Owning
a Campervan in the UK. Copyright not to be reproduced for commercial purposes without written permission of the author.
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Owning
a Campervan in the UK. “Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it." Samuel Johnson
Boondocking in the Lake District.
Wild camping is the term the Brits use for what the Americans term Boondocking, or touring in a campervan and stopping free overnight wherever you can. Several wild camping Internet sites have sprung up recently listing places that people have found to park overnight throughout the UK. The UK is, I think, the most difficult place to find good Safe Over Night Parking Spots (SONPS). Far more dificult than most of Europe, and not so many Brits do it, whereas in Europe (with the exception of Holland) and America bookdocking is a way of life.
All of the SONPS that we have used on this tour have had GPS coordinates recorded as waypoints, and some are shown in photos in this text. We use Aussie Explorer GPS mapping software and so the waypoint files are in Aussie Explorer format. However there are several programs freely available on the Internet to translate the many GPS waypoint formats from one to another so anyone reasonably familiar with GPS should have little problem with conversion to other waypoint formats.
A program like Aussie Explorer enables you to use scanned maps, which you can scan yourself from any paper map, or maps downloaded from the Internet instead of the limited maps provided by commercial systems such as Garmin or Tom Tom navigator. Unlike the mapping systems supplied by GPS makers such as Garmin, or point to point navigation software such as TomTom, Aussie Explorer enables you to use any map you want, with the scale and type of detail you need, and to add additional data such as notes and sets of way points to the maps. It is therefore in my opinion a much more powerful mapping and navigation system than the other types of navigation software mentioned. It does not provide the point to point turn by turn driving instructions that Tom Tom does, but overall I consider it the best type of program for touring, as distinct from merely planning a journey from point A to point B.
Pay and Display Car Parks, a plague on the land.
NO! I shall not pay, I shall not display! I shall park elsewhere!
And neither should you. Find free parking, often not too far away, up side streets, etc. We very seldom paid for parking.
One of the scourges of the UK, pay and display car parks. In towns and villages, even in the National Parks, out in the countryside. Insufficient funding of local authorities leads to this crap all over the country, while the national government wastes resources on foreign wars of agression in support of US imperialism. It's time the English rebelled. Boycott P&D carparks, elect local officials who oppose this additional tax.
The Lake District is called a National Park in the UK, but it is unlike anything remotely resembling a National Park in the USA, New Zealand or Australia in that it is heavily populated with towns and villages, and much of the lower land around the lakes is farmland, used mainly for sheep grazing. Access on foot is provided to most points of interest by the unique British system of Public Footpaths which allow right of way over private land through a system of signposted paths. There are gates or stiles in or over fences, and the "footpaths" are usually just unmade tracks, although in some more populated areas some may have been paved with asphalt or had crushed rock laid.
There are some Internet sites that describe walks in the Lake District and give GPS track files of the paths to follow. Public footpaths are also shown on the Landranger 1:50,000 scale maps. Some walks are fairly obvious to follow, but there are seldom maps displayed at the start of paths, so you either have to just follow your nose, or have a guide book, which you can purchase at a Tourist Information office or one of the hundreds of hiking goods shops throughout the area. Very rarely can you get any free information on walks to take as even single sheet sketch maps and descriptions are sold for a FEE at tourist information offices.
18/04/2004. Sun.
We found a quiet roadside loop to spend the night, as we usually do, and travelled on to Penrith. A notable feature of the Lakes District is the absence of Tesco or ASDA supermarkets. In Penrith the Safeway supermarket had the monopoly and their prices on all the lines we looked at were noticeably higher, some much higher than ASDA or Tesco. This underlines my advice on where to buy supplies. There is an ALDI in Penrith, but it was closed on Sunday.
Proceeding on into the Lake District via A592 to Ullswater and Windermere, the road skirts the lake. Parking spots are few, and although there are some small roadside parking bays they are inadequate and assess to the lakes is severely restricted by private land. There are several Pay & Display carparks operated by The National Trust, where they demand the exorbitant fees of £2.00 (A$4.80) for two hours parking. We won't pay such fees and at least outside of the summer peak season you can find free parking elsewhere.
Pedestrian access to the lakes is much better than vehicular access due to the network of Public Footpaths, which are signposted all over the area, indeed all over the UK.The signs simply indicate the presence of the public footpath and seldom indicate where it goes. You just follow the path from sign to sign, through farmers fields, over fences where stiles or gates are provided, through forests and along roads. For tourists unfamiliar with an area it can be rather difficult to know where to go without some form of route map or detailed description, so a guide book, description from an internet site (printed out and carried with you) or a leaflet from a tourist information office is almost essential to make effective use of this resource.
At this time of year the trees are only just beginning to come into leaf, so the countryside has not yet attained it's full beauty, and visiting later in May would be perhaps better timing. Public Footpaths, often including right of way over privately owned land are an historic institution in the UK and a valuable public asset which are actively supported by an interested lobby group. Public footpaths are also usually shown on the Landranger 1:50,000 scale maps, some of which I have downloaded from the Internet and calibrated to use with my GPS navigation system.
The roads in the Lake District are, like many in the UK, very narrow, and too many motorists travel far too fast for the conditions, so it is necessary in a larger vehicle such as a campervan to proceed slowly, keeping speed to a maximum of 30 to 40 miles per hour, and occasionally pulling in to a roadside parking bay to let cars pass.
We stopped for the night in a roadside loop. Along A592 the parking bays are mostly very small and the loop shown is larger than usual for this area. So if you are planning to boondock in the Lake District, don't expect to be too choosy about where you park. Most of the secondary roads haven't been widened for hundreds of years and are basically still the width of wagon tracks, and most of the available parking is on private land, for pubs etc, or is P&D. However as is usually the case you can find limited free parking if you are persistent and resourceful.
19/04/2004 Mon.
Parking along the A 592 south of Windimere to Newby Bridge is almost non existant, except for one P&D with toilets. On the other side of the lake going north to Hawkshead we found no parking apart from one or two tiny roadside bays only big enough for one or two cars until the Trout Farm fishing area at the south end of Esthwaite Water. What little roadside parking that existed in 1994 when we lasted visited the area, has been baricaded off with rustic log boom gates leaving few parking facitities for walkers or any one else.
