On The Move

A change of scene was needed and to start putting the plan into action, or semi-action at least.  We loaded the camping furniture into Godzuki!, fired up his rumbling old engine and pointed his stubby little nose towards Yorkshire.  A few hours later we made an overnight stop at a CAMPRA aire and got a decent night’s kip.  Waking later than usual we found two horses outside the van.  The site owner was as surprised as us.  Turns out they were escapees from across the village.  Seems that we’re not the only ones looking for greener grass.  

Taking the scenic route, we meandered through towns and villages of North Yorkshire and County Durham where we’d seen places to rent.  The days continued in this way, wandering through the area, trying to get a feel for life here.

We had no news on the house sale and no rental agency was going to take us seriously without a date, so we fixed our eyes on the coast to take our minds off our living situation.  Well, not living situation, we can manage that quite well in the van.  This is all about an address really.  Life was feeling a little weird.  Not really on holiday, not really travelling, only vaguely looking for somewhere to base ourselves.  After a lifetime of deadlines and project plans, this was all feeling a bit aimless.  I have to remind myself that we’re lucky to be in this position.

The gothic ambience of Whitby raised the spirits.  We walked the ancient, narrow streets, the harbour and along the beach. Dolphins entertained us off the harbour arm and the town was still busy with day visitors despite being out of season.  A small campsite a few miles outside of town provided a base for the weekend. The Cleveland Way coastal path was easily accessible from the site and provided much needed long walk into town to earn some fish and chips.  It would have been nice to spend the evening in town, but a night time hike back along the coastal path seemed like asking for trouble.

Not everything on the van front was tickety boo. The long dark and chilly nights were showing up and issue with our battery charging.  A new DC-DC charger was not performing anywhere close to expectations and we were running out of power; our solar setup is little more than baggage at this time of year in the UK. 

A bit of Googling threw up some possible configuration changes to make it work with an ageing HiAce’s electrical system and suddenly we were charging as expected, although not before a night at the stunningly peaceful Ellis Close Farm outside of Scarborough was required to recharge the battery off EHU first.

As the trees continued their autumnal change of colour, so our plans changed too. Our stop in Scarborough also brought news on the house front – the chain had broken.  I’d suspected it was coming and while getting the confirmation was not great news, at least we knew where we were. And while not ideal, we are fortunate to have the flexibility to deal with this.  Suddenly we’re considering buying right away rather than renting for a while.  Is this plan C now?  or D, E or F?  I’ve lost track.  But it feels better to have something to aim for now and maybe we can get the travelling plan back on track.  We celebrated the change of plan with a sodden walk around Scarborough’s castle in the rain before dripping all over the floor of a nearby cafe bar. They seemed used to it.