Yorkshire Road Trip- Day 1
Friday September 4th and day 1 of our Yorkshire road trip- Lulus’ first tour, and our first Big Adventure! Now I know that, for all you seasoned vanlifers and tourers, a 10 day trip around Yorkshire is small beans, but for van newbies, like us, this is a big new adventure! As a (former) tent camper the thought of erecting and striking a tent every day for ten days would be hellish, but for us motorhomers, it’s a breeze! And we can’t wait!
The night before departure day, we do as much as we can. The water tank is full. Electric is hooked up, the fridge will be good and cold. Wardrobes (cupboards!) are readied. Dry and tinned goods are stashed in every available nook and cranny. Marley is whisked off to Linda and Jim at his favourite kennels http://www.pawsawyle.com, tail wagging as he hotfoots it up the path!
The Big Day Is Here -Llandeilo to Whitchurch!
We aim to be away at 10:00am and manage to get all the last minute stuff loaded, and actually get on the road by 10:10am- RESULT!
The satnav is set. We discover that the journey time to our first stop is 2h 45m, not 1h 45m as we thought. Hmmm. A quick call to our daughter, who we are meeting for lunch when we land, and all is well.
We are happy and excited! As you may know from our last post-https://luluvantravellers|holidayplansscupperedtwice! , our last holiday was just about a year ago, two weeks in Kefalonia last September. We are TIRED! We need this!
Things are trundling along quite nicely. The weather is good, the traffic is pretty light, we are all on track. Until we meet the poop tanker. We follow said tanker for a while. We follow it for a while longer. In fact we follow the tanker for what seems like hours. Normally this pace would suit us fine, we are all for the slow road, but we have a daughter to meet, and a van to settle in.
Finally, with tempers fully intact, we arrive at Whitchurch Marina www.whitchurchmarina.com. It’s our first time to England since face masks became mandatory, so naturally I forget mine and have to go back to the van! Check in is easy and painless, and we make our way down to our pitch, pitch 4, the first pitch of our first tour! A small moment of joy!
We haven’t even got squared up when “You can’t pitch there!” appears at our window, the caravaner from pitch 3. “ We were told pitch 4 is vacant”. “No, You can’t pitch there, we’ve friends coming and we’ve booked pitch 4 as well”. We pull off and move down to pitch 5, which is actually a nicer pitch, firmer, with no ruts, and a full view of the canal. Pitch 4 remains empty!
Lunch Date at last!
Our baby girl (27!) turns up about half an hour later and, after the obligatory cup of tea, we wander into town for lunch.
The walk in to town is interesting! There are a couple of very busy roads between there and the marina, but Whitchurch is quite a nice little place. We stroll around, taking in the little shops and cafes, it’s worth mentioning that quite a few of them are closing at 3-4pm at the moment, and find Luke’s Café Wine Bar (They don’t have a website but check them out on Facebook). We spend a couple of very pleasant hours sat at a pavement table drinking wine and beer, eating tapas, and catching up with everything that has happened since we were last together in January.
Back to the van, and some socially distant goodbye hugs (😉) and we settle in for the night.
Quick veggie rice, couple of beers, and out comes the Ludo. I’m not a naturally competitive soul, never have been. Unless playing against Kev. I have never forgiven him for coming up with COAXIAL at Scrabble, and completely wiping me out, so now I want to win everything! As it stands we are even stevens at 1 all, with everything to play for! Might have to get the Scrabble out later!
Good night all, catch up with you tomorrow! X