We wake up bright and early on our pitch at Foxholme Caravan Park. The day is a lot brighter today and the far-reaching views over to the Howardian Hills are magnificent. Little do we know we will soon be in the middle of the forthcoming drama “Yorkshire Road Trip Day 5 – Lulu and the chickens!”
Knowing that we only had a 40-minute drive over to our next site at Pickering, we didn’t rush this morning. We had a leisurely breakfast and did our usual emptying of wastes and refilling our fresh tanks and left the site at around 11.00.
Beautiful Helmsley
We detoured the 5 miles back towards Helmsley with a view to parking at Rivelaux Abbey, looking at the ruins and then walking back into Helmsley to stake our claim on Kevs ancestral home of Duncombe Park & House. At the very least we thought that they could sponser our website https://duncombesroaming.com
As with all unplanned plans, we were thwarted at Rivelaux Abbey as we had not prebooked our visit (Covid restrictions). We did catch a fleeting glimpse of the impressive ruin on our way back into Helmsley. Now Mags is getting pretty good at snapping decent photos through the windows of a moving van but the fleeting glimpse was too fleeting, even for her!
In Helmsley, we parked up easily in one of the six motorhome bays at the long stay car park (£2.50 for 3 hours) – overnight parking is also now permitted.
Kev Finds His “Place” in Life!
Helmsley is a lovely market town situated on the River Rye. Part of the town lies within the North York Moors National Park.
The town has a distinct medieval design with its central market square and has been designated a conservation area.
Duncombe Park (also bookings only) is the ancestral home of the Earls of Feversham and was built in 1713. There are various statues and streets in the town that bear the Duncombe family name.
Kev messages Duncombe Park to say that he’s coming home and to get the kettle on but receives no reply. He has obviously been disowned by the family!
We probably haven’t it mentioned before but we are moochers! We do like a good mooch about. So, we’re ducking into shops, alleyways, lanes, churches, butchers, bakers and stop for a delightful coffee and bun at a local tearoom Cornercopia www.facebook-cornercopiacafehelmsley ,they don’t have a website, but do check out their Facebook page for more details . We carry on mooching for a couple of hours, buying some steaks and other provisions for ‘us tea’ http://www.thomasthebaker.co.uk , and also a rather good-looking Yorkshire Curd Tart for afternoon tea.
On the way back to Lulu we spot, at the end of a lane, the ruined keep of Helmsley Castle. We take a couple of sneaky photos (Yep! – pre bookings only), jump back into Lulu and are on our way by 13.45.
By 14.30, we’re pulling onto our next site.
Marfit Head Caravan and Campsite is a C&MC CL site, and also a working farm with a menagerie of animals. The site is directly off the A169 Pickering to Whitby road but road noise is minimal.
Lulu and the Chickens!
We pitch up in glorious sunshine, get our Fiamma awning out for the first time, and string Mags’ fairy lights up. We use our awning tie down straps too – for the first time, and set out our new chairs and table. Finally we get the new Cadac Safari Chef bbq set up in readiness for the gorgeous ribeye steaks purchased earlier.
Then, as we sit, enjoying a brew and taking in the views over the far-reaching plains the sky turns a murky grey colour, the clouds gather ominously and the wind picks up – a lot! The wind also attempts a few times to pick up our awning and rip it from the side of the van. So, better to be safe than sorry, we spend 20 minutes taking down the awning, fairy lights and straps. Whilst it was blowing a hooly, it still isn’t cold, so we remain sat outside Lulu, Mags brews another cup of tea and portions up the Yorkshire Curd Tart.
According to https://britishfoodhistory.com, a Yorkshire Curd Tart, whilst it could be mistaken for an egg custard MUST actually be made from curd cheese and is essentially a baked cheesecake. It can only have ground allspice and raisins in the mixture, with rosewater an optional extra. I don’t know if ours had the optional rosewater, but it was very yummy!
As we’re tucking in, along comes Foghorn ‘bloody’ Leghorn and his groupies!
The farm chickens are free range and they range freely in Lulu’s direction. One or two of them must have smelt the tea, or heard the paper bag rustling as it divulged its Yorkshire Curd Tart loveliness – they then told their mates and lo and behold, it’s like a scene from Chicken Run.
One of the stunted feathery beauties pecks at Kev’s feet, one tries to take the tart out of my hand pecking my thumb in the process, one (the ring-leader!) jumps up onto the table and sticks its beak into the remaining tart portions and then tries to drink Kev’s tea. This is a biblical ‘plague of fowl’!
Eventually, the chickens retreat (to regroup and strategise) and we come out of the van like stealth ninjas.
Taking Evasive Action!
As we hide, cowering from the onslaught of chickens we spot an ice cream van that has pulled onto the site to ply his wares. We flag him down and buy a couple of vanilla cones with chocolate flakes and enjoy them as we wander around the farm chatting to the donkeys, goats and pigs.
We finish our ice creams and turn around to head back up to Lulu, only to find we had been followed by 5 or 6 chickens with a few more bringing up the rear echelons. This is getting ridiculous – Kev is starting to feel like Steve Carroll’s Noah in Evan Almighty! We beat a hasty retreat (waving a white handkerchief as we went) back to Lulu to figure out how many of the little darlings we could fit into our Ridge Monkey!
At some point over the next hour or so, as fast as they had appeared, the chickens disappear. Like two whispers, we very stealthily fire up the Cadac. We flash grill the two ribeyes and tuck into them with some stir fried veggies.
Another couple of games of Ludo and an episode of ‘Young Wallender’ on Netflix later and we were in bed for the night…………….’turn the light on Maggie – can you hear clucking?!’