So just under five weeks after arriving back in the UK we are back on the road again. After a bit of too-ing and fro-ing, my dad started Radiotherapy last Wednesday, finishing yesterday, now we will just have to sit and wait for 6-8 weeks until we get another scan to see if the radiotherapy has worked its wonders, or if a second blast is required. He is however in good form and as fit and healthy as he could be to tackle this head on…. and mum is sprinting up (and down) the stairs and able to drive again now, so my duties as Chauffeur are no longer required!

Leaving Lane End in Buckinghamshire, we headed North to a little village in Leicestershire just outside Lutterworth where we where we parked up on James, Gail, Amy and Jack’s driveway…. I think their sub-conscience (and love for motorhomes) must have been working overtime when they had the renovation work carried out on the house as the motorhome fitted perfectly…. and it was fairly flat 🙂

What a lovely area for walking and cycling … not to mention the beautifully extended house, we definitely have a bit of garden envy – chickens, beautifully cultivated ‘wild’ flowers and a great veggie patch 🙂

It only feels like yesterday when we last saw them, just a shame that we had to move on so quickly due to our busy schedule!!!! So, dragging our feet (we were waiting for the chickens to lay some eggs really), we got back on the M1 and headed to Hull where we just made it to our first Caravan Club Certified Location (CL) site (Tony Cook Garden Center/ Willow Lodge, £12 per night) before it closed.

A couple of months ago we took the decision to join the Caravan Club so we could get access to the smaller sites (maximum 5 motorhomes or caravans) around the UK while we are back over the summer … and if the first site is anything to go by, we will save a fortune and be parked in some very tranquil locations rather than large campsites heaving at the seams with people on their summer holidays.

Why Hull? I hear you ask…. good question, I can’t help but feel that I have spent more than my fair share of time here with the various jobs I have had over the years, but I do still have an odd ‘attraction’ to it, although we were actually up here to celebrate Keith’s mum’s 70th Birthday 🙂

Co-ordinated and booked a long time ago with the Anderson family as a surprise, somehow Paul and Carly (Keith’s brother and Fiancee) managed to lure her up here from Windsor to help pack up the final pieces before they move back down south. It all went smoothly and she was suitably surprised, plied with cocktails and rather a lot of cake……

The CL was fairly new, nicely maintained, next to a pub and had the added bonus of being situated on the Trans-pennine cycle path providing excellent running terrain and also enabling us to walk into Hull to Keith’s brothers on Sunday – a great way to get back into walking with a 27km round trip 🙂

As phone and internet coverage has been so bad (who would have thought it being back in civilisation ….. this is worse than Italy 🙂 ) the blog has taken slightly longer than planned to publish, so after leaving Hull we headed to the Peak District stopping 5 miles from Buxton on another Caravan Club CL (Newhaven Lodge Farm, Hartington £13 per night). This site is slightly different to the site in Hull as this one could really only be described as a field, but it also has access to a cycle path and beautiful views over the rolling hills (although you can definitely hear the A515 in the background).

Despite being a bit grey and wet, we managed to take advantage of the dry patches and walk one direction on the High Peak Trail on Monday, and cycled over to Ashbourne on the Tissington Trail on Tuesday … passing close to Parwich Village for those who have fond memories of weekends away there courtesy of the Carter family 🙂