We felt like film stars arriving at Bristol Airport and being greeted by our taxi driver who got us to the van in good time, so cover off, bikes on, pick up the mail from Steve and Carol’s, and we’re off. Well not quite because we detoured firstly to Neil and Leah’s at MKM for nibbles and a glass of wine in exchange for looking round their excellent new kitchen and bathroom displays, Aldi and then what we’d been craving for months, fish and chips from Daniels. Unfortunately we took them to the camp site to eat and by the…

Well this is our last night on board and the end of our mini tour around England, and chosen so that we could empty and clean the toilet cassette and generally clean out the motorhome before dropping our bikes off at home and leaving it with friends (thank you very much) for the remaining months of summer. Also picking up a hire car, collecting our wedding clothes and Greek luggage from other friends (again thank you very much) and heading off to Kent for the wedding and finally (and hopefully) flying to Preveza next week to get back on Jacana….

This was a stop on Jeff and Christine’s drive, and the chance to catch up with the family including Nana, Jenny, Ted and Suzy, who’d travelled over from The Netherlands.

With temperatures in the high 20’s, this small and lovely site had lots of shade from the midday sun and yet offered sun whilst relaxing with a cool glass of wine. With 3 full days and only a 3 mile flat ride on our bikes into Chester we saw most of the historic town including a walk on the walls, a visit to the cathedral and the two tier shops. Oh and we both had hair cuts, ready for James and Hayley’s wedding on Sunday.

This is an out of the way small site tucked away just inside the Lake District National Park between Lamplugh and Ennerdale Bridge, just a few miles south of Cockermouth. And with 6 nights, the opportunity to relax a bit. So the first day saw us cycling to Ennerdale water, and although we left in glorious sunshine, by the time we got to Ennerdale water, the heavens opened and we had to seek shelter under the trees lining the banks. The hill back, up from Croasdale was even too steep for those of us with electric power! Other days we…

With only one full day here, and reasonably good weather forecast we decided on a high level walk, taking in a few Wainwright fells. Specifically Hartsop above How (570m), Hart Crag (822m), Dove Crag (792m), Little Hart Crag (637m) and High Hartsop Dodd (519m) over a tiring (for us) 8 mile walk. Going on at the same time, although we only saw some of the course markers was a 100km endurance fell race – sheer madness! Typically the weather for the day was mixed, sun, mist, cloud and as we descended off the end of High Hartsop Dodd, torrential rain,…

Whilst the Caravan and Camping club site was advertised as Windermere, the site was actually half way between Windermere and Kendal, about 2 miles from the village of Staveley, set in a beautiful, tiered and landscaped location (the owners live on t’site) with far reaching views across rolling green fields and moorland. The first day out saw us cycling up a gated and stoney track, across the lowlands into Staveley, with its small industrial estate housing a blind chocolatier selling expensive but delicious handmade chocolates, and the home of the Hawkshead brewery. Two hours later we had sampled its interesting…

The site is about 2 miles to the west of Barnard Castle, adjacent to a farm, with yet more fields (paddocks?, what’s the difference?) of horses and a beautiful gorge walk through trees to the River Tees at Barnard Castle. So with brilliant weather forecast for the first full day, we cycled the 13 miles UP to the highest pub in the British Isles, the Tan Hill Inn, at a height of 1732ft above sea level for a very much needed pint of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord. The route included a couple of miles along a steep dirt track across a…

Despite the site being a couple of miles to the North of Scarborough, it was well served by buses and a convenient footpath to the coast. So while we were here, we walked into Scarborough, along North Bay, round the headland with Scarborough Castle to the very popular South Bay and bused it back. We caught a bus to Whitby, making use of my CSSC membership to get us into Whitby Abbey, and cycled into Scarborough a couple of times to visit its castle (again getting in free) and the really lovely Peasholme park, the home of the model naval…