01 / MISSION PROFILE
The quarters the archive never claimed, in one sweep.
Seventeen files in, the map still had blanks: the cathedral counties of the east, the castle-studded Marches, the gorge country of the Wye and Mendip, and the two great south-western moors. This first MEGA TRIP takes all of them in a single three-week arc — six bases, four cathedral cities, two national-park moors, one wild-boar forest — with the two-night rule stretched to three and the moor finale given five. Route planned, not yet driven — this file will gain field notes after the wheels turn.
LINCOLNLUDLOWTHE DEANMENDIPEXMOORDARTMOOR
03 / JOURNEY LOG
Twenty-one days. East hill, west marches, two moors.
Six chapters of three-to-five nights: the cathedral east, the Marches, the wild-boar forest, the Mendip caves, the dark-sky moor, the granite moor.
Worcestershire → Lincoln
East across the country the archive has never crossed: A46 to the third civic gate in the collection — Hartsholme, the city council’s own site inside a Green Flag country park, lakes and woods around the pitches, buses two hundred metres from the gate. Brayford Pool’s waterfront for the first evening.
NIGHT 1 / HARTSHOLME COUNTRY PARKSteep Hill: cathedral + castle
The bus in, then the climb that names itself: Steep Hill to the top of England’s east. The cathedral — for two centuries the tallest building on earth — sells an honest ticket; the castle next door holds an original Magna Carta and a full circuit of walls. Imp hunted, straits browsed, bus home.
NIGHT 2 / HARTSHOLME COUNTRY PARKThe Wolds — or Donna Nook
England’s emptiest hills: the Lincolnshire Wolds’ lanes, Tealby and Louth’s spire, red-arrow country overhead. In November and December the day flips east instead — Donna Nook’s dunes, where thousands of grey seals pup metres from the viewing fence: one of Britain’s great wildlife spectacles, an hour from the pitch.
NIGHT 3 / HARTSHOLME COUNTRY PARKIronbridge → Ludlow
The long transit, broken exactly right: Ironbridge at lunchtime — the world’s first iron bridge over its wooded gorge, free to walk, the museums’ honest tickets optional — then down the A49 to the Marches. Ludlow Touring Park by four: five-star affiliated gate, the Teme at the boundary, and never approached from the north through Richard’s Castle.
NIGHT 4 / LUDLOW TOURING PARKLudlow: castle, market, Stokesay
Betjeman’s “most perfect town” on foot: the castle where princes were raised, five hundred listed buildings, and a market square that still feeds the food-town legend. Twenty minutes north, Stokesay — England’s finest fortified manor, EH, honey-stoned and improbably intact.
NIGHT 5 / LUDLOW TOURING PARKThe Long Mynd
Into the Shropshire Hills: Carding Mill Valley on the NT card, the reservoir path for the pram and the Mynd’s whaleback for longer legs, gliders riding the ridge lift overhead. Church Stretton’s little arcades for tea, back to Ludlow for the last Marches night.
NIGHT 6 / LUDLOW TOURING PARKHereford → the Forest of Dean
South past Hereford — the Mappa Mundi’s honest ticket if the morning allows — into the oldest hunting forest in England. The Dean’s Forestry England campsite sits deep in the oaks: boar rootings in the leaf litter, the third FE-woodland pitch in the archive.
NIGHT 7 / FOREST OF DEAN (BRACELANDS)Symonds Yat Rock
The Wye’s great meander from the Rock: peregrines on the cliff opposite — the volunteer scopes are out April to August — canoes threading the rapids below, and the ancient hand-pulled rope ferry still crossing at the Saracen’s Head. A day that never needs the engine.
NIGHT 8 / FOREST OF DEAN (BRACELANDS)Puzzlewood + the sculpture trail
The forest’s strange heart: Puzzlewood’s moss-drowned ravines — the honest ticket that launched a thousand film sets and, the legend insists, a certain Middle-earth — then the free sculpture trail’s giant chair and stained-glass window hung among the trees. Tintern’s abbey glows across the river: Wales waits for Expedition 19.
