From Teesdale to Bleasdale

Yesterday was moving day again and we had a shortish and pretty easy

Broadgate Farm CL, Bleasdale 

drive from Appleby to our new site in Bleasdale, near Garstang. We were mostly on main roads and motorway with just three or four miles of single track lanes at the end - which were fun! Broadgate Farm is a Caravan Club CL set in a beautifully isolated green field - much nicer than the grey yard at Appleby and £3 a night cheaper at £13 here with an awning! The field is seriously waterlogged, but each pitch has its own hardstanding so we should be safe from sinking in. There are the usual electricity and water points with several water taps close to the pitches, plus waste facilities and recycling bins just at the entrance to the field. Emptying the grey water Waste Master might need two of us as the funnel is up off the ground and it gets heavy when full. We raided the well-stocked Information Hut (it has books!) after settling in yesterday and came away with a handful of leaflets for walks, bicycle rides and even a map of local tea shops! We learned that the nearest town, Garstang, made itself the country's first Fairtrade town and there is a big emphasis on local natural produce so I am looking forward to discovering what they have to offer.

While on that subject, we bought locally grown purple carrots in the

Purple carrots - and potatoes! 

Appleby greengrocer on Friday and ate them with dinner last night. They had a good flavour, although not really carroty, and we were surprised to see our potatoes also stained purple from where they cooked in the same saucepan!

Dave is out in our awning at the moment printing off new Ordnance Survey maps for Bleasdale and its surroundings so we can take ourselves off for an exploratory walk this afternoon. The 300 acres of Broadgate Farm hosts large populations of wading birds that we hope we will get to see and there is even a small observation hide within a couple of minutes walk of our pitch. An unusual addition to a campsite. We did spot a smallish bird of prey yesterday afternoon. Two swallows were divebombing it to try and chase it away, but it never flew close enough for identification.

We plan to stay here for just over two weeks so we can get to know this Forest Of Bowland area. Fingers crossed that, as it's now August (already?!), summer might catch up with us here.

View from our pitch, Broadgate Farm CL