Barnard Castle: Easter 2009 – Bank Holiday Monday

Today, Monday, is our last day at the Barnard Castle site, having arrived here last Thursday.

We originally booked to stay until yesterday (Easter Sunday) but as the weather was glorious and neither of us had any pressing need to be back in the office on Tuesday morning, we thought sod it and booked another night on our “grass with electric” pitch. After this we jumped in the car for a jaunt up the road to the High Force Falls which is about 12 miles away just outside Middleton-in-Teesdale.

According to the touristy blurb “High Force is one of the most impressive waterfalls in England” Let’s see.

Having parked up, all three of us took the short gravel paved walk to the falls and yup! Pretty impressive! Busy as well as it seemed every man and his dog was spending Easter Day there.

Next to the river and falls were some pretty severe looking rocks that need to be negotiated before one could get to get to the water’s edge; so we were glad we heeded the leaflet’s advice to wear “substantial footwear”. The same couldn’t be said for some people and we waited with baited breath as the teenage girl in Moonboots staggered her way across wet, mossy rocks towards the edge of the falls with its 21 metre drop. You go for it girl!

A good couple of hours romp with a picnic to boot.

Back to Monday and the present day. I’m glad we booked the extra night. As we awoke this morning a clear blue sky again greeted us and added to this we were kept satisfied with the view of what seemed to be the entire site packing-up and going home. By lunchtime there was a steady stream of vans and cars filing out of the main gate in obedient unison and by early afternoon you could count the remaining “units” on one hand. We just sat and watched them go, mug of tea in hand, sitting in the sun outside our awning; sheer smug satisfactory bliss written on our faces.

We’d already designated today as a chill-out day which basically means doing nothing apart from sitting around; Debbe working on her cross-stitch and me reading the paper, listening to music or perhaps taking Lucy for a walk.

First of all though we had chores to do! The daily task of emptying the waste water carrier, refilling the fresh water one and (gulp) emptying the now precariously full toilet cassette. Once these were out of the way, it was a case of Debbe taking a shower whilst I took Lucy for a walk through the adjacent copse and across the fields and stream. This she enjoys but what is it with dogs and their desire to eat fresh horse/rabbit/cow muck?

Back at camp the need for some more supplies was pressing so a quick trip into Barney stocked us up with grub for lunch, stuff for tonight’s barbeque and a few more bottles of the real ale I’m into at present.

So that’s it really, upon reflection here are our thoughts on the Barnard Castle Club Site:

Plus Points:

• Countryside location so if you’re into wildlife and farm animals, plenty asunder.
• Reasonable amount to see and do locally, although you do need to drive to it all.
• Not too far from our West Yorkshire home, about a 2 hour drive.
• Barnard Castle is a nice town with plenty of independent shops

Negative Points:

• Barnard Castle is not really a walk away as the distance is about 2 miles along a busy, pathless B road. Shame really.
• No pub near the site. So if you fancy a walk to a local eatery one night, forget it.
• The walking is limited. Whilst there are plenty of fields nearby, all of them were restricted to walkers and even more so dogs, as lambing season was pretty evident.
• No Wi-Fi on site (a point I now look for on caravanning sites due to me dependence on my Crackberry and my laptop)

So would we come back? Yes I think so but perhaps only for a long weekend to chill.

Tags: Barnard Castle, Co. Durham