Hawkshead village is impossible to park in or near unless you are prepared to pay £1.20 for one hour in a P&D. We were not and moved right along to the next village. So the local traders loose business as Sharon is looking for a new pair of walking boots, and we had bought excellent walking shoes at the Hawkshead store in 1994, and would have stopped there again, if not for the exhorbitant parking fees.
We found a good SONP about 2.6Km from Hawkshead at High Cross where there is a forest parking area giving access to bike trails. Although these dirt roads appear on the Landranger 1:50,000 maps they are baricared off to vehicular access and used as bike trails only. There are no posted parking restrictions.
The next parking area large enough to be a SONP is a National Trust area on A593 near High Yewdale from which a number of short walks can be taken to Tarn Hows, Yewdale Tarn and High Cross. There are no posted parking prohibitions, unusual for National Trust sites, as they seem not very campervan friendly.
Although it is obviously very popular with local UK toirists, most of whom come in cars or via train, the Lake District is, despite its lanscape charms, not an ideal area for touring with a campervan. Even if you stay in one of the many caravan parks the lack of roadside parking to gain access to walks and points of interest is a real problem, even for people with small cars.
20/04/2004 Tue.
In Ambleside there is a system of time disk parking which provides FREE parking for an hour. You can get a free clock disk from any shop, and set the time of your arrival on the disk and display it in the windscreen of your vehicle. So shop in Ambleside, bugger Hawkshead.
Shops in all the lake District towns stock a wide range of outdoor clothing, walking boots and other equipment. It is generally of excellent quality and you can sometimes pick up a bargain (for the UK) at the end of the walking season in September. However the Pound exchange rate means that you may be better off buying in your home country, particularly the US or Canada.
A waterproof jacket with a zip in removable liner (readily available here in the UK, but only at specialists in Australia) will cost at least £80.00 and most are around £100.00 +. Charity shops are worth checking out for warm clothing although the more specialised waterproof walking jackets are not commonly seen, although ordinary Parker type jackets, in almost new condition, can be had for £4.00 to £8.00.
A pair of very well made waterproof leather walking boots, with a waterproof membrane bonded inside the leather and made in the EU will cost at least £40.00 (US$75.- A$100.00) with many selling for up to £120.00 (US$200.00 A$290.00). Similar quality boots are much cheaper in the USA. However this quality is not widely available in Australia, unless you go to a specialist store, where I am unsure of A$ prices. Even relatively cheaper made synthetic and suede boots, waterproofed by applying a dressing, and made in Vietnam or Indonesia cost £30.00 to £40.00 (A$95.00) and this style of boot is readily available in K Mart or Big W stores in Australia for considerably less.
Generally the UK is not a bargain price country and there would be very few items that would be cheaper to buy here rather than at home, be that the USA, Australia, or most other places for that matter. However there are a few odd exceptions. One being paracetamol (a type of analgesic) tablets that you can buy in ASDA and Tesco for 16p for a pack of 24, and cod liver oil capsules from Aldi £1.24 for 100. Some items in UK "Pound Shops", (where almost everything they sell is priced at £1.00) such as PoundLand are also noticeably cheaper than the identical goods in "Cheap Shops" like Makro or Crazy Clarks in Australia.
Tourist Information Offices in the UK have become nothing more than a shopfront for commercial tourist attractions, petty museums, theme parks and accommodation, all places charging fees. They also sell maps and guidebooks. They offer little or nothing useful in the way of free information for tourists, even expecting you to pay 30P for the smallest of informative brochures, except for the innumerable advertising brochures promoting and supplied by tourist attractions. Even the English Tourist Offices display the Jewish culture of commercialism that infests the land.
Occasionally you may get a bit of useful information by tying up and interrogating the staff under bright lights using ancient oriental methods of torture, like the US and maybe the British army does in Iraq, or more simply from the larger glossy advertising brochures for other tourist regions which are usually free and contain 90% classified adverts for hotels, but sometimes useful maps and other snippets of information. Otherwise they are a dead loss for free information.
For free tour planning information the best source is the Internet before you leave home. Tourist information Offices in Europe still offer some useful information free, but in the UK the fee society has reduced them to almost useless sources of junk mail promotional information designed to empty your wallet. Some UK regional tourist authorities will also post you information free internationally if you contact them through their Internet websites,
We drove north to Grasmere and stopped at one of several small free roadside parking bays to go for a walk around Grasmere Lake. At his time of year with the trees only just coming into leaf the countryside has yet to develop its full character, and I would recommend visiting later in the year, at least May when trees are in fuller leaf, through to October when Autum tones create a particularly picturesque landscape.
Along the road to Grasmere (A591) the several parking areas marked on Landranger maps are P&D £2.00 for 1 hour up to £4.00 for 4 hours or the whole day. We of course found a free parking spot about 2Km further along beside Grasmere Lake. As the road would be very quiet at night you could also use this as a SONP. During the bussier summer season any free parking, in fact any parking at all, would be very hard to find.
Along A591 towards Keswick there are several large (for the Lake District) roadside parking areas that you could use for SONPS, although all the parking areas marked on maps are P&D. Keswick itself has several caravan parks and we stayed in one in 1994 when touring with a hired VW Transporter that had no shower or toilet, now we don't need them.
We drove on to Borrodale on B5289 as far as the bridge to Grange, much famed for its landscape beauty. A little way beyond there the road is signed as limited to vehicles under 2M (6'6") wide, so we didn't proceed further. We had driven over the Honister Pass in 1994 in a VW camper. Even at this time of year there are many walkers in the area, but although it would be more picturesque in full leaf later in the year, at this time of year it failed to impress me as anything out of the ordinary, and I think it's domestic fame in the UK is not to be considered a reflection of how high it should rate in the international tourists list of priorities. I suppose things are more impressive the first time seen and on this visit to the Lakes District I am overall not so impressed as I was on my first visit in 1994.
Heading towardsCockermouth along the A66 beside Bassenthwaite Lake, at the start of the divided road section, there is a large paved off road Forest Commission parking area that makes an excellent SONP. Part of the National Cycle Route passes through there and we decided to explore on our bikes, in so doing we discovered several FREE National Trust carparks along the unclassified road to Thornthwaite, and although they are signed "no over night occupation of vehicles", I doubt that the NT sleep police would often be checking here in the middle of the night. So, and listen carefully, for I shall say this only once, if you were discrete, and TELL NO ONE, you might just be lucky enough to get away with it, without receiving a lashing of the cat o'nine tails and being transported to the colonies!
