Northumberland
2nd April
We left the Old farmhouse after filling up our 5 litre drinking water carrier and drove over hill and down dale negotiating some steep hills and winding roads and we eventually hit the Northumberland national park where we had booked a spot at The 'Twice brewed Inn' in a village called Once brewed!
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We pulled into the car park and chose one of the large motorhome designated spaces. After locking the van up we went into reception and introduces ourselves, registered the van for the night and paid the £20 fee. (A bit steep but the pub was nice and there were free showers).
It seemed rude not to so we had a couple of pints and booked a table for 8, that's 8pm not 8 people!
A quick walk up the hill towards Hadrians wall and back to build up an appetite and then it was time for showers and shaves?!
We had a lovely, reasonably priced meal of scampi and steak n ale pie followed by completely unnecessary deserts and then waddled back to the van to sleep it off. A really good night out, out!
3rd April
Today we walked up the hill to a part of Hadrians wall where the famous Sycamore tree at Sycamore gap used to be until it was chain sawed down by a couple of vandals, read the story here.
It was a difficult walk but we made it to the stump where the tree used to grow. It had a wooden fence around it, a bit late we thought! We took photos for our memories and sat and had our small picnic which Sue had prepared before we left the van.
Wow! That was really special but also very sad to to see the stump of such a beautiful tree in such a lovely setting.
Apparently there have been some shoots saved from the original tree and the National Trust are going to bring them on to saplin and replant them. Read here.
When we got back down the hill to civilisation we popped into the Sill national landscape discovery centre and had a hot drink before exploring the displays which taught us about how the land around this area is farmed and managed.