Sunday 21st July
Up at dawn, final garden watering (heat wave still in full
swing) whilst also allowing my eye to linger on the wonderful plants in flower
that will be over by the time of my return – notably my spectacular yuccas, and
the climbing rose, ‘The Rambling Rector’
which is coming to a gorgeous crescendo of blooms, having now completed its own
4 year ‘JOURNEY’ clambering in tandem with the honeysuckle in a race to
the top of my damson tree. Then there is
the packing of final items, checking the checklists (again), fond farewells to parents
and friends, before finally departing mid- morning for Cumbria and the first
leg of my JOURNEY.
3.5 hours later, I arrive at the beautiful Caravan Club site
of Englethwaite
Hall, near Carlisle – a favourite stopping off point used several times
on previous trips north of the border, and set in the serene Eden Valley, with
its gentle, rolling hillsides and sheep-studded fields. I pitched amidst the
rhododendrons in what was the garden of the former old hall, with views from
the motorhome windows over the Lakeland fells, and a backdrop of the High Stand
Forest. After a salad lunch, I headed
through the adjacent kissing gate into the woods and along a track that takes
you past the 3 pools where owner/entrepreneur Joseph Robinson had once
extracted gypsum, and the remains of the railway line that took his unearthed treasure
to the nearby Low Cotehill Station.
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| The first leg of my Journey to Scotland took me past The Lake District and onto the North of Cumbria and the Scottish Borders. Progress was quick as the route was nearly all motorway. |
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