21/04/2004 Wed.
In fact the whole lake District is a bit like Switzerland, in the sense that it is reletavely expensive, so stock up your camper van at a TESCO, ASDA or ALDI before you come to the area, and you will save lots of money.
Sharon bought a pair of walking boots for £39.00 that seem little different from ones you can pay £120.00 for. A fool and his money are soon parted. Her old ones, bought in London, cost about the same and have lasted 10 years. Value is what matters, designer lables and "brand" names are for fools. I bought a pair of walking boots in Wal-Mart in the USA in 2002, top of the range for US$40.00, underlining yet again, just in case you haven't been paying attention, that the UK is not a good place to buy almost anything. If you can bring it with you from home, without having too much baggage, do so, you will most probably save money.
Traveling on to Workington we find an ALDI to replenish supplies at Cockermouth, a place much beloved of oral sex fetishists! At Workington we find an excellent SONP at the lighthouse point overlooking the ocean. Rather windy but quiet and a very pleasant outlook. Modern windmills line the shore to harness the strong winds.
22/04/2004 Thu.
At last a sunny day at Workington. We were about to leave the Lake District, travelling south on the A595, when we decided to explore one last area, as we have been a bit disappointed that it hasn't been as interesting second time around as we had expected. After noting a good SONP south for Gosforth, we turned east near Greengarth Hall on to the road to Wasdale and Wast Water. This part of the Lake District is much quieter than the other areas we have visited and although the roads are just as narrow there is relatively little traffic.
Wast Water is almost a crater lake surrounded by steep bare hills, and is perhaps not so picturesque as some of the others. However you can drive right along the lake, there are free parking areas, some public footpaths and several areas that make good SONPS where there are no posted parking restrictions.
Part way along the lake another road from Gosforth joins from the north, and beyond there a sign indicates a width restriction of 6'6" on the road to Wasdale Head. This is a nonsense, at least as far as the free NT car park at the foot of Dropping Crag, the road along the lake is much wider than that in from the A595. We walked part way up Dropping Cragg and enjoyed some pleasant views over Wast Water, well rugged up with hats and gloves.
The whole of the Lake District is a pleasant scenic area, and there is no doubt why it is so popular with the English. There simply isn't any better area like it in the country. The UK us a fairly flat land, the highest peak is only about 4000 feet high, so they don't have a lot of mountains to choose from. It is a bit like the beaches, that's ye'r lot mate!
If I judge the Lake District by the same standard of international tourist appeal that I have come to apply to places we visit, I have to say it is an interesting place to see once, and for most international tourists that would be enough, there are simply many more spectacular and interesting places to see in the world. For the domestic tourists from the UK, I can see why they flock here in droves and keep coming back, there is much picturesque countryside, but without the dramatic grandeur on an awe inspiring scale of the European Alps or the canyon lands of Utah. Totally different. If you are touring the UK in a camper van, do come here, however be prepared for the hassles of inadequate parking, overpriced P&D car parks, narrow roads, and if you come in the summer, overcrowding with local tourists.
23/004/2004. Fri.
I find myself unable to recommend the Yorkshire Dales to the international tourist, unless you are just passing through on the way to somewhere more interesting, a nice day trip for the locals, but nothing to come thousands of miles to see.
24/04/2004. Sat.
The Yorkshire Dales.
We are heading for the Peak District, another English "National Park" area, but by way of a roundabout route to take in the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, the longest in the UK at 127 miles, and built over a 40 year period, with the first section opening in 1773 from Gargrave to Shipley. The weather is improving, it's sunny, the Bikini girls will be out soon!
At the village of Gargrave we see signs for FREE parking and we spot the canal, so stop for lunch and afterwards take a bike ride along the tow path. It is actually warm, and we are down to shirts. The locals are out in shorts, even a girl in a bikini top, really! There are a number of locks on the canal and it is interesting to watch the long boats negotiating the locks, and observe the occupants, one of whom has a particularly nice arse, operating the gates. I must be becoming more of a bum fetishist, and English girls seem to have sexy bums, and not so many of them are as unattractively overweight as Americans and Australians.
The English canal system has an interesting history intimately tied up with (the first) industrial revolution, the invention of the steam engine, the development of England as the industrial powerhouse of the 19th Century, the development of rampant lasae fare capitalism, the struggle for decent working conditions and and the economic history of Britain as a world power.
After exploring the canal at Gargrave we travelled on to Bingley where there is a unique system of multiple canal locks constructed around 1775. They are a fine example of industrial revolution period engineering. There are two sets one of three locks and upstream a set of five compound locks which raise the canal 18.3 meters.
A notable feature of travelling this route has been the lack of parking places suitable for SONPS along all the roads we have travelled today. Parking bays are only small roadside areas immediately adjacent to the traffic lanes, not suitable for overnight parking. We continued on through Halifax and Huddersfield, still finding no suitable SONPS into the Peak District where we at last came to a lookout with free parking where we stopped for the night along with another camper van. This is the first time we have seen another van boondocking in England.
25/04/2004. Sun.
We head south towards Glossop and find the Tesco having some specials on goods that are very near their use by date. We get pies (4 for 20P) and a pizza for 30P, prawn salad 27P, and some cheap vegetables about half price. These items are well worth looking out for as you travel around.They can regularly be found in ASDA and Tesco supermarkets most days. The goods are usually grouped together in the one place in a refrigerated display. You can freeze them, even our vans little freezer in the fridge will hold a few pies or packs of meat.
The SONP at Thornhill.
(Download the waypoint file for the exact geographic coordinates of all the SONPS for GPS.)
(This site is mirrored at http://campervanman.741.com and if you can't download the waypoint file from the site you are viewing go there and open this page and the download link should work from there.)
The road to Glossop suffers from the same critical shortage of parking places as we noted yesterday. On the A57 east of Glossop we note several small SONPS. Near Lady Bower Reservoir is a large forest parking area off A6013, where there appear no unfriendly signs and this would make a good SONP.
By exploring a minor road north of Thornhill (photo) we find an excellent secluded forest SONP where we decide to stay the night. There are public footpaths and cycle tracks, a shaded location and views across the valley to the village of Bamford. This is one of the best SONPS we have found in England.
