I'm just casting out some feelers here to see if there is any interest in a camping weekend up in Northumberland. Me and SWMBO have just had a couple of days at Clennell Hall, a big old stately Hall Hotel in the depths of Northumberland. They have rooms for those that want them, camping for the rest and are more than happy to have a bunch of bikers in the bar spending money on food and beer. If you want to go walking there are miles and miles of it just outside the hotel, if you want anything else (shopping, theatre, restaurants, proctologist, massage parlour etc) you will need to travel. In fact other than walking or looking at the scenery the only thing to do is ride. Fortunately Northumberland is excellent riding country blessed with hundreds of miles of emptiness; so not many people to show your new akrapovic to (except the sheep and they don't care) but there are plenty of chances to wear the tyres down. There are also a few castles and that sort of thing if you get bored of larking about on motorbikes.
It is a long way north for a lot of you so this might work better as an extended weekend or full week. If there is enough interest I'll look to plan something either later this year or next once we're all a bit more post pandemic and have got our shit together.
Well thats an encouraging start. I've been thinking about this a bit more. Northumberland is a big and beautiful place and as a minimum you will want to visit Lindisfarne and Kielder forest both of which will inevitability end up been full day rides, so a four day event is going to be the realistic minimum. Perhaps a Thursday till Sunday or a Bank Holiday weekend or even a week like we did for the Scotland trips. To allow people enough time to plan their holidays this puts it back to next year, also by then and we will also have a little more assurance about Covid. Having said all of that I might do a weekend trip late July / August this year as an exploratory trip but it will need to avoid Izzy's do and Barmouth cos I can't be in two places at once. I'm sure this will creep onto the drunken agenda at the Wales camp.
While your up there you can visit the fantastic 'Jim Clark Museum' in the quaint town of Duns. You can visit his famous dwelling and his resting place in Chirnside too.
Also a great village called Bellingham near the Kielder which as a little Industrial museum, nice shops & cafes as well as a camping (plus bunk houses) spot for an extra night at Demesne farm.
Another left field option if anyone just fancies a weekend away, come up to Middleton in Teesdale and I'll show you round 😉 Two hotels to choose from, The Teesdale Hotel and The Forrestors. Both charge sensible prices, have good beer and awesome food - trust me on this, both are a bit special 😋 Two campsites, Leekworth and Daleview on the edge of the village. We might even have a party at my gaff... 😁
Danny and I are up for either a week or a long weekend, but can't be the first week in any given month for me - too much to do and I wouldn't even ask for time off.
Ah yes, I remember that bit of hilarity Goose. Did you ever have a word with f*ckwit that decided to fix them on with half a nail and a bit of used chewing gum? Still it slowed you down enough to keep up (down?) with SCOOTIE 🙂🙂🙂