Holme Valley Park, Holmfirth, Yorkshire, 7-8th August 05
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We stopped off in Manchester to spend the night and pick up mum. She's going to spent the night with us in the camper to see how she manages and how she likes it. If good, we'll take her somewhere else, probably next year.
The site is lovely, although the track down to it was a bit scary as was the long road crossing the moors - next time we'll probably come via Huddersfield. We got a prime site right next to the facilities and beside the pond - not far for mum to go to the loo, or feed the ducks. The site is a David Belamy Conservation Award site and really deserves it. It was excellent and really friendly too. The whole place had a nice atmosphere and the shower block was heated and really clean with code access for security.
Alan and Janet came to see us in the afternoon. Clare and John too. They liked the camper and Claire really liked it. She said she wanted to buy one with her students loan money. It really is nice, it's a bit like a Wendy House for grown ups but John calls it a big brown mushroom.
We all went for a walk. I had the mad idea of walking into Holmfirth!?? We know we weren't far away, but I hadn't taken account of windy roads. We walked for a couple of hours until we were well and truly lost. Then asked a couple of women with a little boy if they knew the way. It turned out one of the women worked on the site and we were only a couple of hundred yards from the entrance (one of them). The little boy was collecting handfulls of caterpillars; he seemed to know exactly where to look.
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One of many caterpillars |
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The view from the camper at Holme Valley Park (smashing) |
Mum must have been shattered but kept on walking. When we got back to the site John worked out we must have walked about 4 km and still hadn't found Holmfirth. (Could be something to do with the fact that we set off in the wrong direction)
We had dinner, made up of some salmon and tinned meat mum had brought, cheese and mayonnaise that we had, oh and tuna, and crisps and bread that Janet brought from the site shop. There were eight of us in the camper and we must have been really noisy but it was good fun. When they left we made plans for tomorrow. Janet had to work and Alan and Claire would come tomorrow afternoon and we'd all drive into Holmfirth before Alan took mum back to Manchester.
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Trying to find the way back to the camp site. Mam unexpectedly doing very well. |
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Home at last |
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I spent the morning drawing and relaxing. Here are the results.
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Drawn from outside the camper |
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Painted when we got home |
Claire couldn't come because she had to work. But Alan arrived in the afternoon and we took both cars to Holmfirth after transferring mum's luggage to Alan's car. I thought it was a lovely place. We went into Ashley Jackson's gallery and brought some postcards of his paintings. Alan bought us all a drink and scones in Sid's Cafe and we (mum and I) visited Nora Batty's house and the Last of the Summer Wine Museum. We wondered around the shops and really enjoyed it. Then we got back to the car...
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Simon getting another lesson |
Alan had just got mum in his car and wished us a happy holiday when we heard our car making an awful noise. John got out and popped the bonnet. There was power steering fluid pouring out of the pipe. :-( Alan hung around a bit to see if he could help but we managed to get in touch with the breakdown people so he went off after offering to run us about if we needed to fetch anything.
It was over an hour before the mechanic arrived as there had been a big accident on the motorway. The car wasn't drivable. Now we had a dilemma. They would either take us to our next campsite near Scarborough or take us home to Cumbria. If we couldn't get it fixed at Scarborough, we were on our own. I wasn't sure but John was determined we were going to the other site were we would meet up with Joyce and Don (Johns parents) and their caravan. After it had been cleared with the breakdown cover firm's head office, they agreed to put the car on the trailer, drop us off at the campsite and then pick us up, with folding camper, in the morning. They would send a smaller vehicle to pick us up with the camper and take us to their garage to attach it to the big tow truck with the car. We would then all be towed to the garage in Pickering where Joyce and Don had arranged for the car to be fixed and would meet us to tow the trailer the rest of the way to Jasmine Park Camp Site. This was what John had hoped for but I was still a bit worried. First that they might not be able to fix the car, but also that we'd be left on Jasmine Park for three nights with no money. We were supposed to be going to meet Louise (Simon's girlfriend) tomorrow but that wouldn't be possible and Simon was gutted, as was I. I know they had been looking forward to it and it would have been the first time they had met in person as they had started their friendship on the internet.
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Last night, |
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It was quite sad leaving that site the next morning. I fed the ducks and went for a walk. I left John and Simon to fold the camper up. My tennis elbow was giving me gip - as was the burst blood vessel in my eye. I'm definitely coming back to that site. I loved it. The 4x4 came down to pick us up and took us off to meet up with the car on the big truck.
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Nora Batty's Steps |
Sid's Cafe |
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