After dining quite well on our 30P pizza and 27P prawn salad, washed down with a couple of glasses of Tesco apple cider, (£1.47 for 2L) we set out on our bikes (total cost £35.00 for the two bikes) to ride into Bamford and along the bridle paths. Who says you can't have a cheap holiday in England. So far we have spent £100.00 for a weeks accommodation in London and nothing (£0.00) on camping fees, I love to save a dollar ,or a pound, as much as to make one, Scrooge Mc Duck (blessed be his illustrious name) was my childhood comic book hero.
Our biggest expense is diesel fuel, at about 25MPG and diesel averaging about 78P per liter it costs around £12.80 or A$30 for fuel for 100 miles. We will cover around 3,000 miles touring the UK this trip making a total of about A$900 for fuel.
26/04/2004 Mon.
The agony of watching England self destruct.
News on the BBC radio. April 26, 2004.
- New high tech voluntary identity cards and passports are proposed for Britain, for which the recipients will have to pay, an extra £31.00 and £4.00 respectively, to combat "terrorism".
- Talk of making the so called voluntary identity cards compulsory, to combat "terrorism".
- There is talk of extending prison without trial for persons suspected of "terrorism".
- More talk of extending detention without trial to persons associating with persons suspected of "terrorism".
- Talk of changing the burden of criminal proof from one of "beyond reasonable doubt" to "on the balance of probabilities", in cases of "terrorism".
- On the radio there is propaganda about the visit of French nationalist leader John Pierre LePenn to the British Nationalist Party (BNP) conference in Manchester. Violent protests are organized against his visit and every imaginable derogatory comment is made about "far right extremists". It makes me recall this quotation:-
- "Anyone who picks up a Jewish newspaper in the morning and does not see himself slandered in it has not made profitable use of the previous day; for if he had, he would be persecuted, reviled, slandered, abused, befouled." - Adolph Hitler - Mein Kampf.
- Clearly the NWO is worried that there might be some stirring of real democracy amongst the docile English. The BNP is denigrated in the media just like Pauline Hanson's One Nation was in Australia, like Georg Heider and the Austrian Peoples Party were in Austria, and the French Nationalists are in France. The rulers of the NWO fear that people might want to actually have some voice in the running of their affairs, that some spark of real democracy might reemerge.
The specter of "terrorism" is used to justify ever more repressive and intrusive domination of society, and the docile masses are conned into thinking it is for their protection against this evil "terrorism". In fact, if one looks beyond the obvious, sees through the propaganda, there is much evidence that so called terrorism at its highest level is a creation of the NWO, an act of psychological warfare against the people of the world. The people are convinced there is an "external" enemy that they must fight, while internally they are made apathetic to the point many of them take a "you can't fight city hall" attitude to such an extent that they don't even bother to vote, while basic citizens rights and freedoms are relentlessly whittled away.
Giving your opponent the idea that defending himself is futile is as old as warfare itself. In about 500 B. C. the Chinese war lord-philosopher Sun Tsu stated, "Supreme excellence in warfare lies in the destruction of your enemy's will to resist in advance of perceptible hostilities." We call it "psy war" or psychological warfare today. In poker, it is called "running a good bluff."
The real enemy of people everywhere is not "terrorism", it is the invisible elite of super rich dominating global politics for over a century, that most people are totally unaware of. Terrorism is their creation, their weapon of psychological warfare, which co-opts, promotes, finances and controls dissident elements in the Islamic world to be its tools, and even creates the issues such as the Palestinian problem, which cause the basic disquiet, which is then exploited to recruit foot soldiers to be the "terrorists", the catspaws of the elite NWO. Through the media the common masses are deceived into believing that "terrorism" is the problem of the age, whereas it is just a diversion, a bogey man, an external enemy to fear, a justification for increasing repression and destruction of our rights and freedoms.
England lived for years through some real terrorism, the Irish IRA bombings, and saw no need for such draconian measures (at least not outside of Northern Ireland) as doing away with the most precious rights of English law, the right to a fair trial, the presumption of innocence, and proof of criminal guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Now with the paper tiger of "international terrorism" the flames of fear, fanned by the mass media, are cited as reasons to inflict these gross oppressions upon the British people. In WW II there were similar hysterical fear inspired injustices, but at least then there was a real war, no matter how fabricated the cause of that war. This time there is only the shadow of a bogy man.
Oh, England, awake, awake before it is too late! Like you, our people on the other side of the world are being manipulated, deceived, lied to, corrupted, oppressed, murdered, and told it is all for their own good. That most believe is the tragedy of the age, for they dig their own graves, give up their freedoms, give up their hard won rights, give up free speech, give up the presumption of innocence, give up the right to a trial, give up all that that was won so hard from Magna Carta on, and they give it up for no more than an illusion, a fabricated specter, a menace made to measure, a concocted engine of deceit, a mere shadow called "terrorism". Oh, England, you are a sorry sight. Amongst your green fields, you cultivate these cancers that eat away your freedoms. Oh, England awake!
Today on the 6 O'clock news on BBC4, over 50 of the most senior retired figures in British Diplomacy have roundly attacked Blair and US policy in the middle east, on Iraq and Israel. Men of learning and directly relevant experience see the errors, the blind stupidity of it all. Just as I say to you, England awake, so say they.
The BBC propaganda machine responds with ever more raucous promotion of "terrorism" hysteria, more promotion of identity cards, and promotion of the curtailment of citizens rights referred to above. It is all so blatantly obvious. I can only restate with dismay a quotation from myself, "the ignorance of the masses is profound". That they swallow such hysterical crap, yet again, underlines my long standing belief in the ease with which the common people can be fooled.
“The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” - Herman Goering (second in command to Adolph Hitler) at the Nuremberg Trial
Herman Goering was right, as usual!
Next day April 27. 2,004 Prime Minister Blair announces a review of the festering immigration issue. The classic diversionary tactic. Oh, England, AWAKE!
“Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it." Samuel Johnson
The city of Buxton is exceptionally interesting for its mineral water baths and springs and the fine gardens and buildings of the town. There is a free mineral water spring near the old baths pumphouse where you can fill bottles with excellent water.
