{"id":248,"date":"2014-06-11T19:47:30","date_gmt":"2014-06-11T19:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.harmonicroads.org.uk\/?p=248"},"modified":"2014-06-11T19:47:30","modified_gmt":"2014-06-11T19:47:30","slug":"melrose-caravan-club-site-6jun14-8jun14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.harmonicroads.org.uk\/?p=248","title":{"rendered":"Melrose Caravan Club Site – 6JUN14 – 8JUN14"},"content":{"rendered":"

With training for the marathon, the first trip away in the van has come fairly late this year. But here it was, beginning of June I was off to the Caravan Club site at Melrose. I’ve been here before and it is a lovely site, if a little difficult to get into. But somehow I got a booking and off I set.<\/p>\n

After a quick trip to the shops for some weekend sustenance, I hit the road. This time I forgot the sat nav as it was a straight-ish road. I’d also forgotten to put the freezer packs in the fridge to start cooling it down. Never mind.<\/p>\n

Round the bypass and onto the A68, the journey down was very pleasant. It is very instructive to see just how much more expensive fuel is outside of Edinburgh. 4p a litre dearer in the towns I passed through.<\/p>\n

Despite, or perhaps because of, forgetting the sat nav, I made the standard navigation error and ended up driving through Melrose itself rather than going round the bypass and coming in from the other end. Still not to bad though I did drive right by the site and had to turn around.<\/p>\n

Arrived, booked in and started the pitching process. The Caravan Club seem to be getting very strict about how to pitch up and I managed to get it wrong the first time. But after turning the van around, I got the water filled, the electricity on and lunch eaten.<\/p>\n

Usually at this stage of the pitching process, I start swearing at the awning and vow never to take it with me again. However, having spent the entire winter considering how best to erect it, I tried the new tactic and amazingly, it was done in 30minutes. The key seems to be to peg the corners down first then put the poles through.<\/p>\n

I nipped into town to get some sunscreen and visit the local butchers for some more food then since it was early in the afternoon, I headed along to Melrose Abbey.<\/p>\n

This is a fantastic visit. The ruins are well maintained by Historic Scotland. And there is plenty to see. Including a marker where it is said that Robert The Bruce’s heart is buried.<\/p>\n

\"Melrose<\/a>

Melrose Abbey<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Melrose<\/a>

Melrose Abbey<\/p><\/div>\n

Back to the van it was time for tea and the chicken fillet that I had purchased earlier. The omnia oven performed admirably as usual and I sat bathed in early summer sunlight eating.<\/p>\n

Sat down to a DVD for the evening. Instead of the usual Doctor Who, there was a couple of episodes of Dempsey And Makepeace. Quality mid 80’s cop drama.<\/p>\n

Night saw the first opportunity to try out my new Duvalay<\/a>\u00a0. This is a replacement for the sleeping bags that I’ve never been entirely comfortable in. First impressions were good.<\/p>\n

Up on Saturday morning bright and early having had a good night’s sleep in the Duvalay. Very comfortable and quite warm enough.<\/p>\n

After breakfast, I hit the road for a walk in the Eildon hills. The weather was fantastic and the walk glorious.<\/p>\n

\"Eildon<\/a>

Eildon Hills<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Eildon<\/a>

Eildon Hills<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Eildon<\/a>

Eildon Hills<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Eildon<\/a>

Eildon Hills<\/p><\/div>\n

Got back to the site for a shower to discover I’d left the breakfast dishes sitting in the dishwashing area. D’oh.<\/p>\n

After lunch I decided that I’d earned a nap from the morning’s walking. Woke up about 3pm to torrential rain. This was a downpour of biblical proportions. It was running down the road in rivers and one side of the pitch was beginning to flood ( and mine wasn’t the only one ). Started getting a little nervous as the electrical cable was under water.<\/p>\n

Evening fell and tea, consisting of possibly the biggest pork chop I’ve ever seen was eaten. I sat down to a couple more episodes of Dempsey and Makepeace then hit the sack.<\/p>\n

Sunday morning, the rain was off, the sun was shining and the pitch had drained. I did my best to dry the soaking wet awning and then broke camp for an uneventful and pleasant journey home.<\/p>\n

Brilliant weekend away. Saw the Abbey ( always worth it ) and got some walking done. Even survived the downpour. Looking forward to the next one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With training for the marathon, the first trip away in the van has come fairly late this year. But here it was, beginning of June I was off to the Caravan Club site at Melrose. I’ve been here before and it is a lovely site, if a little difficult to get into. But somehow I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.harmonicroads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.harmonicroads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.harmonicroads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.harmonicroads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.harmonicroads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.harmonicroads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249,"href":"https:\/\/blog.harmonicroads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions\/249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.harmonicroads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.harmonicroads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.harmonicroads.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}