Saturday 4 June 2016

Camper Van Tales - Part 3 - Our Final Day

Our last complete day in the van, began with an early start.  OH wanted to go off for a bike ride and the dog, overexcited by being in the countryside, woke us up early wanting to go out and chase the rabbits she'd seen around the camp site.

I got up early too and headed out to the shower block, which was eerily quiet, but very warm.  I definitely beat the rush, as I had the place to myself.

Whilst OH was out cycling I hung out in the van, catching up on reading and writing a few blog posts.  When he got back, we tidied up, washed up and headed out of the campsite, ready for new adventures.


We drove up onto the moor.  It was still pretty foggy, as you can see from the photograph. Eventually, it started to clear a little and we stopped in a lay by  to go for a walk with the dog, down a track across the moor.




We couldn't believe how bitterly cold it was, but it was good to get out for a walk at last.

When we returned to the van, we made lunch before heading up to the northern tip of the North Yorkshire Moors in Guisbrough.  We stopped here to do a bit of top up grocery shopping, to get us through the final 24 hours in the van and then took a long and leisurely drive down Bilsdale and into Helmsley, a very pretty Yorkshire market town.  We didn't stop as we were en route to our next stop over, a site a mile or so out of Helmsley, where we parked up for the night.  We will probably go back and explore the town tomorrow, before we return the van to it's rightful owners.

Our site for Thursday night was the Golden Gate Camping Site, in Oswaldkirk.  It was a huge site, with lots of pitches for tents, tourers and campers.  It was a really popular site with families, but we were allocated a lovely quiet pitch out of the way, which was great.

We settled in and had a roast chicken and salad supper.  We'd bought a hot chicken from Morrisons in Guisbrough and it saved lots of messing about cooking.  Between us and the dog, it all got polished off, with a little left over for the dog's supper the following day.

The weather decided to perk up substantially today and there was even some sunshine, despite it still being a little cold, which made all the difference.

We walked the dog on site in a large field allocated for the purpose and spotted some good walks that we will take her on tomorrow before we leave.



Here's a picture taken from our camper van, looking towards the children's playground.  You can see the sun peaking out as it sets in the distance.

Tomorrow, we head back to OH's parents' house to return the van and this will signal an end to our little adventure.  Although the weather has been awful, we've enjoyed the experience in the van, and wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

The budget including diesel, food, site fees, eating out, etc. has been less than £250, which is far less than we would normally spend on a week away, albeit a couple of nights have been spent with relatives.  We've had electric hook up pitches each night and decent washing/waste/wifi facilities, so we've not really scrimped or scraped by, but it has made our trip much easier and more enjoyable.

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