Author: taraabit

Saturday 8th November 2025.

Stourport on Severn is a Georgian town set on the banks of the River Severn which grew in size with the building of the Staffs and Worcs canal in 1771. By the late 18c the town had become the busiest inland port in the Midlands after Birmingham. Nowadays the canal basins are home to nearly 100 narrow boats and river craft.

The Staffs and Worcester canal is 46 miles long linking the Trent and Mersey canal at Great Haywood in Staffordshire to the River Severn at Stourport. The chief engineer was James Brindley, the canal with various ups and downs survived until 1949. Later a volunteer group had the canal reclassified as a cruise way for leisure vehicles.

Like many canals of this era it follows contours and existing river valleys as it meanders slowly to the River Severn.

Stourport isn’t only about the canal basin. It is a popular spot for visitors from Birmingham and the West Midlands, there is a large park bordering the river with activities, children’s play area, picnic spots etc. There are river boat trips and small boats for hire during the summer months and a fairground open all year round for those who enjoy it. There are numerous cafes, restaurants and pubs in town serving food.

Thursday 6th – Sunday 9th November 2025.

We have a small window of opportunity to have a break and have driven the great distance of 18 miles from home to this site.

Since our last blog of touring Scotland in July, life has taken us in an unexpected direction, whilst touring Scotland I gradually felt increasingly unwell. Having reached John O Groats we decided the wisest decision was to make a swift return home.

Subsequent visits to the GP, a stay in our local hospital and a visit to Clatterbridge hospital in Liverpool delivered the body blow that I had cancer in my adbomen, stage 4 and terminal and I need chemotherapy to try and control the cancer.. This put paid to our planned Autumn trip to Croatia and Montenegro.

My local hospital then referred me to Christies Hospital in Manchester one of only 2 hospitals in England that deal with the unusual cancer I have. Here an excellent specialist spent some time with me and explained that chemotherapy wouldn’t help and I needed major surgery which she was prepared to undertake to physically remove the cancer the successful out come of which should give me many years to live.

You can imagine the relief!!! So fingers crossed for the future.

So here we are on this very pleasant site, quiet at this time of year enjoying autumnal views and weather, we are parked near a row of poplar trees and a steady fall of leaves is carpeting the ground with yellow leaves, probably much to the chagrin of the site wardens who spent 2 hours this morning using leaf blowers to get them. up.

The site has many clearly defined areas for motorhomes, caravans and tents pus an area of static Holiday Homes all on the site of what was the land to Lickhill Manor.

The site borders the River Severn about a 1 mile walk along the riverside path to Stourport and has its own streams running through it.

There is a wood carver working in a studio next to the site.

Friday 18th July.

We have spent the last three days heading home swiftly, after leaving Stirling we headed to Gretna where we stayed on a 5 van site close to Gretna retail park.

Thursday we headed south to Lancashire where spent the night on the drive of our motorhoming buddies Peter and Alison, a free night with good services, tea and coffee, meals, drinks and good conversation, lovely evening.

Friday it was a 2 hour blast down the M6 with its usual horrendous traffic.

We had a great trip, East Coast Scotland well worth a visit.

Altogether we drove 1,395 miles.

Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th July 2025.

Heading South on the Let’s go North tour.

The past 2 days have been travelling days, Monday night we stayed at a rather bizarre Aire next to the railway station for £10 a night, we were able to watch the hourly intercity trains pull in and during the evening a night sleeper stopped. Sadly shops in Kingussie are shut on a Monday, including the fish and chip shop, only one cafe and a small Co op store were open

Today we motored on south stopping for a break and leg stretch at Pitlochry, the town was busy and thriving and the shops were open!

Tonight we are on the outskirts of Stirling in a dedicated motor home parking area at the the cost of £4.40 for 24 hours.A short walk along the road takes yoo to a pedestrian bridge over the railway line and into Stirling.

Sadly it rained pretty heavily whilst we were walking around, but as it only the second time on the trip we shouldn’t grumble.

Michelle was determined to see Stirling Castle, why are all castles on hills? and it was hill after hill after hill, until eventually I felt quite “ill” and only just made it to the gate, where surprise surprise we were greeted by a man saying “you can’t bring dogs in here.”

I spent 45 minutes sheltering in the archway above on a stone bench with Layla huddled up to me whilst Michelle went into the Castle. We did have people queuing up to fuss Layla including American tourists, she is very patient.

When Michelle returned I asked her if she had lots of photos for me for the blog, sadly she informed me she found her battery had run out so no photos.

Sunday 13th July 2025.

