A One Night Stand in the Ribble Valley

A One Night Stand in the Ribble Valley

Our friends, Geoff & Dave were staying at the Camping and Caravanning Club site in Clitheroe, a mere 30 minutes from our home, so it seemed like a great idea to join them for lunch at the nearby Edisford Inn.

It seemed an even better plan to book in for a night’s camping, so I checked the C&CC site only to find that I’d need to book for two nights. Not a problem of course, and we arranged to meet one of my daughters and her family for a picnic on the Sunday lunchtime.

We set off for Clitheroe on Saturday morning and did a bit of shopping at Booths, before pottering around one of my favourite Lancashire market towns. Clitheroe has a bustling town centre and a castle giving great views over the surrounding Ribble Valley. Actually, it’s worth parking in Booths car park just to watch the antics of people trying to park their cars in the relatively narrow bays.

We stopped off in our favourite shop, Raffia, to buy a gift and Alison was then delighted to find that a new Shoe Shop had opened next door. Nooshoes was right up her street and, of course, she bought a new pair of sandals whilst we were there. Boris liked both shops, too, because he was allowed in – very civilised.

We arrived at the Site at 12.35 and rang the bell at reception to book in. The warden arrived and wasn’t too pleased that we were there before 1pm – we apologised and she showed us to our pitch. Unfortunately, she’d taken us to one without electric hook up so she had to cycle back to reception to check our booking.

She apologised when she returned and gave us a choice of two pitches. One was in a small grassed area away from the main pitches and the other was in the centre of the site. We took the first one and were glad that we did. Pitch 36 is right opposite the exit to the Ribble Way footpath which follows the river from source to sea, and was perfect for walking Boris.

Geoff and Dave popped over to say hello and we agreed to meet them at 2pm to walk up to the pub, where we were joined by two more Brazilian Bay owners, Moira and Mike.

It’s great to sit in the sun with friends in the garden of a country pub, although Bozzer had his head on and insisted on barking at every other dog. Why on earth didn’t we buy a Basenji?

Chilling before lunch arrived

We walked back over the bridge after lunch and chilled at our own vans having arranged to meet up with Dave and Geoff later to share a cheese board and some red wine.

The local teenagers have got their own sofa under the bridge

There’s a small gauge railway in the adjacent park

During the afternoon, our camping neighbours were involved in a little japery. They were both from Todmorden, in the outlands of Lancashire, and both former army members. Whilst one was walking his dog, the other one swapped his battalion flag for a Yorkshire one.

He didn’t notice until I asked him which part of Yorkshire he was from and then a little profanity may have slipped from his lips. All good natured stuff and we had a chat with the flag swapper, as his son has a company which makes rock and roll beds for modern vans. He’d seen Absinthe on the COTY programme too.

‘Proudly’ flying his White Rose…

We met up with Geoff and Dave later in the evening at their lovely VW California, Skye, for a cheese board and some red wine (the cheese idea stolen from Moira and Jean at Beatherder).

Geoff

Cheese face

Dave

Skye…

We headed back to Absinthe just after 10pm and had a few more glasses of red wine before settling down for the night.

We had a lie in on Sunday morning, but were up in time to say goodbye to Geoff and Dave before the rain arrived. We had to cancel the picnic and head home – we can do it another day when the sun’s shining.

All in all, this was a great trip and continues our plans to have short breaks, where we can travel light and pitch up quickly. We’ll be back to the site I think – maybe to get a day’s fishing on the Ribble, mid-week.

There’s a full set of photos here: FLICKR

THINGS WE’VE LEARNED:

Short trips can be great fun
Chatting with friends is a lovely thing to do (who thought I’d ever say that?)
On a sunny day, Lancashire isn’t so bad
Boris is getting more fractious as he gets older
Absinthe has changed our lives in such a good way