So we're safely back from another successful weekend away
We set off early on a dull, yet dry Friday morning, after a final check and tyre pressure stop, we were on our way.
The great thing about setting off to the East Coast at 9:30 on a cold Friday morning in February, is that I think we may have been the only people in England to do this, which meant we had the roads to ourselves!
We got to our site, 'Spring Willows' at Staxton, about 5 miles from Scarborough for 11am, so 1:30 for a 65 mile journey, which passed without incident and the car averaged 25.4 MPG, not bad for a petrol V6 pulling an older unaerodynamic van.
Once we arrived we were greeted by a friendly receptionist who let us know about where to find everything, and we're advised where the touring pitch was and to pick our spot wherever we liked.
We soon found the reason we could pick any spot we liked, we were the only people there! :lol:
We got unpacked and set up, I realised I had made a mistake as I hadn't brought any wood blocks and all the touring pitches were on a slope , so front to back I had the rear stays quite extended as it was quite a big slope, I found some old wood some one else had left and procured it to make the gap at the rear a bit better.
Once set up I realised cleaning the caravan before I set off was a fruitless exercise as both the van and car were pretty much grey with road grime, ah well, more fun for when I get home, I think some mud flaps might be a good buy!
It was the first weekend the place had opened for the year so the swimming pool was closed, which didn't bother us as we probably wouldn't have used it anyway, and they were still carrying out some work onsite.
The only thing that wasn't ideal was the site when I last went, in about 2002 with my parents, used to be all tourers, now it's 90% statics, but the toilet block is still near the club house, and the tourers are up a hill, a decent walk from them, which isn't ideal for the wife if she had a shower and had to walk back with cold wet hair.
We had a brilliant meal at a pub that was about a 20 minute walk at a little village up the road on the Saturday night, the pub was called 'The Foxhound' and was packed, the food and beer was fantastic and I could certainly recommend it, we had a large meal and a couple of drinks each for less than £25 and the portions were huge and of brilliant quality, neither of us finished our meals!
But the owners were a friendly bunch, we were welcome in the bar when we popped in for a couple of drinks, and I'm sure we will be back in summer, hopefully it's a bit busier then and hopefully the A64 won't be shut over the weekend as I found out on the way home, which necessitated a big detour up some very narrow, very muddy single track lanes and a trip down Garriby hill, which seemed a lot smaller than I remember but if you know the area, used to be quite a hill that caught people out!
Can't wait to get back out now, wanted to go away this weekend!
Ordered some more bits to play with and install in the van instead though, going to add some USB ports for my iPad dock and get a nice thick runner for the front to protect the carpets, really pleased with how it has come together inside now
Oh and they look better now they are all clean again, never seen so much muck in one place!
There's 5 hours of a Sunday I wont get back!
I could write a lot more but I don't want to bore you all, really enjoying the van and the experiences we've had so far
Stay safe out there
Liam
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