I arrived at River Breamish on a Sunday at about 13:15 to find a very long queue waiting to book in. I suppose Sunday is always the day with the greatest turnover. On chatting with a couple, the next day, they told me they were around 3rd in the queue having arrived at about 12:50. Ten minutes early is forgivable, but avoidable. I wondered when the two vans in front arrived! I thought of the many threads on the discussions in Club Together about early arrivals. The culture of some is that this is perfectly normal and acceptable. It is hard to judge isn’t it, the couple opined. I thought, but did not say, that with modern navigation aids it should not be difficult at all. Anyway, they told me that the wardens, quite rightly, did not let anyone on until 1 o-clock notwithstanding that this led to a bottle neck on the narrow lane that leads to the site. Thankfully no lorry or tractor came along whilst I was in the queue. Even cars struggled to get by. This must be an issue at times. I get stressed in these situations; I shouldn’t and it should not be a source of criticism because it is hardly avoidable; but I will avoid it if I can and I would make sure not to come here on a Sunday again.
I thought the site was very attractive being open and bright and generally pretty with pleasant rolling hills surrounding it. I had a service pitch which were obviously fairly new and very excellent indeed; they were nicely spaced and with modern style drains and bollards. On wandering the site, it was noticeable that some hard standings were tired and in need of a bit of TLC. I liked the fact there was a bike washing area. I have never seen this before, though perhaps I just never noticed.
It is a remote site, so it was no surprise that the large majority of customers were caravanners. Like many motorhomers, I do not move once pitched so three nights here was enough. One day I caught the bus, about half a mile away on the main A697, to Alnwick. The other day I explored locally on my bike. The bus can be taken the other way to Wooller. The small supermarket at the service station on the main road is useful. There’s an interesting, antiques centre here too. It was wonderfully peaceful at River Breamish – almost too much so for a city dweller like myself – but, of course that is not meant as a criticism. It is what one gets used to. On the whole, I was glad I gave this site a visit albeit that, for the way I work, it could only ever be a stopover or a short stay location. The wardens were delightful and very helpful.
