My first adventure of 2021 (with Baxter, of course!).

The countdown’s been on since my last trip away in November 2020 and I’ve finally been allowed to take the hand brake off my caravan (actually you’re not supposed to keep the handbrake on all the time just in case someone wants to point this out, I’m trying to be creative with my writing).  Don’t know about you but if I haven’t done something for a while I can get a bit anxious about all the possible bad things that could happen. So this time I really worked on not catastrophizing and I actually had a good nights sleep before my trip away. Then it’s just going through my little mental checklist of all the things that need to be done before it’s ok to pull the caravan out of the safety of storage.

Once I’m on the road and Baxter’s quite happy next to me and the caravan hasn’t come away from the car, I get the tunes on and off we go. It’s such an exhilarating feeling and I think I’m ever so slightly addicted to it. So off we headed to Kielder and to a lovely little site very near to Kielder Castle - Clear Sky Lodge Park (the caravan site is part of the Caravan Club).

There’s one big thing to note with this site, there’s no wifi, phone reception nothing, so it really is a ‘getting away from it all’ couple of days. There are moments when you think, how will I cope, what the hell will I do with all those hours in a day, but it really is amazing how good it is. It helps that I enjoy my own company and that I can literally sit for 2 hours just staring at a sunset. It’s not everyone’s thing and I don’t want to get all Zen, I’ve read a few books recently that have really helped me be ok with just me.

I did have some company, a friend came up for a couple of hours on Thursday and we went for a swim in the most idyllic spot called Lewis Burn. We cycled from the site and down some forest tracks to an old bridge with a deep pool beneath it and jumped off the rocks. (another thing I’m completely addicted to, wild swimming. I’d go as far to say that it’s actually changed my life…who knew!)

I’m also getting to know the owner of the site as it’s the second time I’ve been and had a cuppa with her on Friday and she took me to a local shop, Singdean, just over the Border into Scotland. And what a hidden gem that was. Christa and Del live there and have the most stunning Alpine lodge you can stay in and a shop filled with gorgeous things. Please go and check out this place, you won’t be disappointed. It was so nice to be in an actual shop and of course I made some purchases.

Apart from that it was just Baxter and I, walking in the woods, reading a great crime novel and just enjoying the quiet. And don’t forget the food van at the castle which does Fish Friday. Put my order in earlier in the day and at 6.30pm went and picked up the most delicious fish and chips. Along with a bottle of fizz, that’s what Friday nights in a caravan are made of.

When I was walking I realised the only sound was my footsteps. If you’re ever in a place like Kielder just stop for a second and listen to the silence, it’s really is mind blowing how quiet the world can be. Apart from the bird song, of course.