FRIDAY 27th MAY
Arrived at Ripon racecourse after a 3hr 45min journey. Heavy showers and blustery winds. Now sat in Wetherspoons drinking Shagweaver from North Cotswold Brewery.
Saturday 28th May
Beer Festival at One Eyed Rat, Ripon.
Sunday 29th May
Lunch at Travellers Rest, Witton Gilbert, just outside Durham.
Monday 30th May
Went down with stinking cold and hacking cough. Spent day around Ripon.
Tuesday 31st May
Moved to Knaresborough. Walked into town along the River Nidd and Nidd Gorge. Had a drink in Blind Jack's in market place.
Wednesday 1st June
Walked into Knaresborough to sight see and do pubs..
Thursday 2 June
Moved South to Alderwasley, Derbyshire.
Joined a temporary holiday site, (THS) run by Central Region, Camping & Caravanning Club at Pack Horse Farm.
Jill not well, went down with the bug I'd picked up start of week. So didn't do much other than try and enjoy sunshine on site.
Friday 3rd June
Warm sunny morning. Did full English breakfast on bbq.Went into Wirksworth, a market town. Had a look in the Wirksworth Brewery then went for lunch at the Hope & Anchor. Unbelievable- Friday lunchtime, 1pm and they had no food on at all, but still had all the signs up to say they doing lunch. Drove back to site. Neither of us feeling 100% . Enjoyed sunshine and afternoon of reading around van.
Saturday 4th June
Brigh sunny morning. Did full English breakfast on bbq.
Both still suffering hacking coughs but went to the Bear Hotel, Alderwasley for lunch. Half mile walk from site. Tremendous pub for a wide range of ales and picked up 4 new beers. Had a very entertaining afternoon in bar with the locals.
Evening- weather on turn so took awning down while dry.
Sunday 5th June.
Dull overcast morning, windy. Packed up and left about 11am. 2hrs to home.
Sunday 12th June. Weekend stuck at home, still full of cold, been like it 2 weeks now. Hope it cleared by Wednesday when off to Forest of Dean.
Thursday 23 June
Returned last Sunday from Forest of Dean. Unable to get online in the forest.
Weather very mixed with some sun and heavy downpours.
Best pub we found was the White Lion at Wilton, Ross on Wye. However because we'd got dog with us and weather not up to beer gardens we did not do many pubs. It was very much a walking holiday, got loads of exercise.
Off tomorrow to Button Oak near Bewdley for the Severn Valley Steam Railway 1940's weekend. Hope weather improves. Still very showery here.
Wednesday 5th July
Setting off in the morning to York. No set itinerary. Heading up to a temporary holiday site run by Camping & Caravanning Club on the outskirts of the city, about half an hour or so walk along river to the railway museum. Probably stay there to Sunday then move on.
Thursday 7/7/11
Arrived yesterday after a 3.25hr journey. Weather mixed. Walked into York, 25mins along river to the Maltings
Today heavy showers and sun. Walked to the Lysander which very disappointing. Should be taken out of GBG.
Heading into York now for touristy things.
Sunday 21/8/11
Just returned from Llangollen. Went there on Wednesday and stayed on a Temporary Holiday Site THS) run by Camping & Caravanning Club. Thursday was our 38th wedding anniversary and spent it walking along the Llangollen Canal with a pub lunch at the Telford Inn near the aqueduct. Phone signal poor making internet too slow to use.
Sunday 4/9/11
Returned from 11 days in the E.Midlands. Unfortunately had problems getting on line so unable to keep blog up while travelling. Need to think about mobile internet access for laptop when contracts on present phones up end of year.
We visited Peterborough Beer Festival then went on to the National Feast of Lanterns (NFOL), the annual national rally for the Camping & Caravanning Club. That was held at Newark Showground.
Then we moved on to a THS on Rutland Water for 6 nights. While there we managed to visit the Grainstore Brewery and Barrowden Brewery. The highlights of the week though were the bird life around the lakes.
