Monday 13th August – Washing, war and worship!

I spent this morning on the campsite, doing a few chores and taking it a bit slower than I have been!

I was up about 7am because I could hear a strange sliding noise outside my van… This is what I saw when I opened up my door and looked in the awning…

A pigeon was using the roof of my awning as a slide?! Not quite sure what it was doing, can only imagine it was drinking the water that had gathered in small pool during the night, but it was a strange sight to wake up too!

I needed to do a few chores, emptying the bin, filling up my water, emptying the waste water and cleaning out the toilet (not my favourite job!) and also a bit of washing. I bought more summer clothes than autumn clothes, so needed to wash some t-shirts to wear as it’s not quite the weather for strappy tops!

Challenge of the day – working the old fashioned washing machines and not falling over at the cost of using it – £3!

Managed to figure out the washing machine following the instructions on the top and left it for the hour it said it would take. I went off for a shower in the meantime and to get ready for the day.

An hour passed and I walked back to see how it had gone, and all looked good. The machine had stopped and when I opened the lid, soaking wet clothes were there waiting for me. I didn’t realise these types of machines don’t have a spin cycle.

Hmmmmm – soaking wet clothes + drying on a campsite = damp smell. Surely this isn’t right? I looked around and spotted this sign and a strange looking machine under the counter.

Ah ha – similar to the drying machines you get at swimming pools, this is the solution. I transferred the wet clothes to this machine (via the supplied laundry basket to stop a flood) and turned it on, remembering the instructions to place a bowl underneath the outlet to catch the water. Off it went, but to my alarm the bowl filled up very quickly! Casting my eye around for a solution, the only thing I could use was the Ikea bag I’d used to carry the clothes in, but luckily I didn’t need to as it stopped filling literally millimetres from the brim of the bowl!

Done – carried the clothes back and hung them up on the line. It looked like rain, so I balanced the line of one of the chairs in the awning and hoped they would all be dry by the time I get back later. When the sun is out, awnings become like airing cupboards!

Now I gave myself some time to chill out for a bit by finishing a book I’ve been reading the past couple of nights. I love to read and get through quite a few books a month at home, so don’t intend to stop this while I’m away. This time the book is called ‘Monsoon Summer’ by Julia Gregson. Really enjoyed the book about an English woman who marries an Indian doctor after Indian Independence and moved to India to live near his family. She was a Nurse and Midwife, which at that time, was seen as a job to be ashamed of, so the book focused on her struggles to set up a maternity hospital there and the ramifications of this to her, her husband and his family.

Around midday I left for my chosen day-trip – Eden Camp.

This museum was set up and is run by a family and is built on the site and within the buildings of a POW camp, initially for Italian prisoners and later German prisoners too. This was not like the horrific camps in Germany, and many prisoners returned after the war to the camp to recount happy memories of their time there building the camp and helping the local community with war and farming work. The completed camp covered 8 acres, consisting of 45 huts. Only 18 of these huts were actually barrack huts housing 64 prisoners each, totalling 1,152 prisoners at any one time.

These huts now tell the stories of the first and second world wars, as well as all the conflicts since. I am pretty clued up on wars throughout history, but was still taken aback to see them listed. Boznia, Falkland’s, Korea, Iraq, Syria, Libiya…. the list goes on and sadly continues to be added too.

The museum was fascinating and was a mixture of a lot of information to read as well as the sights, sounds and smells of WW2. You walked through scenes from the Blitz, how the streets would have looked, the radio announcements they heard, the smell of damaged houses and outside catering.

There were also stories of many heroic acts carried out throughout the years, the escape plans and successes (plus failures) and the secret resistance. There was also a hut dedicated to everyone who had lost their lives during any conflict, at home or abroad, civilian or military and it once again bought home how much humankind has gone through throughout the years. We are living through our own tough times in the UK, but nothing like what people went through then, and what people in places like Syria are going through right now. A sobering thought – how lucky we are.

I did have plans to go on to Scarborough after the camp, but decided I would rather stay closer to the campsite, so travelled back via some ruins I had passed on the way to the campsite on Saturday, but didn’t pay much attention to following my earlier issues!

Byland Abbey – described in the 12th century as one of the shining lights of northern monasticism. Its beginnings were unpromising – it was only after 43 years and numerous moves that the community of Byland found a permanent home – yet the abbey rose to be one of the largest of the Cistercian order in Britain. The remains of the buildings, particularly the great church with its magnificent west front, are important in the development of northern monastic architecture in the second half of the 12th century. (Taken from the website – easier to copy than try to say that myself!)

It was breath taking – I really felt the calm around this place and could understand why they chose this area to settle. It was an English Heritage site, but free to get in, so I spent a good 45 mins walking around, sitting and imagining what this enormous place would have looked and sounded like back when it was full of monks and in its heyday.

I got back the site about 4pm, tidied my clean washing away (awning worked a treat) and then sat down to start a new book and… fell asleep. I must have needed that as I hate napping! When I woke up, I took some photos of the view from behind my pitch as it’s another beautiful view of the Yorkshire Moors – wish I had a better phone camera – this doesn’t do the view justice.

I continued the theme of chilling out, with a glass of wine as I made dinner and then settled in to watch rubbish on the TV. Tomorrow the plan is to go to Whitby and I will also google surrounding areas to see where else I might want to go and visit. You will see where I end up tomorrow…