6th May 2024

Rosemary and I were off to the Outer Hebrides in the campervan, and were going away for over three weeks.

We set off from home at 9.15, driving up the M40 and across Birmingham. Decided not to go on the M6Toll because the M6 appeared free flowing. That was correct. The journey was stress free to start with, few cars on the road and no trucks as it was a Bank Holiday. After Birmingham, the traffic increased, and driving was still mainly fast, but a little more concentration required. We started off in sunshine, but the further North we went the cloudier it became.

We stopped off at the National Trust house of Sizergh.  We ate our pasties in the outside garden area at the NT reception.   Here we viewed the house. Very castle like and quite austere in parts. The initial feeling was the house was a bit dark, claustrophobic and not nice.  But at the top of the house, we found a lovely medieval-looking dining room with a balcony.

After the house, we walked around the surrounding gardens. These were excellent. Stump garden with the stumps being overgrown with plants.  A lovely rocky hollow with plants and trees. An excellent pond (Mirror Pond) with ducklings and Moorhens. No baby Moorhens yet. For those with more time, there are long walks around the enormous grounds.

We managed the house and garden before the rain set in. Back at the reception area and restaurant we drank a cup of tea, supplemented with a Magnum (me) and a cake (R). Back to Morrison for the last 30-minute drive to Tebay.

Parked at Tebay in the rain. Sat in the van and drunk a couple of beers waiting for the rain to finish. The sun came out a little and we walked up to the service station café. The shop and café were not busy at this time, (after 7.00). I had lasagne, while R had cottage pie. OK, but not something to write home about.  Back at the campsite we read the papers and I wrote up the draft of the blog.

Despite being close to the M6, the campsite is quite quiet from vehicle noise. More noise from the birds and rookery. Quite a few large mobile homes and a few campers set up for the night.  The loo block looked reasonable clean, but fairly basic. Unusually, if you showered, you had to press a button outside the shower to start the water flow. Naturally R, minus glasses, initially pressed the wrong button, so starting the shower in an empty cubicle.

Tomorrow hopefully we will set off quite early and make a few stops on route to Oban.

On one negative side, the exhaust pipe from the diesel heater was broken. It still protrudes from the underside of the van.  I was anticipating using the diesel heater, as we do not have electricity at all the campsites.  It was broken because R thought it was Morrison’s sink wastewater pipe and pulled it down hard. She pulled and broke it, wondering why it was in a different place, and why it was not extending out. Damn will have to get it fixed before Download, can’t have me and Selina getting cold overnight.

[Footnote: Much later, back at home, It turns out the broken pipe was the air intake to the heater. There is another pipe in the centre of the van, out of reach of prying hands, which is the exhaust. So, Selina and I will be comfortably warm, which proved true when we used it later again at Download.]

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