Driving on from Buxton to Macclesfield on the A537 there are no good SONPS. The best is a parking bay adjacent to the traffic lanes about 3 miles from Macclesfield. The situation is the same along A537, A535 and A534 via Monks Heath, Holmes Chapel and Middlewich, and we eventually resorted to parking overnight in an industrial estate in Middlewich.
27/04/2004. Tue.
The typical architecture of Chester, some buildings dating from the 1,500's
Lots of history here in Chester too, and very relevant to today's issues, in particular in relation to the attempts to restrict freedom of speech, either through the more subtle means of "political correctness" (another of my pet hates) or through legislation, particularly in relation to the matter of race relations here in the UK, which is becoming an ever more thorny issue in Britain.
It is also relevant to the curtailment of freedom of speech in parts of the EU, in France and Germany, where it has been made a "crime" to express views which cast doubt on the "official" version of the W.W.II Jewish holocaust story. That's right, you can be jailed in Europe for saying you doubt the accuracy of any details of the holocaust myth. Now exactly which details you are not allowed to express doubt about must be very hard to know, because the story, the claims and the various details, numbers claimed to have died, accepted by many historians and even by noted Jewish scholars have themselves changed some what over the years. Presumably you are now required by French and German law to accept any and all claims, even if mutually conflicting, relating to the holocaust as gospel, and if you dare publicly say, "I have my doubts about that", you go to jail, go directly to jail, and do not collect 200 shekels on the way, you naughty anti-Semite!
And by the way, according to American columnist and author Joseph Sobran, these days "Anti-Semite is no longer someone who dislikes Jews; he is now simply a person whom the Jews don't like". So there's an honest fellow, pity there weren't more like him.
So what's Chester got to do with freedom of speech?
Way back in 1,555, here in Chester some poor free thinker by the name of George Marsh, who was unwise enough to express some unpardonable heresy about the mythology of his time, in relation to the generally accepted religion of the realm, apparently he was a Protestant, when it wasn't very fashionable, was BBQ'd at the stake. There is a small memorial to him in one of the main streets of the town, even today, April 27, 2004, someone had left flowers on it.
The inscription reads:- To the memory of George Marsh, Martyr. Who was burnt to death near this spot for the truth's sake. April 24th 1,555.
It took a long time, blood and tears, and a lot more martyrs like George Marsh, to establish that belief in the truth, or for that matter belief in anything that wasn't "the truth", or failure to believe, and the right to express your views, was not a crime punishable by death.
There are great chronological cycles in history, which from my research and understanding run about 500 years in duration. Today in 2004, here in the UK and around the world, going on for 500 years after poor George met his fiery end, these fundamental human rights, freedom of speech, and freedom of thought itself is under increasing attack.
The justification is given here in the UK is "racial harmony" or that some statements may "inflame sections of the community" or may "give offense" to this or that minority. The real rational is repression of popular dissent and widespread displeasure at the NWO policies which have flooded this country with culturally and racially incompatible migrants, and discouragement of any critical inquiry in pursuit of the truth, as opposed to the official propaganda we have all been fed as truth that we must accept.
In Europe the holocaust denial laws are justified on the basis that publishing statements which deny or cast doubt on aspects of the holocaust would offend Jews. Perhaps they will soon reintroduce burning at the stake for publishing statements casting doubt on the existence of the Tooth Fairy, on the basis that it might offend four year olds!
Today a new breed of historians, often derisively referred to as revisionists, by the ruling establishment, are researching and revealing the truth of our history, and about the reality of geopolitical and economic power in the contemporary world around us. For this they are persecuted and derided, prosecuted and penalised. Take the example of British W.W.II historian David Irving, or American historians Garry Allen and Professor Carol Quigley. Search these names in the Internet and you will find more detail.
Voltaire said it best. 'I may not agree with what you say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it".
Viva Voltaire. Viva George Marsh. Viva The Tooth Fairy. Viva truth, and if the truth offends you, stiff shit mate. What kind of "truth" is it that has to be protected by law anyway?
Like the L&NWRC in 1901, say what you mean. Call a spade a spade, and if you don't want, any class, species, race, religion, homosexuals, heterosexuals, bisexuals, hermaphrodites, persons with black hair, persons with green hair, or persons with blonde hair to frequent your premises, that should be your right. The right to discriminate, without causing physical harm or injury, against whomsoever you want to is a fundamental right, natural to all species. Political correctness attempts to destroy the right of individual choice.
I think they had a far better and more robust view of things back in 1901. And if you were one of the minorities, or majorities concerned and felt offended, too bloody bad.
"A state which in this age of racial poisoning dedicates itself to the care of its best racial elements must some day become lord of the earth." [Adolph Hitler - Mein Kampf]
Hence the Jews shall rule the earth, for they have enforced the policies which have in the past forty years polluted the racial purity of England, and all other western democracies, while carefully preserving the racial identity of the "chosen people".
If the rights to free speech, to the presumption of innocence, to not be detained without being brought before a court, to a fair trail by a jury of ones peers, and for criminal guilt to be proven beyond reasonable doubt are not vigorously defended, NOW, they will be lost. For they are clearly under attack right here in Britain, in the USA and in Australia, right now in 2004. Discussion of proposals for these things are on the BBC news almost every day, I'm not making it up.
The justification is given as fighting "terrorism", but the real reason is to entrench a new tyranny, the repressive Jewish New World Order, spreading it's tentacles around the globe. When there is any agitation for further restrictions on freedom of speech, look carefully at who are the prime instigators and supporters, for then you will know who are the traditional enemies of freedom of expression,there you will often find the ADL or a kindred organization of similar ilk.
The way things are going by the year 2,055, five hundred years after poor old George Marsh went up in smoke here in Chester, for speaking his truth, the rights we have come to take too casually as precisely that, rights, may be no more. Things may be a bit more subtle, but just as repressive.
In 2,055 "dissidents", who speak "truth", that being anything not then "politically correct", may have their identity cards canceled, or be required to take drugs to treat their "insanity", or be sent to "reeducation" camps, without trial, without appeal, without evidence and without conviction for any crime. Just because "Big Brother" says so. It's going that way.
In my last tour of Europe in 2,000 I saw one such reeducation camp, at Dachau in Germany, you may have heard of it. Contrary to the incessant propaganda about the suffering of the Jews, it was not ONLY Jews who were interned there. Along with some common petty criminals and Gypsies, many of the inmates of Dachau were ethnic Germans, of Teutonic stock, who had the temerity to think they had a right to free speech. Hitler was right about a lot of things, which our "western" propaganda distort and deny, but he was a tyrant too.
