I was right. The merriment, alcohol and playing Rummikub all helped to make the weekend memorable. We did venture away from the site Saturday morning and surprisingly none of us had sore heads (well no one admitted to that anyway)
First port of call was the Barnard Castle ruins. Parking in the town was a nightmare, a typical Saturday of course and not a space to be found. We knew that Morrison was close by with a fairly large car park so we all tried for that. And we struck lucky. Both found spaces although we did feel a little guilty about taking up two bays. It's both motorhomes lengths you see, because although the wheels fitted nicely in one of the spaces the rear overhang took up the second. We didn't feel quite so bad when we found it to be a pay and display so dutifully paying for two hours, we set of for the ruins.
"Follow me" Ian cried. "I have a map on the phone showing the way". So we did, through backstreets, past shops, but where was the ruins? In the end a very nice lady asked if we were lost. I'm sure both men would have denied this question, well they do, don't they? But Susan confirmed we were. "You're going in the wrong direction" this nice lady replied. We all looked accusingly at Ian who sheepishly tried to blame the phone. Yea, yea....admit you got it wrong! Anyway we eventually arrived at the ruins only to discover that if we had crossed the main road from Morrisons, we would have been there in less than 5 minutes!
The two hours went quickly, and had just arrived back to Morrisons when we noticed a parking attendant checking tickets. We literally had 2 minutes left so we vacated the car park in haste. The next stop was to Egglestone Abbey. Lunch was mentioned but on arrival the place was chocka block. Turning around was fun, very tight with cars parked on the lane as well as the very small car park. Chris led the way and found a lay by set back off the road, and right where we stopped was a footpath sign to where two waters meet and Whorlton.
After a bite to eat we set off. The walk took us through woods across fields and eventually to a steep sided drop to a place called Abbey Bridge where the River Greta and Tees met.
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| What a lovely trio. |
Back to the motorhomes and we tried once again to visit Egglestone Abbey. This time with a bit of manoeuvring by helpful car owners, we both got parked. This word got us all stumped at first-Premonstratensian. Reading the notice board explaining the history of the abbey this word got us all stumped-Premonstratensian. The only explanation was the mention of 'white monks'. I did look it up once back at MB and found it to mean The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré In other words they are cannons and their work often involves preaching and the exercising of pastoral ministry.
Thoroughly enjoyed looking around this 12th century ruins and very glad we went back for another try,
So tomorrow we all go our separate ways, but not before Chris and Susan take us to High Force waterfall.
And wildlife,
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