Guest Jackie P Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 We will shortly be first time motor caravanners. Are there any favourite short stop parking spots or laybys in the S West that forum members can recommend? Is there a preferred road atlas - the Truckers Atlas has been mentioned in other postings. How do others remember useful stops, loos, refreshments etc? Do you mark your map in some way or create a travel log of some sort? Your experience please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mike C Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 I assume that when you refer to stopping you mean overnight, this is known as wild camping which is a little misleading but basically means that you stop away from a regular campsite. The best way to find these places is usually through word of mouth. The high tech. version of which is the motorhome forums on the internet, there are several to choose from maybe the best method is to subscribe to them all. This is generally free with a few exceptions. One to try which is free is www.motorhometoday.co.uk Hope you enjoy your new motorhome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PeteC Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Wild camping is OK in some places, but you may be moved on by the police If you dont want a crowed site: bothe the Caravan Club and The Camping and Caravanning Club Have small (5 Van) sites (Called CL or SL depending on which club you are in) These are sperad all round the country as are their respective CLUB sites As far as remembering where you have been Some people mark a map with their route and sites Some keep a log of their travells others have photographic records A few just go and rely on memory I keep a diary/ log of where we have been & what we have done plus photos I am now begining to put these onto CD's together with the photos and a map (based on the MS Autoroute As to which map For journey planning we use a paperbacked AA,RAC,...etc. road atlas Then a detailed map such as a Bartholemuse, Ordenance Survey for the area in which we are camping You could look up a local club group and go with them for a time or two - from past experience they will help you along if you say it is all new to you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PeteC Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Hi Jackie Go to www.motorhometoday.co.uk it is a FREE website dedicated to motorhomers there are links to various route finder sites WILDCAMPING SPOTS and you can also ask questions on their forum Good travelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest martin Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Not quite the answer to your original question ... in addition to our travelling library and data base, we have a log book (just one of those hard back books important business folk love to use)detailing every trip, mileages and times, but more importantly likes and dislikes, good and bad sites and sill things to remember. It has paid off many, many times. As senility approaches one Aire de Service begins to look like another and our bible invariably solves the problem - as the navigator shouts "It's the one with the goats!" when I was convinced it was over run by okapi or some such. Plus it has phone numbers and names of folk we've met, web site addresses and what we nowadays must call "stuff". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Brian Kirby Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 One UK atlas I would avoid is the Philip's "Professional Drivers Britain and Ireland". The mapping is clear enough but road widths are not indicated. For instance the B6270 along Swaledale (Richmond to Kirkby Stephen) is shown as a "normal" B road. It ain't! It is a very narrow, part single track with passing places, road that snakes through small villages with narrow streets. It is very pretty, but you'd probably prefer to know in advance what you're in for before you decide to take it! Especially if you're new to motorhoming and driving a relatively wide coachbuilt 'van. It is passable, as they say, with care. Hope this is of some, albeit negative, help. Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PeteC Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 Sorry Brian Kirkby Think you have been on a different road to me I have been using that road since I started cycling in 1948 OK It aint a motorway - It is a bit narrow in places and it does go through seven villages/hamlets (Grinton and Reeth) being the man onesand the only ones where you are going to be held up It becomes narrow as you go over the top through Keld, before you drop down into Kirkby Stephen You may meet a flock of SHEEP or a few COWS On country roads DRIVE WITH CARE there are places where you can pull in for a snack (which could last overnight) It is God's Country and should not be hurried through DONT go in WINTER we have known it to be closed for 6 weeks at a time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RonB Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 PeteC You chose to disagree with Brian Kirby regarding the conditions of the B6270 and then went on to agree with most of what he said. Whats going on? Is the road narrow, has passing places, snakes through a number of villages - or not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Brian Kirby Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 Ron It's obvious, isn't it? Pete has one of the very few pedal powered motorhomes still around! I said it was a very pretty road, and that it was passable (in a motorhome) with care. What I was commenting upon, however, is that from the Philip's road atlas you'd never know it was so narrow. You'd just assume it was a normal B road negotiable at around 40mph. Like hell, it is! 20mph on the straights and about 10mph through the turns and narrows! (I met one poor soul in a car who was freaking out at having to reverse back a bit to allow us into one of the passing bays.) You don't need that when on your maiden voyage in a motorhome. For Pete's benefit: its the atlas that's at fault, not the road. It (the atlas) doesen't tell it like it