NIGHT 9 / FOREST OF DEAN (BRACELANDS)Severn → the Mendips
Over the old Severn crossing’s shadow and down to the limestone: Mendip Heights at Priddy, the plateau village with sheep-fair hurdles still stacked on the green. Afternoon in Wells — England’s smallest city: the cathedral’s scissor arches and medieval clock, Vicars’ Close unchanged since the 1300s.
NIGHT 10 / CHEDDAR MENDIP HEIGHTS C&CCCheddar Gorge
Britain’s biggest gorge two ways: the free clifftop rim walk — goats on the ledges, buzzards below your feet — and the honest-ticket showcaves where Cheddar Man lay for nine thousand years. The van parks at the bottom early or not at all; the doctrine holds everywhere.
NIGHT 11 / CHEDDAR MENDIP HEIGHTS C&CCGlastonbury Tor + the Levels
The Isle of Avalon on the NT card: the Tor’s bare tower over the Levels, climbed early for the mist-sea if autumn obliges. Then the Avalon Marshes — bitterns booming in spring, and from November the starling murmurations that turn the sky to smoke at dusk. Somerset’s two magics in one day.
NIGHT 12 / CHEDDAR MENDIP HEIGHTS C&CCQuantocks → Exmoor + Dunster
West along the A39 with the Quantocks to port, arriving at Exmoor’s highest village: Wheddon Cross, the club site at the moor’s dark-sky heart. Dunster first though — the Trust’s castle on its wooded tor, the octagonal Yarn Market, and a village that looks arranged for the postcard because it was.
NIGHT 13 / EXMOOR HOUSE C&CCTarr Steps + the Barle
The seventeen-span clapper bridge the Devil built — or glaciers, the guides admit — and the Barle’s oakwood valley upstream: otter country, dippers on the stones, the pram managing the riverside mile. Winsford’s thatch and ford for a cream tea taken in the correct county order.
NIGHT 14 / EXMOOR HOUSE C&CCDunkery Beacon + the dark sky
Exmoor’s roof on the NT card — Dunkery’s cairn with the Bristol Channel one way and the moor rolling south — then Porlock Weir’s tiny harbour below the terrible hill (the toll road is the van’s honest route). After dark, Europe’s first Dark Sky Reserve does its work: the Engine’s sky panel picks the night.
NIGHT 15 / EXMOOR HOUSE C&CCDown to Dartmoor
South between the moors — Tiverton, the M5’s brief loan, the A38 — and into the Dart valley by the Peartree junction, never Ashburton’s narrow streets. River Dart Country Park: ninety Victorian acres inside the national park, the pitch price including the whole adventure ground. Haytor at golden hour if the day has legs.
NIGHT 16 / RIVER DART COUNTRY PARKHaytor + Widecombe
The classic east moor: Haytor’s granite whale climbed by its easy shoulder, the quarry tramway’s stone rails, Hound Tor’s ruined medieval village in the bracken, and Widecombe-in-the-Moor’s cathedral-of-the-moor with the fair’s song in every gift shop. Ponies everywhere; the code from Expedition 15 travels.
NIGHT 17 / RIVER DART COUNTRY PARKThe moor gates (north moor)
The floating day, placed where the firing calendar says yes. Flags down: the high north moor — Meldon’s viaduct walk for wheels, Yes Tor’s flanks for legs, England’s highest ground south of the Pennines. Flags up: Merrivale’s Bronze Age stone rows and Princetown’s visitor centre sit outside the danger area and never close. Doctrine below.
NIGHT 18 / RIVER DART COUNTRY PARKWistman’s Wood + Postbridge
The moor’s haunted heart: from Two Bridges to Wistman’s Wood, the dwarf oaks furred in moss — viewed from the path’s edge now, the grove itself resting from too much love — then Postbridge’s perfect clapper bridge and a Warren House Inn pasty by the fire that hasn’t gone out since 1845.
