Autumn is Dracula season

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. We do this in a bid to be less polluting and tackle climate change while at the same time keeping a global outlook. Dracula is one of the most popular horror stories - it definitely doesn't give Romania a good press, but it also turns Whitby and Purfleet into stars. Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).

The Dracula plaque at Purfleet.

A few days ago I was in the woods with two teenagers and an eight-year-old. It was dusk, very close to dark and not far off Halloween so the suggestion was "let's tell some scary stories". I insisted these were age appropriate but they ended up being scary for me, and us all. There's something about riding through twilight with the autumn leaves swishing that helps you connect with people from the past. How lucky we are to have electric light we all agreed as we rode along the darkening track back to the yard with its cosy well-lit stables.

Even with the lights on in a warmly-heated house I can get scared easily. So imagine what it must have been like to read Dracula by Bram Stoker when it first came out. You'd have used a flickering candle or a spluttering gas lamp if you were brave enough to read it before bedtime. I love the Dracula story with its twists and turns, sexuality and Victorian morals - but I associate it with Yorkshire, in particular the seaside town of Whitby. Turns out I was wrong, Purfleet in Essex has a nice link too. As does the big cemetery at Hampstead Heath.

Enjoy more info about Dracula by taking an atmospheric tour of the extremely creepy Hampstead Heath west cemetery on Halloween, 31 October. The last tour is at 3pm.

Or go and look at the plaque in Purfleet, just by the church. This would be a nice trip if you combined it with a visit to the RSPB's Rainham Marshes site. If the tide is out when you are by the Thames look for the skeleton hulls of wrecked ships as you head towards the striking visitor centre. See pix below:

Walking around Rainham Marshes, easily reached via Purfleet train station.
Don't look - he's behind you!

RSPB Rainham Marshes visitor centre.

But if you are Dracula-fixated maybe head to Whitby, where there's even a Dracula Experience. I know from going round it that it really is terrifying (if you want to be terrified).