AgyVan on Tour: Crossing the Boarder

As we left York we headed north up the A1 through Northumbria, past the Angel of the North and into Kielder forest. A stunning drive that the photos don’t do justice to. Mind you there was one bit of road that was clearly Roman. I suppose you could say straight - it certainly was straight, but there were several expletives uttered, along with the odd ahhh, eek and woah! It was exactly like being in a roller coaster, up and down, blind summits, no road to see underneath you, in a 3 ton van with all your household belongings rattling about! It was spectacular, but I can tell you we were very pleased when it stopped!

As we headed up and crossed the border into Scotland we stopped for lunch at Carter Bar - no, not a bar, a car park with the most amazing views, literally on the border. There is nothing like sticking the kettle on, making a sarnie and eating it wherever you happen to be at the moment you want it. I’m predicting stunning lunch stops for several days.

Edinburgh outskirts were busy, but we were soon through crossing the Queensferry crossing bridge trying to catch a glimpse of the famous Forth Road bridge. Slightly tricky when the wind deflectors on the bridge hide the view, but maybe you can spot it here.

We weren’t really sure where we were going to park overnight so kept driving for a bit and turned off at a little turning to Silversands Beach in Aberdour. I’d read it was a great place to stop overnight and the authors weren’t wrong. It was stunning!

Looking out over the Firth of Forth, just us and a couple of other vans. All we could see was the sea, the rabbits and the birds. Utterly stunning, I’m not sure we will get a better view than this to park up for the night. Having spent a lot of time on the road we wanted a walk, so pottered off to the end of the road to find the lighthouse and discovered that this was the site of the Hawcraig Admiralty Research Experimental Station in World War 1. This was the centre of the research to defeat the German U boat. It was the navy hydrophone research and training base, the forerunner of modern sonar. Seaplanes also operated from here.