NIGHT 19 / RIVER DART COUNTRY PARKBuckfast + the Dart
The wind-down day the mega trip has earned: Buckfast Abbey free and humming — monks rebuilt it by hand across thirty years — then the park’s own river beach, the play forts, and absolutely nothing that needs the cab. Kit dries, lists get written, the crew remembers what home smells like.
NIGHT 20 / RIVER DART COUNTRY PARKThe long road home
A38, M5, and the Malverns rising to port like a homecoming beacon three weeks after they watched Expedition 17 set out. Home by mid-afternoon with six counties’ mud in the arches and the biggest file yet in the drawer — and the archive’s England map, at last, nearly full.
HOME / WORCESTERSHIRE04 / OPERATIONS BRIEFING
The details that keep the adventure easy.
Three weeks needs only two disciplines: the coach doctrine travels from Expedition 17, and the north moor adds a military calendar.
PRIMARY DISCIPLINETHE MOOR GATES
OKEFIRING TIMES CHECKED / RED FLAGS = CLOSEDMER
Lulworth’s rules, translated into granite
Dartmoor’s three northern ranges — Okehampton, Willsworthy, Merrivale’s remnant — close the high moor for live firing on published days: red flags by day, red lamps by night, the calendar on gov.uk and the doctrine identical to Expedition 13’s. Day eighteen floats to a clear day; the southern and eastern moor — Haytor, Wistman’s, Postbridge, everything the file loves — sits outside the danger areas entirely and never closes. One addition granite demands: the moor makes its own weather, so a clag-bound flag-down day still yields to the tors below the cloud.
The moor first, the rest follows
1. River Dart ×5 — the longest stand in the archive, and school holidays sell it out. 2. The four three-night gates — Ludlow and Mendip Heights are small and beloved. 3. Hartsholme ×3 — modest fees, thirty-five pitches, and note the March–October season (plus the Christmas Market window).
Three printed approaches
Ludlow: never the B4361 from the north through Richard’s Castle. The Dart: Peartree junction only — Ashburton’s streets and the satnav’s moorland fantasies both decline politely. Hartsholme: a rising bollard guards the gate; arrive in office hours. Between moors, the lanes are Devon-narrow: the track-comfort setting finally earns its keep in England.
Three weeks at three-night pace
The mega tier’s whole design: longer stands, shorter drives, one full rest day banked before the run home. The pram owns Carding Mill, the Tarr Steps mile, the gorge rim and the Dart’s beach; the carrier takes the tors. Percy: boar-country leads in the Dean, pony-code leads on both moors, and the seal fence at Donna Nook is absolute.
The file plans for tiredness
Week three is where mega trips fray: hence Dartmoor’s five nights, day twenty’s deliberate nothing, and a standing rule — any day may be halved without guilt. Fuel and shops thin on both moors (Wheddon Cross runs on one garage): tanks and cupboards filled in the valley towns, always.
05 / UK ACCESS STACK
Every card travels; the tickets stay honest.
Six NT doors across four counties, Stokesay for the EH card, a third Forestry England woodland to sleep in — and a mega trip’s worth of honest tickets from Lincoln’s tower to Cheddar’s caves. Carry physical cards; admission, booking and parking rules vary by organisation and property.
Carding Mill to Dunkery’s cairn
The Long Mynd’s valley, Glastonbury Tor, Dunster Castle, Dunkery Beacon, Holnicote’s Selworthy thatch and Wistman’s approach land — the card working from the Marches to the moor, with parking covered where it matters most.
Stokesay, and a bed in the Dean
Stokesay Castle is the EH card’s single Marches jewel — the fortified manor time forgot to ruin — while the Forest of Dean gives Forestry England its third sleeping shift in the archive: the campsite in the oaks, the sculpture trail free outside it.
Every kind the archive keeps
A council country park under a cathedral city, a five-star affiliated park by the Teme, two C&CC sites on the limestone and the moor, an FE forest and a Victorian country park — six gates, six different answers to the same question, all of them right.
Paid gladly, county by county
Lincoln’s cathedral and Magna Carta castle, Ironbridge’s museums, Hereford’s Mappa Mundi, Wells, Cheddar’s showcaves, Puzzlewood’s film-set ravines — the mega trip’s ticket ledger is long, cheerful and card-free. Buckfast, pointedly, is free.
