Week #77 Scottish Campervan Road Trip and Birthday Celebrations

Birthday milestones

Monday was my birthday and I had a lovely day celebrating and being spoilt. We had a fab meal in Settle at The Golden Lion after a long hike over the fells above the Town. We discovered Victoria Cave and Attermire Scar for the first time, and the rain just about held off for us!

Friday was a hard day for us both as it would have been Richards brother, Marks 50th Birthday and he loved a good party and some birthday cake. We took his mum out for lunch and had a toast in honour of Mark. We miss him dearly and there are constant reminders of him everywhere.

Local Walks

We have loved getting out into the local fells over the summer and this week saw us do 2 hikes. The first was a steep climb out from the centre of Settle up the quirkily named Constitution Hill past the donkey field. We have been this way a few times, however this week, we turned towards Langcliffe and explored the cavernous Victoria Cave. The landscape up there is other worldly with limestone crags towering around you, the views are spectacular.

On Tuesday we set off from the centre of Austwick, one of the prettiest villages in the Dales. The forecast was pretty miserable so we stayed low and did a 7km hike to the next village up the valley, Clapham. The route takes you past an old Victorian estate and you walk through some eery tunnels as you approach Clapham. We have enjoyed many pub lunches and café stops in Clapham in the past, so were surprised when they were all closed and had appeared to have been all summer! Undeterred, we stopped off at an old favourite on the way home, Elaines Café in the tiny hamlet of Fiezor.

Scottish Road trip

After a long summer at home, we decided that it was time to be on the road again for a few days. We had been yearning to get back onto the Scottish islands and Arran is a particular favourite as it is so accessible for us from the Dales. It is only 3½ hour drive to the ferry port of Ardrosson and we can sleep on the harbour side ready to board the ferry at 7am. We were fortunate that there were tickets available on the ferry and that the Campsite we were aiming for had free pitches still. Fate!

The long range weather forecast has not been great (however no worse than the Dales forecast) but we have had a fab first day on the island. With a dry day forecast and sun in the morning, we decided to climb Goat Fell the highest peak on the island at around 850m and we were not disappointed. There was a bit of everything, starting off in the gladed forests with dappled sunlight between the tall pine trees. Once we exited the forest, we entered the vibrantly coloured moorlands with a blaze of purple heathers and deep green bracken. Finally, the landscape became more rocky as we summited the peak and the cloud cover lifted with just soft tendrils drifting across some of the lower peaks.

A fab first day which ended at the campsite with a wholesome dinner of Paella. We did have to retreat into the van as dusk fell due to the pesky Scottish midges that we had heard so much about!

Packing lessons we have learnt from this trip

We decided it would be fun to take the bikes with us on this trip as Arran is only a relatively small island with quiet roads. Richard got them all loaded on the bike rack and then got distracted, it was only as we left Tebay services that he remembered that he had not used the locks to secure the bikes which also meant that we didn’t have any bike locks with us for when were out and about. After much debate we decided it was easier to call in at Go outdoors in Penrith and get a new one than drive all the way back, adding at least 2 hours to our journey on a bank holiday Friday!

The second item forgotten was the Nikon Camera which we use mainly for wildlife photography. I think that means we are in for a bumper viewing that we will just have to watch and enjoy the memories!

Our broadband issues continue

When we moved to the Dales, BT somehow managed to put us on a new contract which we are tied into for 2 years. The wifi is appalling as it is still on copper wires into the village. Last week, the wifi almost ground to a halt, when the engineer came out he acknowledged on an average day we have over 250 outages and on one super Sunday we had over 450!!! He found a fault that was 1.3 km down the wires and in the middle of a field somewhere. Fair play, he set off with a colleague and messaged us 3 hours later to say they had fixed the fault! This does not help with the fact that our upload speed is still 0.6mb per seconds at best. Only time will tell if the engineer has helped!

YouTube Yorkshire Dales inspiration

We have been getting out and about recently hiking in the Dales and have launched a series of Vlogs that we will keep adding to, showcasing some of the amazing places that we have on our doorstep. It is such beautiful part of the world that people need to explore at some point in their lives.

So we have a week on Arran and the bikes to get out and explore, we are just keeping our fingers crossed that the weather holds, the forecast is cloudy, a little sun and a little bit of rain. I think the met office are covering all bases, however yesterday we had a warm sunny day when seemingly most of the UK had huge downpours.

Have a great week

Jackie and Richard