On Saturday 21st May we left Cornwall with our 'old' Cheyenne and headed up to West Country Motorhomes in Brent Knoll, Somerset to collect our brand new Dakota, which we'd had on order since early February.
The pick up went very well and 'Daisy' is now home with us.
So far, without a full proper testing (!), we are really pleased with her. We are still finding secret hideaway cupboards and switches galore! The end bathroom is massive, much later than we remember when we saw it at the NEC show! The gadgets and gizmo's are going to be testing, trying to work out how to use them all!
As yet, we've not had a trip away in her. We cancelled our Whitsun weekend away (far too many kids on campsites for us). We have now booked two weekends in a row in June, first one onto Dartmoor staying on the Lydford CC affiliated site and the second one staying in Stoke Gabriel, South Devon on the Ramslade CC site, both sites that we have visited before and enjoyed. Here's hoping that summer returns in time for our short trips!
Here are a few photos of the new girl.
Our last 2 nights were spent at the Caravan Club site in Broadway (one of our favourites). Thursday morning we left Ripon early to head south and arrived in Broadway at lunchtime. We spent the afternoon on site and then walked into Broadway for our evening meal and to sample the local cider.
On Friday, our last day, we all walked into Broadway mid morning for coffee and then had a pub lunch before heading back to the site for the rest of the day.
During the whole trip (17 days) the first time it rained was that night (Friday) overnight and when we were packing up to head home on the Saturday morning. We consider ourselves incredibly lucky to have booked our trip in December and to have had summery weather for the whole time. We now expect our July & August trips to be wet!!!!
This was the last trip in the Cheyenne. It's all systems go on the Dakota and we now have a collection date of 21st May, so next trip will be in the new girl. Watch this space!!!
On Tuesday morning it was pack up time again, so after a leisurely breakfast we sorted ourselves out and headed for our last campsite in Yorkshire, in the cathedral city of Ripon.
Again it was a fair walk into Ripon from the site but Paddy did manage it. We have to say that we weren't particularly impressed with Ripon. I think that we were expecting a 'big' city but unless it was really spread out it didn't seem that big. We had a wander around and when it became too much for Paddy we caught a taxi back to the site (pampered pooch or what?). We had an Indian takeaway delivered to the site that evening and it was wonderful!
We were hoping to walk into Ripon on the Wednesday but it was obvious that Paddy's leg was playing him up again so we had to change our plans. After stocking up at the 'local' Morrisons we spent the rest of the day on site (I managed to finish my second holiday book sat in the sunshine - now that's what I call a holiday!).
The evening before Michael and I had discovered a lovely little waterfall at Harmby, just across the road from the local (The Pheasant Inn) where we had enjoyed a pint or two! On Monday morning we decided to head back that way to walk Paddy, who by now could just about manage the walk.
The site we stayed on was the Caravan Club (affiliated) site, which sits in an old quarry. The old lime kilns are still there and are quite a nice feature. The site has lots of small, secluded sections which unfortunately because of the size of our camper we couldn't use. We were happy with our pitch though and our 'neighbours' (who were on a seasonal pitch) had bird feeders out so I spent the afternoon bird watching!!!
After a lovely 2 days in Hawes we packed up again and drove the short distance down to Leyburn. The town was a 25-30 minute walk each way from the Caravan Club site so we left Paddy sleeping and nipped out on our own. Nothing was open of course, it being Sunday, but there seemed to be plenty of people milling around.
