We have had the motorhome for ten weeks now and driven it over 2,000 miles but all those miles have been to visit relatives or add “go faster stripes”, and as necessary as those are we had not had any time in the motorhome when we are not on a schedule with tasks, however pleasant, to complete.
This week, with nothing but a vague idea to go to North Yorkshire, we set off and travelled east to North Witham Village Hall where we spent two nights, the first night visiting Sue’s brother Paul and his wife Carol and yes, I know what I said in the first paragraph but this was where we had arranged to meet pal Mark who was coming with us in has motorhome and we couldn’t not visit Paul and Carol when they lived less than five miles from where we were staying. After a second night at this super little C&CC CS we headed north having ticked “avoid motorways” in our sat-nav. We seem to have spent our lives since getting the motorhome sitting on motorways waiting for traffic to move so it was a real treat to jog along with the cruise control on on relatively quiet “A” roads. We seemed to get there just as quick as we would have on the A1M and certainly less stressed. We arrived at our stop for the night Manor Court Hotel where we camped in the car park after having dinner in the restaurant. We had a very peaceful night in the hotel car park.
Our aim for today (3rd August) was Filey Brigg just a few miles east of us. The Filey Brigg car park is huge and has elsan, water and rubbish disposal facilities for motorhomes but overnighting is strictly forbidden although we discovered later that local bye-laws are being changed in a number of places in Yorkshire to allow motor-homers to overnight in car parks and at around £15.00(ish) to sleep in a car park must bring income for the local authority although most of the car parks we saw were council owned but run by private companies so we can guess who gets the lions share of the profits.
It is over 40 years since we visited Filey Brigg which is as magnificent now as it was then. The main difference for us was then we ran down to and up from The Brigg, this time we admired it from the top.
That night we were wondering where to overnight when we spied a lay-bye that seemed to have been created when the road was straightened. Ideal we thought and turned in, we found plenty of room to park both motor homes despite the presence of a number of cars and another motorhome. We got comfortable had dinner then went for a walk, it was then we discovered we were not on a lay-by at all but a strange shaped country lane, oh well too late to move now so we settled down and spent a technically illegal but quiet and peaceful night at the side of the road.
The following day we visited Staithes, at least we visited the car park and paid for four hours parking. Mark wanted to walk to the harbour but I felt it was too steep for me, so Sue and I went to the shop while Mark toddled off down the very steep slope.
Several hours later as we were getting ready to leave we discovered that it was permissible to overnight in the car park, a 24 hour ticket cost £15 and there were toilets available that were a credit to the local authority/managing agents – clean and supplied with every thing needed. What a pity we didn’t read the parking sign properly when we arrived, we could have saved the initial 4 hour parking fee.
Just outside the car park was a little estate with several fish merchants, while Mark took another wander down to the harbour Sue and I went to a fishmonger to stock up with fresh crab, smoked haddock and hot smoked salmon. Sue decided to walk down to the harbour to meet up with Mark and have a look around but – surprise, surprise – missed each other so had solitary walks. When the both got back we went out on to the Yorkshire moors and had a fabulous drive over the moors to Rievaulx Abbey where we experienced the first case of motorhome hate.
The last couple of miles to Rievaulx were difficult to say the least, the roads were very narrow, not much more that single track with cars parked all down one side, but we had to keep going because there was no way we could turn round. When we reached the abbey we were surprised and pleased that the carpark had spaces where we could tuck ourselves away without interfering with any cars. We had just got ourselves sorted when Mr Jobsworth rushed up to tell us we couldn’t park there and would have to go outside and park in the road. The fact that the carpark was half empty and there was nowhere for us to park on the road for some miles mattered not one jot to him so we saved ourselves £31.20 and left. Fortunately I didn’t meet or speak to Mr Jobsworth as, at the time, I had a right cob on about something and would have been far less polite and understanding than Sue was.
We called it a day and set off for our night stopover, “The Stone Trough Inn” at Kirkham Abbey where we had booked a table for dinner. As we drove into the car par our hearts sank – we had never seen a pub car park with such a slope before. We took ages to find the least slopey bit and even then our levellers made little difference to the angle we would sleep, when laying on the bed you felt you were standing up!!!
The pub however had super friendly staff that were very helpful and a menu that, although limited, had something for everyone as the crowded restaurant proved. Sue and I had fish and chips, which I thought was very good, but Sue sadly did not like the flavour of the batter but, after discarding all the batter enjoyed the fish and the chips.
We slept better than expected but the angle made the motorhome feel very insecure.
Before heading off we called in at Kirkham Abbey (aka Kirkham Priory) just a few yards from the pub. None of us had ever heard of it until passing it on our way to the pub the evening before and spent an interesting couple of hours wandering the remains.
We made our way back to where we started at North Witham Village Hall to spend a final night before going our separate ways the following morning after a great week.