Planning The Journey...roads,services,maps and the law for travelling in a motorhome

April heralded a new set of researches and I have begun. If you intend travelling for any length of time in the UK then this blog should be very helpful. Roads,Services and other aspects are all being diligently researched to enable me to map the right start for my lifetime adventure so here is the beginning.

I have decided to start my journey directly across from where I am now, starting in the east from HUll and driving downwards towards London during October,November, a short break to return homewards for Christmas and meeting the family, then back to the journey heading towards London for January.

Because I wish to do a lot of research of various sites and attend a few events I am making lists which currently seem to be massive and unweildy to deal with..........not true. The wealth of information is overwhelming only if I let it be. Breaking it down into smaller liast has made it easy. But I started with one link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_roads_in_the_United_Kingdom

what a godsend Wikipedia has proven to be. A comprehensive list of all the navigable roads in the UK means detailing maps for seperate areas has become so much more manageable.
Once I have a general idea of where to go and what to do I can download maps. Yes I could simply use a GPS but that wouldn't give me the place itself in any real way, no information for me to gather other than getting from a to b.....so that is my beginning.

Alongside the roads I need Motorway Services which I discovered here :-

http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/

wonderful link allowing me to plot stop offs where i can spend the nigh if need be.

Parking up for the night is going to be easy in some districts and not so easy in others. I needed to understand the actual law........

http://www.practicalmotorhome.com/advice/30444-20-motorcaravanning-essentials-part-one

oh this website is amazing and covers every kind of question from how and when to park to how many people you can have in the back of a motor home and even covers the use of snow chains...brilliant little website.

another really good link is the following for rules and laws

http://www.motorhomeparking.co.uk/

Having begun to work on these websites and the information shared I am currently choosing the route and the stop offs needed for comfort, ability to interact with various areas and the further research which will be ongoing continually throughout my journey, starting with my researches in seperated format.
Genealogy
Local Records
Parish Records

Sacred Sites

Tourist Attractions.
they are all for another blog entirely, for now...........I am off to get my maps organised and to get those I accessed

http://www.theaa.com/route-planner/index.jsp

I am definitely enjoying this part of my adventure the anticipation is wonderfully inspiring.

Safe travelling my friends :)


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Planning The Tour of a Lifetime

Planning the tour of my lifetime is not so much complicated as gargantuan . I need the expertise of Christopher Columbus,Kira Salak,Will Steger, and Micheal Palin all roled into one.
I want to visit all the Heritage Sites, All the Sacred Sites, All the libraries and Genealogy storage places available in the United Kingdom....tall order.

Starting simply with 'where to actually start'. Obviously I am in the North of England currently so I will physically start from here in sunny St Helens, but the journey, logged and recorded and faithfully photographed and video and media posted needs to have a true beginning.

The weather is also in need of being taken into consideration, I truly don't want to be too far from safety and comfort and emergency help in the middle of an ice storm or a vile weather moment so for me, starting in winter has to be an off the scale but necessary evil. I can 'do' the south of England in winter to enable me to be in tougher routes through Scotland and the Hebredes in summer. That means I will miss the gorgeous Devon Spring unless I can angle my routes from East to West starting in October and working my way down from Norlfolk through London and down into the nether regions of the south,a cross Gosport and Brighton and so on into Cornwall around February and up into Devon for March...that seems the most likely route..............
But of course i also need to get the lists of decent places to park...oh heck its a bit of a tangle to untangle.

Never the less it has begun, I doubt the ways I need to go will be easy to plan from the parking to the places and where to restock for fuel and food its all in need of lists, research and then dovetailing together ...I will get there but what a task .

starting today the plan itself is begun, next will be printing it all off and deciding, so out will come all the touristy stuff and the route planners and..........I guess I am just beginning to realise how much this part of my journey, the planning stage, is every bit as exciting as the reality of setting off.

So I am off to Google it...all of it.....

