Vulcan XH558 giving a flying display
The Vulcan bomber
A Reaper drone based at RAF Waddington
AWAC Sentry E-3D
EASTER MONDAY 22-4-19
As I was fairly confident of finding my way to Lincoln without the use of a satnav or safety net I decided to give the spare satnav a test run. In future I’m going to try and find space for it within our living accommodation rather than have it locked away in the safe within the rear garage. The need to have easy access to it was bought home to us on the last trip when our regular satnav froze whilst on the Paris ring road. Had I not managed to eventually get it fired up again we would have been seriously stuck, as I wasn’t in a position to retrieve the spare from the back.
It took a bit of head scratching to find my way around the menu but eventually I was able to input the GPS for Hartsholme Country Park Campsite on the southern outskirts of Lincoln City, Lincolnshire. I had decided to keep off the A1 as today was the end of the Easter Bank Holiday and there would be a good chance of the road being choked with traffic. Instead I opted to travel north along the A15, across the flatlands. The journey took us three hours which was longer than I had expected, but it didn’t matter as we were in no hurry.
Approaching Lincoln we passed RAF Waddington. Back in the days of the Cold War it was a major base for the Avro Vulcan ‘V’ bomber, part of the UK’s ultimate deterrent with aircraft and crews on as little as a four-minute warning of an incoming attack. https://www.raf.mod.uk/our-organisation/stations/raf-waddington/ today this remains one of the RAF’s busiest airfields. Its primary role these days seems to be around surveillance using the Sentry E-3D airborne radar aircraft and flying the unmanned ‘Reaper’ drones.
We arrived at Hartsholme Country Park Campsite late afternoon (GPS N53.214653º W0.583400º) https://www.lincoln.gov.uk/visitors/parks-and-open-spaces/hartsholme-country-park/hartsholme-country-park-campsite/ It’s nothing fancy but is well located for visiting Lincoln with a regular bus service in to the city just a couple of hundred yards away.
After dinner we went for a pleasant walk around the park before settling in for a bit of TV watching.