station there, the infrastructure for the resort was all built before the developers went bust, and the resort was never finished. Some of the plots were sold, and there is the occasional house dotted around the area, the houses look a bit lonely as they look like they were meant to be terraces, but ended up as detached. We also walked past the WW2 radar station which sits on top of the cliffs, built in 1941 to listen out for German planes, you can still go in the lookout tower and see the old nissen hut in the field. On the return leg of the walk we followed the disused Ravenscar railway line which took us to the abandoned railway station which opened in 1885 and was last used in 1965. We continued our walk down the hill to the site of the old Alum works. Alum was the chemical used to fix dye in materials, and the site at Ravenscar (or Peak, as it was called then) produced Alum between 1640 to 1862 before cheaper synthetic based materials were found that could do the job for less. We were both exhausted after the walk back up to the top, so headed home for tea!

We had seen the previous day a notice board on the side of the road for a motocross event happening today, so we drove over and stopped in a layby near the event. We walked into the woods next to the event and sneaked around until we were right next to the track with an excellent view. It was Round 3 of the British Masters Series, and the action was great! Lots of noise, huge jumps and loads of riders meant we were entertained for quite a while, oohing and aahing as the riders flew overhead! Definitely good value for money as we got to see it for nothing (apparently spectator entry was £10 each!) and we were probably closer to the action than the paying spectators! After a while we had a walk through the woods and back to Tonks, where we headed home.

When we got back Phil had to go out on his bike after all that excitement, so he did a short ride from the site up to Fairy Cross Plain, a 309 ft hill which is one of the main hills we can see from the site. While he was there Linda got out the binoculars and gave him a wave from her comfy seat with a glass of wine! Once back and showered we both sat out the front of the van in the sun with a drink in hand and a barbeque on the go. Perfect.

The next day Phil got up at an ungodly hour to go and ride the red route at Dalby! When I got there it was too early for me to get a ticket so I had to park on the road outside the forest and ride in. The red route is quite entertaining, mainly singletrack, they have kept it quite fast and flowing. On the way round it links up with the black route, and I couldn’t resist doing a loop of that too while I was there so early! This meant that by the time I got back I had done 32 miles and was exhausted! Not too exhausted to appreciate the silence of the woods at that time in the morning, spotting 4 deer as well as the sun coming up through the lovely green spring leaves on the deciduous trees, it was great, and so was the track!

Flim Flam

Our next camp site in Flamborough turned out to be a little field with space for 5 ‘vans, and further up is a much bigger field with a smattering of caravans dotted about. There were a few vans lined up on the right, one of which had a warden sign in it, but as no-one was around we just picked a pitch on the CL and set ourselves up.

We’ve taken the dogs on a walk from the site down Danes Dyke, an ancient bank and ditch earthwork that dates back to the Bronze Age and is now part of a nature reserve. The paths took us past the golf course and down on the beach where the dogs had some fun and Linda had a paddle (Phil kept warm in his jumper, still recovering from man flu!). We headed back through the woods spotting our first group of Bluebells in flower as well as an abundance of other colours.





Phil woke up feeling a bit better the next morning, but Linda woke up with a bit of a sore throat, so we are now concerned for her well being and survival.
In the morning we headed out to Bridlington. The town is a strange mix, with arcades, fairground rides and cheesy souvenirs mixing with lovely Victorian B&Bs and houses along the sea front and a ‘normal’ town centre behind it all, given all the other horrid seaside resorts we have visited on our trip we didn’t think we should like it, but the town was strangely endearing! We had a wander around and bought Prince a new collar from a pet shop (lucky him!) and then visited Bridlington Old Town, a lovely area of narrow streets and little shops and pubs, and a huge church which was bordering on the size of a cathedral!
Back at the van we had 3 new neighbours arrive in the time we were away, all setting their units up ready for the bank holiday. We had a chat with our motorhome neighbours Ron and Maggie, they are both retired and bought the motorhome a few years back, they go to Spain in it every Jan/Feb and have also had other Europe tours, we chatted for a while about life on the road and they said they were from Bexhill in East Sussex which is by the Kloofs site we stayed on, they were here for the weekend, so we saw them a few times!
After lunch we headed out to Flamborough. We parked on the side of the road on the way to the headland and walked towards the lighthouse, on the way we passed some strange little houses which looked more like shacks, we also passed the golf course and stopped to watch a group of 4 teeing off (no pressure then). We also passed the chalk tower, built in 1674 it was built as a lighthouse and is the oldest surviving complete lighthouse in England. We walked down to the headland and onto a lovely beach in a cove surrounded by the white chalk cliffs, part of the beach was sandy and the rest was a well polished and clean chalk plateau, very unusual. We headed back up the cliff path and up to Flamborough lighthouse, it is open to the public, but closed on Fridays, typical! After a walk along the cliffs watching the sea birds nesting we headed back to the car just in time for it to start raining..