A Step in The Dark

It takes a leap of faith to walk through a forest in the night. Just a few yards from the light from an open doorway and you are plunged into the forests own kingdom and it is pitch black.

For nearly the whole of 2015 I grew to know the Ancient Forest of Wood Farm in all its many moods except that of true winter and snow. In some ways I shall regret that lost experience and yet when snow is on the ground, it is the reflection of moonlight and star light which lights that silent world and in writing now, about the dark, snow is not a relevant aspect.

During Spring and Autumn the nights are usually fairly clear, they can become pitch black with a new moon, no moon or heavy cloud. In summer, then the skies become lighter, more reflective in some way and the real dark seems to not descend as heavily.

I am not particularly brave, but I am generally speaking unafraid of the dark. I see no point in fearing the unseen or the supposed, the might be or the possible. I deal with what is in actual view, in my personal space so to speak.

Walking less than ten feet from the door I would become lost in a world of black on black,pierced here and there with stars that seemed so bright, like so many scattered diamonds across a black velvet cloth. A full moon would simply make the night become black sharded with silver beaming and bouncing into and off tree limbs or an embankment or.........the reflected glory of a passing animals eyes.

Silver limned eyes are truly scary when that is all you can see, no animal shape tells you what it is that is looking at you, tiny mouse eyes, fox eyes and deer are all night time meanderers. Animals do not sleep a regular 8 hours like humans, they sleep at need and move when they wish. They are identified only by the height they are from the ground...which brings me to a night time predator I wasn't expecting.

Having an Owl swoop down from nowhere is slightly unnerving but looking at a pair of wide spaced eyes reflecting from around thigh height (I admit I am small but it was 'my' thigh height) isn't unnerving its down right scary. Those eyes leapt high up into a tree, at least ten feet from a stand point, then vanished. Not until three months later, in the first half of November would someone else see the owner and identify it for me...a Leopard Cat. During the day time, the new Manager would see the cat leap from a tree across a good ten foot of space before landing and vanishing...I had my answer as to what it was I had seen during the night.

According to Devon wildlife trust they are a crossbred wildcat with a domestic, as large as a dog, and feral and............wandering around Devon forests with impunity. No one that I know has managed to capture one, not on film or by other methods...so I am not sure how to prove it :)

Steps in the dark can bring adventures of all sorts of kinds, the cat is only one, stumbling across lovers trying to have a special moment (in what was private grounds so duhhhhhhhh) or hearing the pop pop of someone shooting illegally in the grounds does bring out the other side of my nature, the more aggressive side and certainly the dogs enjoyed the chase; but other visitors in the night like the silently swooping Bats with their insect choreographed maneuvers as they eat on the wing is a delight.

The dawn chorus sets up half an hour before light begins, little rustlings, the odd chirp or cheap cheap, then a ray of light begins its stealthy march across the sky and one bird will sing its heart out followed by thousands. During the night there can be the odd moment of song, rare but it does happen. The sharp crack of a tree limb as it snaps, too dry to withstand another hot day ahead it breaks away to lie on the ground, eventually t rot into it.

Sitting down on an old tree stump and simply listening displays the wonder of the night. It isn't still, there is sound but it is muted, almost as if sound itself has become respectful of the absence of light. Leaves move in the slightest of breezes, the sharp squeal and death cry of a rat as Mr Owl gathers supper, the cough of the Fox as it runs by on its nimble feet. All can be heard clearly, but in the night, sound does seem to travel differently, the river Avon at the bottom of the valley, less than 200 feet away is gurgling along with its own song of running water flowing, trickling,surging over and around rocks. It sounds like background music for a mystery film. Walking along the various pathways through the land brings its own distinct sounds. Crushed scrunchy grass, gravel that cracks and spits its sharp shot sounds,thick crunchy earth and then the sharp staccato sounds of booted feet crossing the courtyard to end in the thud of steps on packed earth.

Stepping out into the night is an adventure in becoming aware, of becoming closer to the sounds of life and the journey of those steps will stay with me for the rest of my life.

I love the dark,