Heading South on the let’s go North tour.

We are staying in a car park next to Dornoch Firth in a parking area provided by the community, no services but free.

The majority of today’s journey was on single track road with passing places, maybe because it is Sunday or we were just lucky we didn’t see much traffic, come to think of it we didn’t see many buildings or people either, just the odd sheep.

Friday 11th and Saturday 12th July 2025

Let’s go North tour.

We are staying for two nights at this campsite (I last stayed here in 1972 with my mate Phil) we were in need of a bit of a rest from the daily routine of getting up and moving on and as this site was close to John O’ Groats it seemed ideal. And it has been, we are high up above the sea with a view out to the Orkneys, we can watch the ferry going back and forth and it would have been possible to go over with Homer, maybe another time.

There is an easy path to the beach below us and the town centre is only 800m away, we used both several times over the past two days, it has been the hottest day this year and it was great to feel the sunshine.

We saw a small sign in one street advertising a performance by a pipe band Saturday evening so we walked back into town and following the noise of the drums found the activity.

Interspersed between the band playing we were entertained by dancers of various ages and ability.

We have had a good break here I know it would have felt much different if it had been raining, but that was our good luck.

What is also great is that the sun is still shining at 11 pm.

Friday 11th July 2025

Let’s go North tour.

John O’ Groats has traditionally been known as the extreme northerly point of Scotland and hence the U.K. Whereas the actual northern most point is the nearby Dunnet Head.

We had expected it to be very busy but when we arrived late morning it was relatively quiet, plenty of space on the car park even for motorhomes, there was a straight parking fee for everyone of £3.50 staying for as long as you wished (not overnight).

We enjoyed our visit, it didn’t feel too tacky, there were several cafes etc and the tourist shops were pretty much as you would expect, after lunch we drove on to where we had pre booked a camp site for two nights.

Thursday 10th July 2025.

Let’s go North tour.

Today was another day of covering ground, we drove exactly 100 miles to tonight’s stop. We refuelled and bought a few extra essentials of food at a large Tescos and then drove on.

To get down to this harbour you have to turn off the bridge you can see in the distance and turn down a steep twisty hill, but when you get to the bottom it is worth it. There are three parking areas and tonight only 3 vans parked up, it costs £7 a night, worth it for the peace and tranquility. You feel you could stay here for days isolated from the world and chill,out.

Wednesday 9th July 2025.

Let’s go North tour.

Today’s blog is relatively short as it has mainly been a day to travel and move on with our journey. Shortly after we set off the Sat Nav with enduring wisdom sent us on a short cut that ended up being a road just wide enough for us to travel along and went on for about 10 miles. It turned out to give us a stunning view of the wild coast line, beaches, headlands etc, wonderful but nowhere to stop and absorb the view.

We drove through a few other places that looked very pleasant but it was difficult for us to stop, however we did manage a 30 minute break at Cullen where there was free parking large enough for Homer.

It was a very pleasant stop and as you can see not at all busy.

We needed to fill with LPG as we were quite low and using our app we found a garage that wasn’t too far off our route and thankfully filled up and so we are good now for some time.

We had identified a small campsite, CL, for tonight’s stop, a quick phone call ascertained it was ok to stop and we headed there. It has the usual services, water, grey waste, black water and a rubbish bin all for £6 a night.

It’s quite an unusual spot as it is a 30 m stretch of well mown grass in between two fields of wheat with ancient oak trees running down the centre, quite in the middle of nowhere. Speaking to the owner of the farm she informed me it had been like it for decades and they had plenty of visitors so they saw no reason to change it.

Tuesday 8th July 2025.

Let’s go North tour.

We continued north along the coast heading for Stonehaven where sadly we failed to find anywhere to park and so we continued on and then took a break on the promenade at Aberdeen. We didn’t try to explore the city as it was too busy so we headed on to tonight’s stop having driven 101 miles the furthest in one day so far. This aire is £5 a night or £10 if you wish to use the services, it is a member of CAMpRA.

On the opposite side of the road to the aire the owners had mowed an area and placed some benches to sit on and take in the view, just off shore there were seals.

Mid afternoon we walked into Fraserburgh it was a bit of a slog, very little to see, there was a museum of lighthouses which we thought we would visit but of course Layla wasn’t allowed in. Around the corner was the lighthouse and the old foghorn.

Fraserburgh is a major fishing port and lies at the far north east corner of Aberdeenshire and is the biggest shellfish port in Europe and has a busy commercial harbour, it also lands white fish. In town are companies that process the fish and prepare it for sale.