Heading North

Hi Everyone  – time to update you on our travels so far.  As we headed north through Yorkshire we took the opportunity to visit RHS Harlow Carr near Harrogate. Covid rules dictated that we had to pre-book our tickets, so we also prebooked a small campsite ten minutes drive from the gardens, so that we could fully enjoy our garden visit.  What a treat!  Some formal gardens, an alpine house, lots of woods, acres of perennial beds and an enormous kitchen garden.    Betty’s tearooms (from York) run both the onsite restaurant and the takeaway café within the gardens.  We were amused to note that all the girls still work in their frilly white blouses, black skirts, black tights and flat black shoes – so old fashioned, but so much a part of Betty’s!  What a lovely ‘escape’ made all the better by perfect ‘garden viewing’ weather. 

Our campsite was ideallic – very well kept, and overlooking a field of sheep, who persisted in trying to prove that the ‘grass is greener on the other side’! 

For those of you on the look out for nice places to stop on the way up the A1, I can recommend Hardwick Park, nr Stockton-on-Tees, as an excellent place to stretch your legs (lots of walks through the park and around the lake) and a nice café for much needed coffee.

The moors of Northumberland did not disappoint, as we made our way north to the Scottish Borders.

Being fans of the Da Vinci Code, a visit to Roslyn Chapel just south of Edinburgh was a must.  Any chances of the Holy Grail being hidden here have long been refuted.  However, the fact that some of the movie was filmed there means that (under normal circumstances) some 1500 visitors a day descend on this tiny chapel.  There are some good things to have come out of the pandemic!  We were part of a group of only 11 people who met at 9am and had a wonderful tour guide to ourselves.  The numerous ancient stone carvings in the chapel are exquisite – the history and many stories of the various conservation/renovation projects are very impressive.  As with everywhere we’ve visited so far, it was all very well organized and Covid safe.  Thank you Dan Brown for putting Roslyn Chapel on the map!

We have made a point of meeting both family and friends on our way north.  As I’m sure you’ll all agree, family and friendships have become ever more important during these strange times. One such ‘meeting’ was at a restaurant very near the Forth Bridges!

 Molly coped well with being buffeted by strong winds as we crossed the 1.4 mile Tay Bridge at Dundee.  A visit to friends in Arbroath was a thrill as it was the first time we’ve returned to the town since we lived there 30 years ago.  The sun glistened on the sea, as the yachts bobbed about in the new marina.  We made sure we drove past the Royal Marines barracks at RM Condor where we were based for two years, on our way north to Stonehaven.

 We’d forgotten how stunning the Fife countryside is. . . . . . . Rolling hills seem to drop into wide, meandering, peat-coloured rivers  – small farmsteads dot the countryside as Molly weaves her way along the open roads.  The acres of grain, recently harvested, look particularly golden when the sun peeps out from behind a big grey cloud.  Thousands of bales of straw sit waiting  (some rectangular, some round) to be collected before winter sets in.  Molly often takes a breather, as we pull in to one of the frequent laybys to allow the inevitable queue of traffic behind us to go through – we quietly giggle as we know they’ll all get held up behind one of the many tractors out collecting straw bales! 

The North 500 now beckons!  We have settled in for the night, on a site overlooking the Moray Firth just north of Inverness.  With a bit of luck we may miss the worst of the bad weather currently hitting Scotland – for now at least!  More anon . . . . .