is! Capiche? Regards Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PeteC Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 Well lets get what you did say correct a very narrow road Part single track Non of the cross Pennine roads are part single track If you want to see "single track" roads try N Scotland - where some are just wide enough for one car to travel on Or perhaps you mean it only has one carriage way ie NOT DUAL CARRIAGE WAY the B6270 along Swaledale (Richmond to Kirkby Stephen) is shown as a "normal" B road. It ain't! It is a very narrow, part single track with passing places, road that snakes through small villages with narrow streets. Yes my MH has a set of pedals - thought they ALL DID "GAS" "CHANGE GEAR" "STOP" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Brian Kirby Posted January 25, 2006 Share Posted January 25, 2006 Pete You do seem to be getting into a paddy over this! I will repeat, my criticism was of the map, not the road. As you know B6270 so well, you presumably don't need to use a map. I would define a road as being single track when it has to have passing places for vehicles to pass. This road has passing places (it also has a couple of gates across it). For practical - motorhoming - purposes it is, in places, a single track road. I'm not interested in a "who has the narrowest roads" contest. When driving a coachbuilt motorhome, you'd be hard pressed to pass a car on many stretches of this road without either you, or the car, pulling over. A normal width B class road will allow two vehicles of that size to pass without needing to slow down at all, and many will allow two buses or trucks to pass comfortably without slowing. This remains, in my opinion, a relatively narrow road for its B classification. I would have expected it to be rated a C road. To better illustrate what I mean, the map (Please remember it's the mapping I'm on about. The road was quoted only to illustrate the fault with the mapping), depicts the road in the same way as, and therefore by implication nominally the same width as, for example, the B2192 Lewes to Heathfield road, near where I live. The B2192 is straigther, it's true, but vehicles (including trucks) approaching from opposite directions can pass comfortably at 60mph (and frequently more - it also carries a lot of traffic!). It's strangers who need to use maps. A road map needs to give a stranger some useful indication of what the road is like in respect of obstacles and general road width. Most do this, this map doesn't. As I said at the beginning, I'd avoid it for use when navigating a motorhome. Nuff said? Regards Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PeteC Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 The gates must be new There has been nonthere for the last 55 years There are GATE POSTS Most gates that were have been replaced by CATTLE GRIDS where there are gates to allow the passage of cattle, sheep and horses this gate is to the side of the cattle grid The road you mention has NO WALLS or FENCES alongside from Keld village over the moor to Nateby a distance of 7 miles There are no gates passing places or fences on the road across "Tan Hill" or on the connecting raos between Tan Hill pub and Keld village The Road from Sedbergh to Hawes has no gates or passing places It is fenced or enclosed by dristone walls for most of the way The animals(sheep) on these moors are "HEFTED" that is they are tought, by the parent sheep; where they live and will always attempt to return there All the animals are branded by means of coloured marking to denot which farm they belong to On the days when they are collected down to the farms; sheep from another farm are driven (by trailer now) back to their home farm After dipping/sheering/etc they are just turned out on to the moor (at the farm intake gate) to fend for themselves In the Lake District the sheep are not brought down from the fells for winter The hardy Herdwick breed can survive out on the moor due to the condition of its waterproof coat Oh and by the way Jhon Peels coat was made from the GREY Herdwick wool So the song should read GREY NOT gay Perhaps you are getting your "Gated Narrow road with PASSING PLACES" mixed upwith some of the roads arround Malham Tarn - Stainforth - Litton/Buckden area No i am not getting het up Just why should you attempt to put people off from visiting one of the prettiest places in England because of false information Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Brian Kirby Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 Pete OK, I give up! My point, which you seem to keep overlooking, was not that there is anything actually wrong with the road, or with the area, it was/is that this atlas doesn't differentiate road widths. What possible interest could I have in putting people off the road, or the area? Why do you imagine we were there? Because we actively dislike the area? I instanced that road because I had first hand experience of how misleadingly the map shows it. That being the case, the map is likely to be equally misleading about other roads. Had I travelled one of those, and cited that instead, would you still have had such strong objections? Should I have just kept quiet, and left others to find out for themselves? If so, what is this forum for, may I ask? Regards Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PeteC Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 ******** Accuracy ********* Wht sat that a narrow road is single track with passing places and then - come back with it having GATES When in actual fact it is simply a narrow unfenced moorland road Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nosey Posted January 29, 2006 Share Posted January 29, 2006 never mind about the road was derek know all uzzel or accuracy is importent petc right about the scooter weight on back axel question Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest parker Posted January 29, 2006 Share Posted January 29, 2006 To nosey peteC's answer was total and unmitigated bo**ocks! Derek's near enough right. But why haven't you a name? parker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.