Back on the road, our first motorhome tour of 2025
When we pulled Zagan’s handbrake on in early September last year, we never envisaged it would be so long before we were out and about in him again. Life has got in the way of our motorhome touring, so it’s no wonder that stepping back into him feels a little strange. Like putting on freshly washed jeans, it’s been a bit uncomfortable at first, but we’re slowing starting to remember how things work and ease into it.
We haven’t been sitting on the sofa watching daytime telly for those long winter months. We’ve been running our AirBnB (which is going way better than we ever thought it would). We also flew over to Spain a couple of times to visit my brother who now lives out there, as well as a short stay in Howarth with friends, and a week in one of our favourite places – Whitby.
We also managed to see the Northern lights a couple of times from a field near our home in Nottingham, and celebrated a decade of early retirement, or what we prefer to call Financial Freedom.
All this time Zagan has sat patiently in his storage space, still a little grubby from when we abandoned him after I drove us home from France due to Jay injuring himself. When his MOT was due in November, we decided to delay it, knowing we wouldn’t be getting away in him for a while.
As the winter dragged on, Jay focussed on his running. His goal was to finish in under 3 hours at the London marathon. This was his fourth attempt, and once again his training began back in November. He has run six days a week for five months, as well as gym sessions. He’s probably now the fittest he has ever been. So, you can imagine the disappointment when the temperature crept up for the weekend of the race.
The heat added around 10 minutes to everyone’s time, and once again placed that elusive 3 hour mark out of reach. I’m so proud of how he slogged it out, not giving up, and also not going so fast as to end up in an ambulance (many did). At the end he was awarded one of the hardest won medals he’s ever had.
With London over, Zagan was MOTed and then taken to see his friend Martin at Habcheck in Mansfield for some fettling. At 24 years young a few bits have started to wear out including the frost dump valve on the water heater and some fridge bits. It was also 10 years since we fitted our refillable gas system, so time for some new pipes.
We picked him up on Friday, cleaned him from top to bottom on Saturday and finished loading him up on Sunday (I think there might be a song in there somewhere!). This morning we set off, first heading south on the M1, then west on the A50 before turning north on the M6.
Tonight we are stopping in a private car park next to a fishing lake near Appleby Bridge, just off J27 of the M6. It’s £8 per night and for an extra £2 you can top up with water too if needed. We’ve had a walk down to the Liverpool/Leeds canal which is about a mile away, and have plans to go for a jog along it in the morning.
Our plan is to visit the north west coast of Scotland, which we last visited back in 2008 before OurTour was even a twinkle in our eyes. Back then we were in ‘Harvey the RV’, an Autosleeper Harmony on a Talbot chassis, our first ever camper. On that trip we managed to rip his awning off as the wind picked up one night and we’d left it out. These days it goes in every night!! When we toured the NC500 a few years back, we had to skip some of this part of the coast due to time constraints. We promised ourselves that we come back and revisit it, and now feels like the right time.
We have a six week window before we have to back home which will take us to mid-June. This means we should be a bit too early for the midgies to be in full attack mode (although the recent warm weather may have changed their normal habits). We should also be a tad too early for the Scottish school holidays, so places might quieter and easier to get parked.
We’ve packed everything from swimwear to ski jackets as we have no idea what the weather will be like, but we’re certainly looking forward to a bit of an adventure. Jay is currently sat looking for places to visit, so any suggestions would be very welcome. We’re hoping to get back to one of our all time favourite campsites on Mull, but I suspect it might be a tad busier than when we were last there and virtually had the place to ourselves – apart from the coos!
Ju x
Good to see you “back on the road again” As you say “I think there might be a song in there somewhere!” Our favourite travelling song is Buck 65’s – Wicked & Weird. Safe travels
😁 thanks! Not sure I know that one Dave, I’ll look it up 👍
Enjoy your tour. We’re heading for the Outer Hebrides in September; we hope the ferry crossings aren’t too lumpy!
For places to visit, we recently joined NT Scotland. It’s cheaper than NT England and they have a reciprocal arrangement that allows us to also visit their properties and car parks in England and Wales. It’s ideal for day parking at their properties, but also provides free parking in their many car parks. They emailed a temporary membership card and parking permit whilst they process the final ones.
Looking forward to reading your blogs again.
Paul
Cheers Paul, thanks for the info fella. 👍 Jay
If you do make it to Mull there are a couple of places we have very fond memories of.
https://goo.gl/maps/ijH3bdHnXkMTD7Wd8
Uisken Bay is a very remote spot but is a great place to stay if you want ultimate peace and quiet. Parking is right by the beach. Just £10pn. No facilities other than a tap!
https://goo.gl/maps/p8yuRob8xbh6b6Gw5
Lochbuie Campsite. It feels like a wild camping spot but £5 payable at The Old Post Office cafe, where the food is really good. Again parking by the waters edge. Toilet open at the cafe overnight.
Great info, thanks Peter! Cheers, Jay
Have you looked into the Highland Campervan and Motorhome Scheme? It came in last year, not tried it yet but I am tempted to give it a go next time we are heading up there.
Hi Lewis – I’d not come across this before – thanks for letting me know. For anyone else reading, the scheme has an annual fee and allows parking in a range of car parks across the Highlands. The money goes into sustainability funds. More info here: https://www.highland.gov.uk/motorhome. Thanks Lewis, Jay
Hi Think we are parked next but one to you in a pop up Eriba at Kirkcudbright,
feel I’m next to someone famous, saw your email and thought it was a van to hire so got a surprise when I googled you, I will be asking the kids for some of your books for Christmas, thanks for the info in advance Elaine and Nick
😁 very welcome, hope they prove useful 👍 Cheers, happy travels, Jay