We had decided that we wanted to head back down towards the Humber, to go and see Spurn Head, a huge spit of land that sticks 3 miles out into the mouth of the Humber estuary. We took the dogs for a walk along the beach down the Spurn, on the way down we could clearly see the remains of the old road and railway which are now being slowly taken by the sea. We also saw the remains of the WW1 Coastal Artillery Batteries, the emplacements have now fallen into the sea due to erosion and you can clearly see the huge foundations of these concrete defences. Once back at the car we tried to drive down the Spurn, but were thwarted by the warden who said that as it was a nature reserve dogs were not allowed, even if we kept them in the car. Princey called him racist and showed him his teeth which didn’t help! (this is a complete lie by Phil! - editor).

Linda wasn’t feeling very well when she woke up the next day due to the cat flu she had picked up from Phil, so we took it a bit steady. We went to Scarborough and walked up to the castle which is the dominant feature on the skyline. The castle and keep itself is now a ruin, but is still very impressive. We had a walk around the castle grounds, exploring the keep and the battlements. At one point we overheard a child saying to her dad ‘I couldn’t live in a castle, it’s too cold!’, appropriate words we thought as the north wind made a good effort at chilling us to the bone. Afterwards we drove down to the beach and parked on street, dogs out, we headed down the promenade and down the steps to the beach, at the bottom of the steps there was a big pool of seawater blocking our access so we had to climb over the wall to dry sand. Linda very elegantly crawled and tumbled her way over the wall to the amusement of some spectators above! After a brief play in the sea we realised the tide was coming in and we were being cut off, so it was back to the wall and a bit more climbing. This time Smudge was a bit more reluctant to go through the water and tried some climbing herself before we forced her into the water, we tried to get her to enjoy it by sending her several times, but unfortunately the torture didn’t mean she enjoyed the pain!

Today Phil had the great idea of taking our ill, battered bodies to Dalby Forest to do some walking and biking. Arriving at the forest drive you have to pay a £7 toll, and then you can drive down the 9 mile drive and park at any of the many car parks. We chose the car park at Dixon’s Hollow, where all the MTB tracks start from. A quick bite for lunch and we were off, Linda going for a slow plod with the dogs on a badly marked footpath and eventually following part of the bike routes. Phil rode the black route which was used as the world cup course only the weekend before, the course was short but good fun with some nice steep and tricky bits on the descents, there was also a bike park to play in with some jumps, log riding, slalom course and other things-for-silly-little-minds. Great fun was had but due to our illness we were both very snotty when we were back at the car. On the way home we drove through Thornton-Le-Dale where we have stayed previously, and happy to report that the village has lost none of it’s charm.

We have now moved to a lovely little site in the North York Moors, in a tiny village called Lealholm.

Lincolnshire Wolds

Move day today, we did our packing up of the van before saying bye to our neighbours and heading off. After meeting Vic at the Broadlands site we are now packing the van differently when we move, with more weight at the front up to its maximum 100kg, Linda drove this time and we have both noticed a huge improvement in the van’s stability on the road, so thanks Vic! We left the site at around 11:00 and arrived at Nutty Cottage Caravan CL at about 12:30, the welcome from the ownerwas great and she gave us lots of tips for places to visit in the area, and said we could roam in her fields and woodland with the dogs, the site consisted of a newly seeded field which was extremely dry after the weather we have had so we had no problem pitching, and we were in place in no time.

