Lytham St Anne’s – In a British Motorhome Aire!
What’s this? An authorised motorhome aire? In the UK? On the coast? Right up against the sea? Yup. We’re at Lytham St Anne’s (N53.75371 W3.03903) and the cuddly council has had the foresight to allow motorhome parking here. It’s 6pm on Friday night and there are about 12 vans slotted in around us, of various shapes and sizes. The sands stretch out to my right for miles before finally hitting a strip of silvery Atlantic and I’m in my shorts and crocs (well, croc ripoffs). Sadly there’s no borne/service point, but maybe soon?
Last night we headed back to Ju’s Aunt Grace’s house for a wee while, with me eye-balling yet more destinations she’s been. “Nepal?”, Grace questioned as I pointed out a guide book, “Oh yes, but that was years ago now”. Grace has been travelling since retiring from teaching, but has racked up 20 years or so of wandering the Earth. It struck me Ju and I could, if we got ridiculously lucky, spend a similar length of time on the road. Good gods. Too much to compute, I’ve reverted back to mentally seeing this trip as a ‘holiday’.
Grace then led us (again at a great pace of knots) over to Irene and Dick’s house across town (toon). These guys are related to Ju in some way utterly unfathomable to me, and they all have the ‘Common Riding’ in common, a yearly event in Langholm where everyone gets hammered and dances about, and folks nail it about the place on horses. I suspect bagpipes are involved. I was treated to a rendition of the local dialect, and can rightfully claim to have a 100% record of not understanding a thing of what was said when they cranked it up a gear.
As we tumbled out into the dark, eyes straining for he green magic of the aurora, we collectively realised we’d either gone a bit blind, or the cloud had descended. Ju and I once saw the lights stood on a frozen lake in Finland, so I wasn’t too fussed. Back into Zagan, Charlie was slotted into his sleeping bag in the cool air and we kipped until 8am when the Co-Op delivery struck rolled in.
Charlie in his dog sleeping bag.
Where next? The map came out. We’re meeting Chris and Tina tomorrow Birmingham-way. Between Langholm and there: a whole shed load of M6. Ju pulled out our Britstops book and found this place, so here we came. Via some M6 motorway services that is, where I took great delight in using the 2 hours free parking to cook up this stuff (see below) procured from the Co-Op, along with baked beans and some tattie cakes. The battered haggis was tempting, but not reduced so was passed over.
And here we are. The air’s warm, I’m in shorts. I’ve missed Friday at work like an unexpected tax bill. All of us have walked the sands and mucked about. The promise of shallow seas had me pondering getting the kayak out, but the damned sea’s refused to come within 3 miles of us. Tracks lead across the beach where the lifeboat’s been out. Note to sailors: don’t fall off your boat around here as it’ll take the lifeboat 3 hours just to reach the water’s edge…
Right, that’s me done folks – time to have another walk on the sand and a wee brew mebee! Have a cracking weekend. Jay
P.S. Our Internet set-up is working like greased lightning here. So far so good with it, although we’re using a Three SIM, so it remains to be seen how it performs abroad. We’ll keep you posted.
Wouldn’t it be great if other councils looked at Motorhomes as an opportunity to encourage visitors rather than putting up barriers. The tourist season is so short in most UK resorts. Sounds like you’re having a whistle stop tour of the UK!
It would and we are Kath, moving faster than the Millennium Falcon we are. Must slow down.
Hi Guys,
Welcome to the Fylde Coast.
We are new to following your travels and are so envious.
Wish we had known you were coming this way, we would have come to say Hi.
Unfortunately it’s been a long day at work and the red wine took over.
Wish you well with your travels, can’t wait to follow in your footsteps.
Good luck,
Graham and Sylvia
Cheers guys, enjoy the vino! Jay
Greatly interested in your travels.
We had a camper van many years ago and thought it was a great way to travel near and far, we never managed to get out of Europe.
Next year will see the start of our retirement and move again into a (this time) more all inclusive motorhome. The idea is to find summer time work in Scotland than winter in Southern Europe where we hope to find dryer and warmer weather, how could we fail.
Keep up the blog and we will see you on the road.
Thanks Brian and Susan. Sounds like you have a very plausible plan, maybe head for Algarve, Greece or Sicily for winter. It’s a hard life, but someone’s got to do it. :-) cheers, Jay
Good to see you are having fun, hope you get here before the snow blocks the passes but will keep you up to date of the closures, still loads to see down in the valley.. Up the revolution :-)
Bill
It’s a nice spot there – not far from home for us. The NT beach at Formby is good too, with wild asparagus growing in the sand dunes. Little Roodee car park in Chester is a favourite overnight stop for us. Next to the river and a short walk into town to a great little, authentic tapas bar. We were at Britstop 607 last night and tonight on a CL in the Peak District. Have fun and a safe crossing on Monday – us wage slaves aren’t jealous at all!
Paul
I’m embarking on a few UK road trips, 3 weeks at a time, just me & my border collie. I’m hoping to make use of the Brit Stops but they are generally not walking distance to city centres for seeing sights, have you travelled on buses with Charlie (do you encounter ‘assistance’ dogs only) and what do you do with him if you visit museums/attractions etc that don’t allow dogs
Hi Denise
We have only taken Charlie on our local buses in the UK and haven’t tried to take him into any attractions, so can’t really offer any advice. We find France and Germany to be much more motorhome (places to stay close to city centres) and dog friendly, so spend most of our time abroad.
Good luck with your trips.
Cheers Julie
Thank you all for your support over the last few years of the facilities provided at St Annes Swimming Pool Car Park. I can now confirm that as of 29th March Fylde Council will allow overnight motorhome parking for up to 10 motorhomes in specifed bays on North Beach Car Park (not the same location as the sluice unit on North Promenade Car Park) for a trial period.
The charges for this location will be lower than the current facilities at St Annes Swimming Pool Car Park. £4 overnight (6pm to 10am), £7 for 1 day (9am to 10am the following day), £14 for 2 days and £20 for 3 days.
North Beach Car Park is a quieter location than our existing facility. A sandy beach and a sand dune SSSI/Biological Heritage Site can be accessed immediately from the car park.
Thank you for your continuing support.
Regards
Andrew Loynd
Technical Support Manager
Fylde Council