The predominant goal for this trip was to explore Scotland but with both English and Scottish ancestry, we decided that some of our time should be spent exploring England on the way north to bonnie Scotland.
The pick up location was north of London in a town called Harlington. This meant it was time for us to switch from buses to trains. A quick trip on the ‘tube’ to Kings Cross Station and then a 45 minute above ground fast train to Harlington Station. A tiny little stop with a taxi office which soon had us loaded up with all our luggage and on our way to collect our 5 berth motorhomes. Bigger than we required but we booked mystery vans and this is what we got allocated.
The hand over took some time with some adjustments here and there to get us on the road but our home for the next 20 nights was soon trundling along through the English countryside headed for Diddly Squat Farm. As Liverpool is on the list of planned stops, how could we not visit the home of the show Clarkson’s Farm. Its one of favourites so was not an opportunity to be missed. I had booked us a table for dinner at the Farmer’s Dog a month ago to celebrate our first day in the motorhome. Despite a dismissal review from our handover attendant, we were looking forward to the day and dinner ahead.
Introducing Dougal the Highland Cooo and Kaz the Koala! They are our mascots for this part of the adventure and they get prime position watching the road ahead!
It was quite the experience winding through villages and farms on the way. Lots of giving way and snaking through buildings built right to the road’s edge. This had Wayne’s driving skills tested but of course, no issues just steady as we go as he adjusted his driving instincts to our 7.5m Big Bertha!
Diddly Squat Farm shop was first stop. They had parking attendants directing our motorhomes away from main carpark with lots of room to swing Big Bertha into place. The shop is as you have seen it on tellie. Small, quaint and dripping in Clarkson humour. We bought jerky, pesto and a candle eluding to the scent of bollocks! Snapped some touristy snaps and headed out to find our first site for the night at Wysdom Touring Park.
Driving through the village of Burton first, this was stepping back in time with cobbled streets and buildings leaning into each other. Everything you would expect an English village to look like with beautiful shiny plants and spectacular flowers. As it turned out, the site for the night was walking distance from here so we would take a stroll through the village in the morning.
The park was an adults only site, clean, small and not so far from the Farmer’s Dog but too far to walk. We missed the first bus on the route but jumped on the next which took the long way around but got us there just the same.
Debbie Downer Motorhome handover lady was all wrong. The Farmer’s Dog was everything and more. The beer was f$%king good, the food was spectacular (best ribs I have EVER had) and the atmosphere was spot on. Not sightings of Jeremy though his mission to put a good English pub serving good English food was clearly accomplished here. The Grand Touring tent was shut for the day so we could only peak through the door but the view from the lawns and Gardens was stunning. Well worth the visit and would highly recommend making your way here if the opportunity comes your way.
The managers of our site had said taxi service was unreliable and useless and that because the bus was not running when we needed our lift home, Uber was the way to go. Now, did she have something against the local taxis or had they picked up their game because we found the opposite experience. I could not get an Uber to take a booking and our taxi was booked via the Go Green Taxi app for an advanced booking time and he showed up on time without incident.
Tip #2 don’t always listen to negative reviews, sometimes they can be very wrong!
My Happy Travels 