By the way, there never were any gas chambers at Dachau used to execute Jews. Despite such earlier claims in the 1960's and 70's, during the heyday of holocaust mythology. Historians now accept that the small all metal gas chambers which are still on display at Dachau were used only for disinfection, and there are no claims made at the Dachau site, which is now a museum, that they were used for any other purpose.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Again in 2004, "terrorism" isn't the basic problem. Tyranny is the problem.
The tyrants are the mega barons of ultra wealth behind the NWO, who also support Israel in its vicious oppression of the Palestinians, and control the pro Zionist policies of the USA. It suits them to have this festering sore in the worlds side, in the middle east, because it provides the cause which results in Islamic hatred of the west, thus providing an ongoing supply of suicide bombers and other indoctrinated extremists to be the footsoldiers of terror. And terror is the NWO's weapon of choice to foist its oppressions upon us. If the people are made to fear sufficiently they will cry out for ever more repression to "protect" them from the terror. In the process they will surrender their rights and freedoms voluntarily to the tyrants. Blair, Howard, Bush and most the other leaders of the so called democratic free world are the tyrants catspaws. Terrorism is their bogy man for the people to fear.
There is no longer any real democracy in the so called "western democracies". Having elections is only the mechanics of democracy, when the process is corrupted by party politics, subservient to a higher level of control, it is only the illusion of democracy. It is only when the people as a majority exercise real power through citizens initiated referenda and through independent elected representatives, free of party allegiances and controls that there can be real democracy.
The future use of terrorism to promote fear in the world and promote huge expenditure on defense projects was foretold in the 1970's by Dr. Wernher Von Braun, and details of his predictions have been made public by Dr. Carol Rosin.
Dr Carol Rosin was the first woman corporate manager of Fairchild Industries and was spokesperson for Wernher Von Braun in the last years of his life. She founded the Institute for Security and Cooperation in Outer Space in Washington DC and has testified before the United States Congress on many occasions about space based weapons. Von Braun revealed to Dr Rosin a plan to justify weapons in spaced based on hoaxing an extraterrestrial threat. She was also present at meetings in the 1,970's when the scenario for the Gulf War of the 1,990s was planned.
Here is an extract from her published work:-
When I was a Corporate Manager of Fairchild Industries from 1974 through 1977, I met the late DR Wernher Von Braun. We first met in early 1974. At that time, Von Braun was dying of cancer but he assured me that he would live a few more years to tell me about the game that was being played- that game being the effort to weaponize space, to control the Earth from space and space itself. Von Braun had a history of working with weapons systems. He escaped from Germany to come to this country and became a Vice President of Fairchild Industries when I had met him. Von Braun's purpose during the last years of his life, his dying years, was to educate the public and decision-makers about why space-based weapons are dumb, dangerous, destabilizing, too costly, unnecessary, unworkable, and an undesirable idea, and about the alternatives that are available.
As practically a deathbed speech, he educated me about those concepts and who the players were in this game. He gave me the responsibility, since he was dying, of continuing this effort to prevent the weaponization of outer space. When Wernher Von Braun was dying of cancer, he asked me to be his spokesperson, to appear on occasions when he was too ill to speak. I did this.
What was most interesting to me was a repetitive sentence that he said to me over and over again during the approximately four years that I had the opportunity to work with him. He said the strategy that was being used to educate the public and decision makers was to use scare tactics That was how we identify an enemy. The strategy that Wernher Von Braun taught me was that first the Russians are going to be considered to be the enemy. In fact, in 1974, they were the enemy, the identified enemy. We were told that they had "killer satellites". We were told that they were coming to get us and control us-that they were "Commies."
Then terrorists would be identified, and that was soon to follow. We heard a lot about terrorism. Then we were going to identify third-world country "crazies." We now call them Nations of Concern. But he said that would be the third enemy against whom we would build space-based weapons.
The next enemy was asteroids. Now, at this point he kind of chuckled the first time he said it.Asteroids- against asteroids we are going to build space-based weapons.
And the funniest one of all was what he called aliens, extraterrestrials. That would be the final scare. And over and over and over during the four years that I knew him and was giving speeches for him, he would bring up that last card. "And remember Carol, the last card is the alien card. We are going to have to build space-based weapons against aliens and all of it is a lie."
You don't believe he said it, or you don't believe she published it? OK Search it out yourself on the Internet. We have had the Russians, and now we have the terrorists, keep watching for the asteroids and then the aliens. Have you noticed all the sci-fi films, over the past twenty years or so, good fun, but propaganda too, to prepare your minds for these scenarios. If it weren't so serious it would be funny, but it isn't just fun, and money wasted on needless weaponry, real wars are fought too to justify weapons spending. Dr. Carol Rosin was also privy to the planning of the two Gulf Wars Kuwait and Iraq, and she has written about that too. Truth is stranger than fiction.
How can I say this? How can I know this you ask? Not only this, but all the other controversial facts revealed on this site (see the Europe 2000 and USA 2002 Camper van. tour pages too) about the history and politics of our times that flies in the face of conventional belief. I can only say that it has taken much reading and study of history, politics and economics, posting questions on the Internet, reviewing and comparing the answers with books and other sources, in particular the thousands of Internet sites which contain copious information compiled by historians and interested resistance groups, and by critically observing the world around me.
I arrive at these almost inevitable conclusions by asking, "why is it so? By asking, "who benefits"? By absorbing some of the accumulated wisdom of others, as encapsulated in some of the quotations scattered throughout this site. By reviewing a wide range of news sources and newspapers now available on the Internet. By listening to lectures by academics and politicians. By not just accepting as true what I am told in the media, but probing deeper, analyzing information, questioning, investigating. Thus I come to my truth, which is herein described for you.
If I am right, or if I am wrong, should I be burnt at the stake for it? Should I be fined or imprisoned, without trial maybe? Should any man be persecuted for saying what he believes, even if it offends some people?
SONP beside the River Dee, Eccleston near Chester.
In Chester itself SONPS may be found at the Park & Ride at Broughton Heath, alongside the River Dee slipway parking area near the Yacht Club, and the best we found is at Eccleston about 4 Km south of Chester.
