Blogging at 21:15 on Saturday 30th March from intended overnighting spot N 55.52815°, W 02.57302° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:55.52815%2C-02.57302
We're heading to the Northern Isles. Being UK residents, it seems only polite.
A point of order. Though very much a (sometimes reluctant) part of the UK, the Northern Isles are also impressively overseas, and so we saw fit to justify this trip as such; rather than relegate it to the dustbin of even more carelessly written twaddle that is our mainland-ramblings blog.
To business, then. It's been a fairly normal covering-the-ground type of first day on the road and there's not been much to report from our oft-trodden journey north. Actually, that's not entirely true. And it's not entirely true in a potentially significant way: #vanlife.
Once north of Corebridge and into the Northumberland / Keilder wilderness areas proper, the number of shabbily DIY-converted vans we saw ramming lay-byes and roadside attractions was tediously startling. They were almost all of the same genre i.e. #livingthedream 'stealth' type vans; so fiendishly stealthy that they were almost all virtually identical and stood out a mile.
Unsurprisingly then, when we arrived at our original intended overnighting spot (a place in the back of beyond I've used before and never yet seen another soul) there were already two such wagons hunkered up there and, what's more, were practising such stealth stealthy that their occupants had territorialy spread themselves around by setting up impromptu outdoor tables and cooking facilities etc. As ambassadors for considerately overnighting off formal sites go, they were being truly impressive. By which I mean, they weren't.
A swift U-turn and bit of a nose-around later and we found the spot we're now at (pic). It's pleasant and quiet but, to be honest, it's also a bit sketchy. It's on a bit of forestry land where a gate that should have protected the forest track we're on has rotted away. To be fair, it looks like it's been like this for some time and no one's been in a rush to fix it so, for one night only, we're just inside it and have decided to run the gauntlet of being accused that 90% of the lorry and 100% of us are trespassing on public land. #vanlifedisplacement.
Notwithstanding the jeopardy, the spot's been pretty good for hares, deer and birdlife. It's in mixed woodland with a large open water body and plenty of arable land nearby, so we've had a good mix of species. It's been a particular pleasure to hear numerous song thrushes melodiously staking out territory and the nocturnal caperings of whooper swans, geese and more than a few owls.
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