16th April to 28th May
Our first tentative steps out following the easing of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions in England on 12th April, allowing travel outside our local area and holidays in self-catering accommodation. Many campsites reopened on that date, although any communal facilities such as showers and toilets are not due to open until 17th May.
Due to the expected surge in popularity as many people will also be planning their first trips away in over a year, we booked everything in advance, including a brief trip back to The Midlands (3rd to 8th May) for Brian's second Covid-19 vaccination on 4th May and to attend our friends wedding on 7th May.
Although booked in advance, we will add each stop as we go.
The interactive map below shows the places we visited (or will visit) and includes (will include) photos, information and links to blog entries for each place. You can access these details either by clicking on a map marker or enlarging to full screen and clicking the box (top left) to reveal a list of places in order and click on each one in turn.
Thanks for looking, we hope you enjoy reading.
Our plan
After a few days in Alvechurch to get Big Ted, our motorhome, back out of storage, prepare him for the trip, drop our car off at the storage and take Jackie's mum, Pauline, for her second Covid-19 vaccination, we head off on Friday 16th April, initially for a couple of nights in Bury-St-Edmunds in Suffolk, East Anglia.
From there we will stay in Neatishead, North-East of Norwich on the Norfolk Broads for three days, the north coast of Norfolk in a Nature Reserve, The Wash, near Spalding to visit a Wildlife Reserve, up into Lincolnshire to scale it's highest peak (it's only 168m asl and nothing more than a rise in the land, but it is the highest point, not only in Lincolnshire but any land in the east from here down to Kent). From there we head further north to visit Spurn Head, a shifting sandy spit that juts out across the mouth of the Humber Estuary at it's entrance to the North Sea. It's another Nature Reserve and, along with the Norfolk Broads and The Wash, places we have never visited. New Zealand has it's own Spurn Head, called Farewell Spit on the very north-west of the South Island, we have been there, but not the British equivalent (we are ashamed to say!). Our next stop is to be in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park near Goathland (scene of the TV series Heartbeat). There we meet up with friends Simon and Diane, down from Edinburgh in Scotland and fresh from their lockdown easing on 26th April. We plan walking and sightseeing for the three days we are there. We head back down from there staying on a working farm near Mansfield and then home for a few days.
The second part will see us going back up North to the Yorkshire Dales where we are staying on another working farm for four days near Malham Cove. It's an excellent rock climbing area, although mostly above our standard, particularly as we haven't climbed for over two years now, but we may throw the climbing gear in just in case something takes our fancy. If not, there's plenty of excellent walking and mountain biking there. We finish with a four day stay near Ingleton, in the heart of the Dales and centre of the Yorkshire Three Peaks and the famous Ribble Head Viaduct. We may scale one or more of the peaks or do several of the other excellent hiking trails in the area. It depends on the weather.
We'll be back in The Midlands again on 19th May, ready to start our housesitting assignments on 21st May in various parts of England, that will take us through to the end of September. We've cats, chickens and dogs to care for along with new places to explore. After that, who knows, it depends on Covid-19 and the world situation then. If we can, somewhere hot for winter beckons....
Below are links to our blog entries (updated as we go along):
No comments:
Post a Comment