Christmas 11

Sunrise at Cairn Gorm.

Finally a christmas and new year where I could use the Motor home, a mild winter allowed me, us, to get out, Loch Morlich, Edinburgh and Teesside.

Weather was still a problem, kept me from climbing Cairn Gorm, 100+ mph winds on the hill tops, a little calmer at low level, rocked the van all night. The winds cause lots of damage across the UK but we manage to avoid things like the Forth road bridge closures. Edinburgh for new years eve, but not in the town, back too Mortonhall, on the way Teesside.

Spent almost a week down there with the kids. Managed a little geocaching with them and a van picnic off fish and chips in Seaton Canoe after a visit to the Hartlepool maritime museum. Great time out and about.

On the way home called off for a couple of nights at The Woods caravan site near Alva, at the foot of the Orchil hills. Took a much needed hike up them, a nine and a half miles, 6 geocaches and three peaks one being a Graham.

Home and the next holidays are months away, sigh. Happy new year.

Camper at the North Gare, Seaton Carew

Winter is snow joke.

Approaching Carter Bar 

The snow started to fall the minute work finished and the holiday break started, it didnt seem to be a problem at first but as time went on and the temperature remained around freezing it became evident we weren't going to get the van out of its compound. The owners of the compound at Dyce caravans placed a notice at the gate not allowing anyone to remove there caravans and motorhomes which was understandable given the state of the ground, nothing less than an ice ring, however the lack of further information or contact details was very much lacking, to this end I think I will look at an alternative provider. 

By Boxing day we had given up on the whole idea of the motorhome but were still keen to get out and about so the alternative was the jeep and I had to come up with some alternative accommodation. The journey down to see the kids was tricky going, especially as we reached the Scotland / England border at Carter Bar on the A68, with cars struggling to get along in both directions I put the jeep into four wheel drive, something I had never used till now, we sailed through getting to our journeys end 3 hours later than expected but safe and sound.

A few days on Teesside with the kids including a visit to Durham. Geocaching was limited and very difficult, the snow made it a very wet and cold business.

Off to Edinburgh for new year but instead of our usual stop off at Morton hall being in the camper, we stopped in a wooden wigwam, nothing more than an insulated shed really but very comfy, warm and had a television.

Didn't go into the capital of hogmany for the celebrations themselves, the bar at Morton hall is great, big open log fire tasty food and the guys behind the bar are welcoming.

Took a couple of walks, new years day we went over too Holyrood park and the following day along the Water of Leith, that was a particularly blizzardy day and again the geocaching was hard with such a white featureless terrain.

It snowed a lot over night, the motorway had been closed down and it took me over an hour to deice the locks of the jeep, but all in all it did us proud. A week after returning home and the motorhome is still inaccessible at Dyce as its still freezing conditions.

No big plans till Easter which is well over 2 months away, must get in a few hill walks, maybe a weekend away as the light nights come in.

Suzuki jeep and wigwam.

700th Geocache

Grouse up a hawthorn bush.

17th to 24th of October.

The October break brought us our 700th cache find, on a week trip to Northumberland, a return to Hayfield and back to see the kids on Teesside.

First stop was Dunstan Hill with a very interesting geotrail around Berwick on Tweed, looking at the areas visited by the painter L,S, Lowry, it was only recently discovered that Lowry holidayed here on a regular basis, I wasn't a great fan of his work but the trail did change my opinion towards it for the better.

Berwick upon Tweed.

Decided to go back to the Peak district. Edale is a loverly valley with lots of walks including some onto Kinder Scout, I had planned to go up onto Kinder from Hayfield but as the campsite doesn't have electric hookups, we had quite a drain on the leisure battery so it need a bit of a run to recharge it. I took a little walk onto Nether Tor. Again plenty of reasons for a revisit at some point, but not for a while.

On the way home we called off to see the kids for a couple of days. The little ones are growing up fast and quite getting into the "treasure hunting for little toys". Found a nice little trail of caches along the River Weir, five in total starting at Sunderland Bridge. a village just south of Durham, chose this as they were all fairly close together, the little ones like to do a few but cant walk too far, but at just under 3 miles round trip, they did very well.

Geocache find 700.

Seeing family and friends.

28th July to 6th August.

Saltburn pier and Huntciffe.

A quick trip across to the other side of England to see the family and friends, in the form of people and places we hadn't seen for a while, just in case we were feeling home sick.

On our way to Loftus we had fish and chips on Redcar seafront then on to Saltburn where by a stroke of luck we bumped into my brother. An evening in the pub was followed by a visit to Staithes, nothing had changed much.

On returning to see the grandkids we took them out for the day, a trip in the campervan with ice creams can be a big adventure, especially if a little geocaching in the offing, all that done we decided a visit to Dorman museum may be a good idea, put it into the satnav and off we went. We were a little surprised to see the satnav trying to take us into the River Tees, as we turned a corner we heard here say "And now board the ferry", it was the transporter bridge, something I hadn't ridden since I was about 5 or 6.

Portmeirion

Next day we left for Oswestry, where!, no I'd never heard of it and it was a bit of a "dart in the map" destination. Seemed kind of central for exploring a few places and handy for Derbyshire which was to be our next stop.Oswestry was an interesting little town to walk around and the following day we went off to Portmeirion, North Wales.

The Peak district, Light and Dark, visited Cassington Water, an extremely popular place for a family day out. Dovedale seemed to be popular as well but you could get away from the crowds a little. A walk from Castleton to Hope, that was a very interesting area with its crags and caverns so I must visit again.

Over Hayfield.

Finally Hayfield to see a friend I hadn't seen for a good long while, didn't get a great opportunity to do any big hill walking but I must revisit Tom and do a lot more walking and photography in this area.

Have been to some great places over these hols most I would certainly go back too, the drive back was arduous but very do able.

One thing I learnt on this trip, strong coffee and driving in town doesn't mix.