Llangollen Canal, Gledrid.
28/04/2004. Wed.
Whittington Castle, good SONP, 30P is all they ask.
29/04/2004. Thu.
Throughout this tour of England we have seen few campervans boondocking, perhaps it is too early in the season, the weather has been rather cold and wet. Or maybe the English just aren't into boondocking much, unlike their European cousins.
Buttington Wharf parking area on the Montgommery-Llangollen canal.
Not much further we came upon another canal parking area, highlighting just what good sources of SONPS the canals of England provide. Now it isn't hard to do, to find SONPS, you just have to look in the right places. If you don't look, you have to always stay in camping grounds, and pay for services you don't need in a self contained camper van. which has its own shower and toilet
.
Clun Forest parking area. FREE and no restrictions.
Seek and ye shall find. Seek SONPS and ye shall find ones lie this, FREE. Do what everyone else does and you will pay to sit cheek by jowl in rows of little boxes called static caravans, row on row, never a tree, at Blackpool.
Apart from SONPS, seek also enlightenment and just as I have sought and found some of the truth of global political and economic reality, which I point out to you in there articles, YOU can find it for yourself. Don't believe what I say. PROOVE the truth of this enlightenment to yourself, by your own research on the Internet. Truth is stranger than fiction.
30/04/2004. Fri.
01/05/2004. Sat.
Clun is an old Welsh border castle town, important as an outpost in Norman times soon after the conquest in 1,066 when Wales remained a separate kingdom. There are now but a few remains of an eleventh centaury castle. A FREE English Heritage site, so don't expect much castle left to see, just a bit of the old central tower, but the views are pleasant and the parking area is FREE.
SONP on B4357 south of Evenjobb. One we didn't stop overnight at, just lunch. Fairly typical of the standard of parking road loops in this part of the UK that we have noted and give GPS coordinates for in the downloadable waypoint file.
The better ones we give two or more X in the waypoint comments and a tree symbol for the display in Oziexplorer.
This is a one X SONP, with marker symbol. It doesn't warrant a tree symbol.
Hay on Wye proved to be something of a disappointment. Bookshops galore if you want secondhand books, not a lot else, but the usual parking problems, P&D £1.50 for an hour, and crowds of tourists, who all seem to be wandering around as aimlessly as we were. It leaves me to wonder. Why do people come here? We came because we had read some overstated tourist hype that made it sound more interesting than it is, same as all the other poor saps I suppose. We found a FREE parking area [could use as SONP] on B 4350 1Km SW of town and rode our bikes in to town to see the sights.
02/05/2004. Sun.
Heading towards Abergavenny on A40 there is a well appointed rest area with toilets tables, bins and grassed picnic area beside a brook. One of the best in the UK. Several miles NW of Abergavenny. There is a posted 4 hour parking limit 8AM-6PM but nothing posted about stopping overnight.
East of Abergavenny we came across Raglan Castle, a Welsh Heritage Trust property. It is very much a ruined castle but as there is a lot more castle left than at Clun, here they charge £2.75 admission, but there is a free carpark and picnic ground.
03/05/2004. Mon.
On the BBC news, stories of the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by first American and now by British Soldiers. Pictures are published in the Daily Mirror. The reaction of is one of shock, horror, can this be true?
I believe, YES, without any doubt it is true, and not only on the basis of these recent revelations. Further I believe that what the Daily Mirror claims is only the tip of the iceberg.
Six months ago the same sort of claims were widespread on the Internet news groups (alt.conspiracy) reporting similar accusations against the Americans carried by the press in the Middle East and in Europe, with numerous sources claiming such atrocities were occurring frequently. The fact that the Red Cross had reported the abuses was also highlighted on the Internet many months ago in the Canadian Red Cross site. Particularly mentioned then, as an infamous hot spot of prisoner maltreatment was the American detention facility near Baghdad airport.
Only when the matter is brought to a head by a sector of the British mass media giving it some more widespread publicity are we treated to this sham display of official shock, horror and feigned disbelief. The pentagon has now admitted that Iraqi prisoners have been tortured abused and some murdered by US soldiers, and senior commanders have referred to a total break down in discipline. Nothing unusual for the US army, which has a long history of both individual rogue actions and officially sanctioned institutionalized and systematic abuse of prisoners. Recall the Mei Lai massacre in Vietnam as an example of the former, and refer to the stories of how American troops murdered and mistreated German POW's after WWII, and machine gunned hundreds of German POW's at Dachau concentration camp on the so called day of liberation. Refer also to the appalling treatment of German POWS by the US after WWII. Read an article about American WW2 Death Camps in Germany - Follow this link.
These allegations simply could not have been unknown to British authorities. If they are all over the Internet six months ago, reported on by the Red Cross, and I can find them back home in Australia, try and make a convincing argument that British authorities knew nothing, rather than simply choosing to ignore them. A GOOGLE search will reveal numerous reports referring to these or similar matters appearing on the Internet since soon after the fall of Baghdad to the US Imperialist aggressors a year ago. British MP's bleat that the photos published in the Daily Mirror are fakes, without any evidence to support such claims, and the propaganda machine tries to maintain the illusion that Britons would never be involved in such abuse.
Wars are undertaken for money or power, and for no other reasons. All the platitudinous crap from Bush and Blair and our own Australian groveling little turd John Howard, that we heard about Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD's) and liberating Iraq from Sadam, as justifications for the US Imperialist war of aggression, are beginning to be seen for the rampant bullshit that they always were. Every time a few more US troops bite the dust in Iraq I cheer. Bleed America, your arrogant ways have led you into this mess and the only ones who deserve any sympathy are the Iraqis who first suffered under America's puppet Sadam, then under the viscous onslaught of the puppet master when Sadam no longer suited your evil purposes. Britain under Blair and Australia under Howard behaved as spineless US lackeys.
The Internet provides the most genuinely free medium for news, and reveals news about any controversial matter long before the mass media are finally forced into admitting the truth. Because it can not be easily censored and anyone is free to publish on the Internet matters can be brought to attention far more easily than in ages past. Of course such claims need to have a verifiable basis, just as in any other media, sources need to be verified, and corroboration sought to ensure that information and claims made are based on fact. There is of course the opportunity for any false claims to be made by individuals, if you are foolish enough to believe them. That is why I say to you. DO NOT BELIEVE what I say here based on this site alone. Research and cross check facts for your self. Then you will come to understand the fact, as I have, that the world is far different from what the common herd of men believe.