06 / EXPEDITION TOOLKIT
The cover, the shortcuts and the dog-walk wildcard.
The installed app deck is broad enough to cross-check pitches, navigation and live conditions. Use it as a layered toolkit—not as permission to ignore campsite arrival instructions, signs or local access rules.
INSURANCE / OWNER RECORDAPP INSTALLED
Grove & Dean
Full UK and EU cover, with full UK and EU breakdown assistance—as recorded from your policy information.
- Keep the Grove & Dean iOS app signed in and available.
- Cache the certificate, policy number and claims and breakdown telephone numbers for offline use.
- Before any EU run, re-read the territorial, trip-duration and driver wording in the actual documents.
DOG WALK / FLEX LAYERNO MEMBERSHIP NEEDED
Woodland Trust woods
A useful extra layer for Percy: Woodland Trust woods are free to visit, and its directory can surface short decompression walks around transit days — thin in the far north, useful on the M74 corridor.
- Search near the next fuel, lunch or overnight stop rather than forcing another major attraction into the day.
- Check each wood page for parking, livestock, seasonal work and path conditions.
- Follow local signs and the Trust's responsible dog-walking guidance.
INSTALLED APP DECK
Cross-check, download, then go offline.
01PITCH + PARK
Find the night
CAMC BookingSiteSeekerpark4nightCampercontactStayFreeCampyWikiCampssearchforsitesBrit StopsCampingCard ACSICampernightCampsites.co.ukHipcamp
02MAP + WALK
Navigate on and off road
WazeHiiKEROsmAnd MapsPeakVisorOS MapsOS Locatewhat3wordsOrganic MapsWikiloc
03FAR NORTH LAYER
Discover the route
Dartmoor Firing TimesMet OfficeOS MapsClear OutsideNational TrustStarling Roost Updates
04UTILITY + EUROPE
Keep the vessel moving
StarlinkUlysaFerryLeShuttleGreen-ZonesFlushRainTodayMeteo-FranceLevel RemotePetrolPricesFlightradar24Club Magazine
FIELD RULEClub arrival directions beat Waze on the final approach. Download OS or OsmAnd mapping before the signal disappears.
07 / DEPARTURE CHECK
Ready the landship.
A short final check now prevents the unglamorous problems from hijacking the first few days.
Canvas clear, locked, verified
Pull the elevating-roof canvas clear, lower, twist-lock and physically check it — every departure, no exceptions — and two moors mean real weather: at Wheddon Cross and on the Dart, the roof answers the forecast, not the mood.
Weigh the real expedition
Load exactly as you intend to tour and visit a weighbridge. The automatic's 370 kg must absorb crew, Percy, water and every bag — check total and axle weights.
Six gates, three weeks, full tanks
Service points or disposal at every base — but the mega rule is margin: water and gas topped at each move, because moor villages sell neither after six. Gas off at the internal shut-off for transit, and the third-week systems check done properly, not from memory.
Leisure battery green
Battery charged, solar clean and reporting, hook-up cable, adaptors and USB leads aboard. Hook-up at all six bases — twenty wired nights; even a mega trip keeps the calculator drawered, though the dark-sky evenings run on flasks and red light.
Restraints rigged
Child seat installation confirmed on the belted travel seats, and Percy's crash-tested harness or crate anchored on the activity deck — Highway Code rule 57.
Cards and cover to hand
Licences, insurance app signed in and cached, C&CC card for both limestone-and-moor gates, NT and EH for their seven doors, the Dartmoor firing calendar saved offline — and the November seal-fence rules read before Donna Nook.
OFFICIAL RESOURCE DESK
Recheck before departure.
08 / OPEN MAP
Browse the mega arc from home base.
The map opens on Dartmoor at expedition scale. Pan, zoom and search freely — this is a planning surface, not a fixed route.
EXPEDITION FIELD / SIX COUNTIES DEEPOpen full Google Maps ↗