Best Of
Re: What are you all up to
With a good forecast, although initally a misty start, OH did another round of washing before we headed out as at brightened up as promised it was dry by the time we returned. Drove the short distance to Lower Southstrepps, stopping off en route to view Thorpe Market's Gothic St Margaret's Church, which was built in the late 18th C. We then had a couple of walks through SSSI Strepps Common and The Warren from the school carpark. I had another walk after we returned to the van nearly as far as St James' Church, Southstrepps, parts of which date from the late 13th C and has reputably the second tallest tower in the district, which can be seen for miles around.
St Margaret's Church
The local school, in the same gothic style as the church.
St James' Southstrepps, from a distance!
Re: Expensive over charging
At the end f he day the club provides various services and it is your choice as to what you use. Generally speaking the services are very good but the price might be too high for some. We prefer to get the security of service over price, but that is us.
Wildwood
Re: Bins on site.
It does seem the club are moving to the bins by the entrance, which is also used by the C&CC. There may be the odd one where this is impractical or needs more work, but I think the general rule is now bins at the entrance.
Frankly there can be no sensible opposition to losing the black bags, they are expensive, take time to empty and environmentally unfriendly. What many people do not realise they are also potentially dangerous for the staff emptying them. For any one who cannot manage the lids on the new bins the club says the staff will help.
As someone who investigated insurance accident claims, I have seen several claims from people emptying bins with black bin liners in. The most common was possibly infected needles and the worst injury was a lady who severed the fingers on her hand when a tin lid left sticking out the top came through the bag and caused the injury when she was pulling it to dispose of the waste. The effect of needles stabbing you is enormous, as you have to wait months to check some infections like AIDS and cutting the tendons left the lady with some serious loss of movement in the hand.
If nothing else I can see no valid argument against losing the bags on safety grounds. Gloves help, but are not fool proof.
Wildwood
Re: What have you seen
More collections of frogs &/or toads today in a small pond, The Pit, at Lower Southstrepps, making lots of noise. Greenfinches and Chiffchats vocalsing, GSWs hammering away, Brimstones, Large Tortoiseshell and a Comma butterflies on the daffodils, 3 Roe deer feeding on one of the fields we passed, and a Munjac in the woods during our walks today. Then this evening I saw about 10 Hares on the field above the site and there were two munjacs on the site itself.
Re: Rosedale Abbey site closed
The word on the street is that the Rosedale site is not closed but is open with other owners instead of this Club. I haven’t checked but someone else will doubtless do. And of course Brookfield Farm and Marazion sites are certainly open with new owners too. There is life beyond CAMC
Re: Rosedale Abbey site closed
@Graydjames @Takethedogalong As the owner of a 7.4m 3.85T A Class, I agree with your comments about touring restrictions in the UK. I gave up on touring holidays in the UK many years ago and now just use pre-booked sites, CLs and THSs. Living within easy reach of LeShuttle, I would guess that over 80% of our MH tours are spent on the continent now.
Our auxilliary transport of choice is ebikes and by careful selection of locations near places of interest, we don't find the lack of transport a problem. We just move on to pastures new when we have explored the limited area we/our ebikes can cover.
Like @SteveL I think Paul Merton's rather romanticised presentation of motorhome holidays, whilst entertaining TV, must be responsible for many premature re-sales.
JimE
Re: Rosedale Abbey site closed
I think the last two posts give a good indication of why some sites are closing. Motorhome users haven’t got the convenience of a car to get out and about, so are wary of being out on a limb at times, plus many folks simply don’t use their onboard toilet facilities. This isn’t anything new in truth, we have known folks for decades who don’t use their caravan bathrooms, and how nice the loos/showers are on a site is a very big factor for a lot of people.
Very sad for the likes of us, who have stayed on a lot of the very nice, simple locations down the decades, but businesses have to go with what the majority of customers want and will pay.
Re: Bilbao to Don Quijote Campsite, Salamanca
The last time I went there it was in an 8m motorhome and with the usual tail swipe I thought it was tight. However there were long caravans on site with long tugs so I guess it's not so bad; also local farmers manage with very large tractor / trailer rigs. On the plus side it's a lovely site with good access to Salamanca along the river and a superb restaurant.
LLM
Re: Summer Plans?
Yep, as I said, the club has had a change of heart which can only be a good thing.
Re: The Ospreys are back !!
As well as Idris at Dyfi there have been quite a few arrivals at monitored nests over the last few days.The first arrival at any of the Keilder sites was the resident female, KX7, at nest 7, on the 21st, which is the earliest record of a returning breeding bird there. There have been 3 seen at Balgravies Loch but no positive identification yet. At Glaslyn the resident female, Ellen, arrived at 11:50 on the 22nd, and at Poole their breeding male, O22, was first seen at 13:59 on the same day. A 06:40 on the 21st an unringed female intruded at the Manton Bay, Rutland, before being chased off by Maya, and there are now 5 other Ospreys in the Rutland Project Area, 25 (10), 30 Male and 30 (05) Female, the male Blue 11 and T7. The pair at Threaves have both arrived, the male 4 days ago and the female, Blue KC, 2 days later, and mating has already taken place.