We were woke up early this morning by our neighbour who was having trouble with starting his BMW X5, he asked if I could drive Tonks over and give him a jump, which I duly did. It turned out there was nothing wrong with his battery as his starter was merrily whizzing away but failing to bring the beast to life, He elected to call a local dealer.
Later on we drove the scenic route to the Humber via the villages of Market Rasen and Brigg before we reached the Far Ings nature reserve where we parked in an empty car park and began our walk along the banks of the Humber. The Humber Bridge was soon in sight and despite being such a modern construction it still draws your eye away from the surrounding scenery because it dominates the flat landscape, a number of photos later we came to the Far Ings visitor centre where we stopped on the picnic benches and had our lunch in the hazy sun. We continued our walk until we had passed under the Humber Bridge’s bulging belly and then followed the footpath until we were on it’s top. It was impressive from underneath, but walking along the top past the huge cables that span the Humber does make you wander how it stays upright. It was quite busy on the footpath with cyclists and fellow walkers, but not as busy as the A15 only a few feet to our right and about 5 feet above us. Once on the other side we walked down through the small country park to the rivers edge where there is a disused windmill and a pub. It would be rude not to, so we sat on the bank and had a pint while having a giggle at the wedding party inside the pub (family fat were squeezed into one corner of the pub’s uninspiring interior), and the born again biker boy who turned up and started taking photos of himself with his Honda. Before our journey back over the bridge we stopped for an ice cream at the visitor centre, where there was an interesting display on the construction of the bridge. We were very relieved to see Tonks after our 9 mile walk, and we drove back to the van this time via Grimsby and Cleethorpes, sad to say that they live up to Grimsby’s first 4 letters with both sea fronts being stuffed with tacky shops and amusement arcades, we weren’t inspired enough to stop and get out so we headed straight back.

Phil wasn’t too good today, and his sore throat from the previous day was threatening to turn into something more sinister (oh oh – man flu alert).
We took the dogs a brief walk on the field before chatting to Brian, our next door neighbour, as he was packing up to head home which was a shame, after waving him off we headed out to take the dogs to the beach. Soon after leaving it started raining, and steadily got heavier until we got there, we drove out of Sutton on Sea and down a quiet lane to a ‘car terrace’ - a car park on the edge of the sea where your car gets to look out to sea while you play in the sand. We took the brolly to try and fend off the torrential rain and the dogs had a bit of a play on the beach before we gave up and headed home

The next day it was soon obvious that Phil’s sore throat was turning into a near fatal bout of Man Flu. We thought we’d take it easy so we headed into Louth for a mooch. We headed into the town centre and found some on street parking by Louth Church, which has the tallest steeple of any town church in England, and was very impressive. We ambled round the church and into the nice little town centre where we picked up a few bits before heading back to the car. On the way back to the van we drove down the Bluestone Heath Road, as recommended by our book from Neil and Nicky, it is an ancient path that runs for 14 miles from Welton-Le-Wold to Calceby, and because it sits on a ridge line on the top of the Wolds the views are fantastic all the way along. We had a few stops at some of the viewpoints as well as a stop to watch some single seater cars racing around the Cadwell Park circuit (you get a good view from the road).

Phil decided not to go out today as he was about to die at any moment and his body would be easier to recover from the caravan site.
Linda took the car out to Saltfleetby Nature Reserve and went for a walk in the reserve, saw some old blokes playing about with a tractor and boat and then walked back along a track alongside the marsh, carrying on past the car and visiting a part of the reserve at Rimac which has been landscaped with new paths and signage explaining why the sea is getting further away from the land here. The drive to and from the reserve was across very flat land reminiscent of the Norfolk Broads with straight ditches dividing the fields. On the way back to the van I visited Saltfleetby Parish Church as I spotted its wonkey tower from the road and it looked very interesting. The church is no longer in use but is maintained by the Church Trust and local people. It was lovely inside with just a few pews remaining and a large font at the rear of the church with whitewashed walls and lovely woodwork. There is a small community here now but in the past there was a busy port before the sea started to recede. It reminded me of Dungeness, not so bleak and much greener but with odd houses dotted here and there, funny little roads that didn’t go anywhere and a near derelict car showroom (it was definitely open as there were cars outside the first time I went past!)
Meanwhile Phil watched two episodes of The Wire in bed, and generally felt sorry for himself, how very brave in the face of this near death affliction.

We have now moved over the Humber Bridge and on to another small site at Bridlington.