July and August short and long breaks

On one of the hottest days of the year we decided to go to Hythe Caravan Club Site which is only about 1 hour away from here. When we arrived we met up with some friends from home who had already been there for a few days. It was an exceptionally hot week and we spent most of the time drinking 'cool drinks' and sitting in the shade. On one day we had visitors and all 4 of us played 'shift up the line' with our chairs as close as possible to the camper in the 4 inches of shade that it provided as the sun moved around.!

At the beginning of August we had a Country Music weekend at Clipgate Farm near Canterbury. We were blessed with another hot weekend, dancing in a barn as well as a field, barbecue and listening to music in the field as well as light aircraft taking off from the airstrip over the fence.


The following weekend found us at Whitchurch in Berkshire, again at a Country Music Dancing weekend with our friends in the posh caravan. This time we had a hall to dance in and showers in the school to make use of...all mod cons here.

From there the 4 of us travelled to Derby Club site for a few days. We walked around the park and visited the town with it's Silk Museum. Brian and I also spent a whole morning at the Donington Park Grand Prix Motor Museum, which is an absolute delight for 'small boys'.








From Derby on up to Keighley to an 'adults only ' site ( Bronte Caravan Park). This was a beautiful site on a very steep slope terraced...luckily each of the hardstandings was level. We unfortunately had a lot of rain there so ended up with a river running through our awning.


We did manage a trip to the Railway Musuem and then a ride on the steam train out to Oxenhope. We had a walk there through the fields and sat to have a picnic lunch by the river. Skipton Castle was also very interesting as was Haworth, Bronte Parsonage and village.




We made our way over to Skipton for the August Bank Holiday to the Yorkshire Dales Country Music Festival. Again a farmer's field, a huge marquee, 2000 people, 21 bands, portaloos and portashowers (our first experience of those!) We had an excellent time; I know a lot of people laugh at or mock line-dancers etc., but they are some of the friendliest and most helpful folk we know.


After the festival our friends left us to carry on up to Scotland to visit relatives there. We drove back down to Teversal which is on the borders of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire...from the top of the Teversal Trail you can see 5 counties (but I can't remember which! we were too puffed out from the walk!)



Whilst at Teversal we decided to visit the Heights of Abraham, going up on the cable car, but like the fools we are walking back down, that was really hard work with our toes shoving in to the toes of our boots it was so steep. Although it is pretty it is also very touristy and car parking is exorbitant.

We spent a much nicer and cheaper day at the Crich Tramway Village, riding the trams back and forth as well as walking through the woods to see the woodcarver at work.





HardwicK Hall and Stainsby Mill was another good day out, courtesy of National Trust. This year we actually covered the cost of our annual ticket.







We finally arrived back at home on the 7th September...just as well we have a resident house-sitter in the form of our youngest son.