SONP on A48 near Woolaston Wales. With toilets and tables.
SONP Under the Severn Bridge, past Sedbury village and past the Army Apprentices School.
We headed east over the older Severn bridge (the northern one) finding that there is now no toll in the easterly direction, although a toll still applies to west bound traffic going to Wales. Several good SONPS are to be found nearby and are shown in the photos above. We are now heading slowly to London and the end of our holiday and the weather continues to be poor, cold and wet and windy with only occasional patches of sun.
04/05/2004 Tue.
BBC news 4/5/2004 reports 50 American diplomats have followed the British example and written to their fearless leader roundly criticizing US policy in the Middle East, Iraq and the change of policy on Israeli occupation of Gaza. More and more the injustice the folly and the blatant aggression of the US policy is being recognized. But they don't come out and call a spade a spade, and say that the reason that US policy on Israel is as it is, stems from the fact that Jewish influence dominates America's policy. In effect Jews run America, and control most of the American mass media, and that makes a big problem for the world, but almost everyone is afraid to come out and say it. Until Americans are prepared to face up to the fact that their countries foreign policy, particularly regarding Israel and the Middle East is effectively controlled by an alien minority, and put an end to it, America will continue to be despised around the world.
I have always seen through the propaganda, and I have never supported the invasion of Iraq nor the US policy on Israel. Part of the reason is that through the Internet providing a wider spectrum of views and information, I was able to sift through the barrage of propaganda in the media and see the truth behind the issues. If you were fooled by the clamor about WMD, or about "liberating" Iraq and ousting Sadam, you too can find the truth. Inform yourself, research on the Internet, don't be a manipulated serf anymore. Knowledge is power!
A panorama from The Cotswolds.
The panorama above is one you can enjoy from a picnic area along the road from Uley to Woodchester. Here you can also park FREE overnight.
The picture is a series of overlapping shots taken with a Minolta Dimage 7 digital camera stitched together with Panavue image stitching software to form the over panorama spanning almost 180°.
The precise location is given in our downloadable waypoint files of SONPS (Safe Overnight Parking Spots) whhich contains the GPS waypoints for
these are in text file format and can be easily converted to other waypoint formats by conversion programs available on the internet such as GPS Babel. (To use the waypoints in mapping programs other than OziExplorer convert the format using a program such as GPS Babel) To locate these sites exactly you will need a large scale scanned map to use with your GPS system. We used downloaded 1:50,000 scale Landranger maps from www.streetmap.co.uk captured from the screen with Snagit 7 screen capture software and immaged stitched into useful large coverage maps using Panavue immage stitching software.
(This site is mirrored at http://campervanman.741.com and if you can't download the waypoint file from the site you are viewing go there and open this page and the download link should work from there.)
05/05/2004. Wed.
We
stopped overnight in a layby on the A40 near Eyensham west of Oxford.
Rather a noisy road but we found not a lot to chose from in the area. There
are two lay bys on the A4 almost opposite one another. The one on the southern
[westbound] side is larger and more off the road with trees, but the photo shows
the one on the north side where we stayed.
Oxford is impossible to tour easily with a camper as parking is extremely restricted and the Park and Ride areas have height barriers so you can't even park your vehicle there to take the bus or cycle in. We drove into and around the city but failed to find parking close in. You can park in some of the outer residential streets, but as it was raining we chose not to venture into the city on our bikes. Oxford is well provided with bike paths and would be a fine place to cycle tour, if it wasn't raining.
We moved on via a circuitous route to Wheatley [where there is an ASDA store, which has height barriers, but you can drive in through the car park exit where delivery trucks enter. Thence the A329 to Wallingford and A423 to Henley on Thames. Noting a pleasant forest SONP west of Bix.
06/05/2004. Thu.
We initially considered going to the Camping and Caravan Clubs site at Chertsey,
but found that the cost of a daily travel card on the train in to London was
£9.40 and decided to try a site closer at Abbey Wood on the south eastern
side of London. It is very difficult to find good SONPS
inside the ring road M25 around London. Parking areas along main
roads are usually nothing more than a narrow parking bay adjacent to the traffic
lanes. Along the A212 at Addington there are several parking areas in
parkland, but they all have height barriers. We eventually decided to stop at
an industrial park area near Poverest where there was ample parking and
spend a quiet undisturbed night. Supermarket car parks are another good alternative.
Close to London the best easily identifiable places to stop free overnight are ASDA or Tesco super center car parks, railway station car parks, mixed super center car parks where there are a number of different large stores sharing a common parking area. There you are unlikely to be bothered because no one person can be sure where you are shopping or employed, and nobody much cares.
07/05/2004. Fri.
After
spending the day shopping at Woolich we went to The Caravan Club campsite at
Abbey Wood to find the charges are £13.10 if you are a member,
but even with a Camping Card International discount want £18.60 for non
members for a night. I would not pay this much and opted for another FREE night
in a supermarket car park at the Safeway store in Thamesmead retail park
It seems the Caravan Club does not want non member business. I will not be exploited by paying £6.00 a night more than they charge their members, so with plenty of free parking available if you know where to look, they can go without my custom. This is the benefit of having your own shower and toilet, you simply don't need camping parks, and so save at least £10.00 every night, considerably more in some places where they can charge up to to the equivalent of A$50 a night for a campsite. If you had to pay these sort of fees all the time camper van. holidays would be much more expensive.
The Camping and Caravan Club (not the same organization as the Caravan Club) gives members rates to holders of a Camping Card International, which is available usually from your home country auto club.
In the London Area there are a number of retail superstores that do not post any restrictive parking signs, including the ASDA super stores at Grenwich and North Acton near Middlesex Hospital. These and industrial parks are the best places to park overnight, although you will also find occasional quiet residential areas where you can simply stop overnight.
08/05/2004 Sat.
Beckenham we visited old friends and were able to park in a relatives driveway
for a few days while we visited London before taking our camper to its storage
site in Kent and returning home to prepare for our next campervan tour in September
when we will be going to Belgium, Holland and France for about six weeks.
"Without economy
none can be rich, and with it few can be poor." - Johnson [1709-1784]
