28 Sept 2018

Castleton

26th to 28th September 2018

The Castleton C&MC site used to be one of our favorite sites and we have been trying to book it following its refurbishment without success - it's almost impossible to get into at weekends unless you book months in advance, which we don't like doing.  We only just managed to get in mid week, all that was available was a single serviced pitch which we snapped up.

Wednesday

There are 12 serviced pitches and when we arrived all that was available was one of the not so good ones, so not a great start.


Lots of friendly ducks around, although there is no pond or stream on site...


The newly refurbished facilities were excellent, but we don't remember them being that bad before.

What is worse...the sound of other people's music/tv when you are sitting outside trying to relax, or people walking across your pitch?  We were treated to both this trip!  We have noticed a lot of what we would call antisocial behaviour at club sites recently, with people showing no respect for others and just doing what they want.  It seems to be worse on serviced pitches. 

For a bit of peace and quiet we headed into Castleton and had drinks in a couple of pubs.  All the pubs in Castleton are excellent and it's hard to pick a favorite, but the Cheshire Cheese probably came out on top this trip.  We had dinner in Ye Olde Nags Head.

Thursday

A short drive to Hathersage and then a nice walk along Burbage Rocks.







We got back to the site quite early and it was surprisingly quiet, so maybe the moaning earlier in this blog is a bit unjustified.  Sat outside until it got too cold and then had dinner in the caravan.

Later we walked back into the village, which was really quiet, and had more to drink.  We always end up drinking loads in Castleton!  We had a go at a pub quiz in the Peak hotel but the questions were far too hard so we gave up and left half way through.  A bit of googling afterwards revealed that we might have got 1 or 2 out of 20!  Maybe all the locals are geniuses.

Friday

Homeward bound, the traffic on the A6 was horrendous but we still managed to get home just after midday.

Coming soon...

Ravenglass, Cumbria.

24 Sept 2018

Keswick

21st to 24th September 2018

Our second visit of the year to Castlerigg Hall, our site of choice for the Keswick area.  We keep saying we will try the C&CC site which is almost in the town centre, but we like Castlerigg Hall and don't mind the much longer walk into town.

Friday

A traditional Friday start.  We knew what pitch we would be on before we set off, so no nasty surprises on arrival.


Pitch no. 8, a bit overlooked by statics but we didn't sit outside much because it was too cold!

In the afternoon we walked down the hill into Keswick and had a look around the shops, then dinner in the Dog and Gun - their speciality, Hungarian ghoulash.  A very popular pub, we have failed to get in on several occasions in the past, but we were lucky this time.  We also had a drink in our favorite pub in Keswick, the Wainwright.

We got a taxi back to the site and popped into the Crag bar, which is part of the neighboring Heights hotel.  Very dated, but we like it.

Saturday

We went for a walk around Buttermere, to Rannerdale Knotts (355 metres) to be precise.  We got there quite late and all the free parking was taken so we had to go to a NT car park, where we got suckered into joining!  We need to park at NT car parks a lot now to get our money's worth out of it!


Quite a short walk and not too strenuous, but another Wainwright ticked off.

A lot of cloud to start...




But it brightened up a lot as we headed down from the summit.


And it was mostly blue skies when we got to the Crummock water shoreline.






A couple of wildlife pics...



Extreme wild camping...it must have been pretty cold!

In the evening we had veggie dinners in the Crag bar, which got very busy while we were eating.

Sunday

After a chilly night we awoke to a layer of mist over Derwetwater.


The view from not our pitch!

A couple of days ago the forecast was for rain all day, but it didn't rain at all.  Thinking the weather was going to be bad we had planned a short walk up Whinlatter (525 metres) and we stuck to the plan.  We might have been better off doing something else because the road from Braithwaite was closed and we had to go via Cockermouth!  We got there eventually.




Quite a clear day despite the cloud, we could see as far as Scotland.

In the afternoon we walked down into Keswick and had roast dinners in the Wainwright.  Then we strolled down to the lake for a pretty good sunset.  Phone pics, so not very good quality.




We got the last bus back to the site and proved that it's cheaper to get a taxi, then spent the rest of the night in the caravan.

Monday

We got away early and had no trouble on the journey home.

Coming soon...

A week off work, so we will go somewhere later in the week but not sure where yet.

9 Sept 2018

Buxton

7th to 9th September 2018

Back after a month long break.  Most places are too busy for us during the school holiday month of August, and even if we had been prepared to brave the crowds, we couldn't find anywhere with availability anyway.

Before we got out first caravan we had several tents and one of the places we visited a couple of times was Lime Tree Park, just outside Buxton.  With the C&MC site in Buxton full (as usual) we thought we would try Lime Tree Park for our first Peak district visit of this year.

After reading some reviews about road noise on the bottom part of the site we asked for a pitch away from the road on the top part of the site when booking online.  No chance.  We got a message mid week saying there were no pitches on the top part of the site, but we'd already paid in full so we took a chance anyway.

Friday

We knew more or less where we would be when we arrived and the pitch itself was ok.  It was quite near the road, which was busy during the day, but not as bad as some reviews made out.  Worse was the trek up a steep hill to get to the showers and toilets!


After setting everything up we managed to dodge showers walking into Buxton.  There are a few nice pubs in Buxton, our favorites being the Buxton brewery tap and the Red Willow tap, which is quite new.  The Cheshire Cheese is nice, too, and that is where we had dinner.  We noticed that a Pink Floyd tribute band were playing at the Royal Opera House on Saturday and thought about getting tickets, but didn't.  Only rubbish seats left, and too long at just over three hours, and a bit pricey at £18.50, we thought.

We got a taxi back to the site only to find a small motorhome with a massive awning next to us, with its guy ropes almost touching our caravan.  Pitches are a bit close together on this part of the site.

Saturday

It was raining when we woke up but it eased off enough for us to go for a walk around Chee Dale.


The fun part of the walk was very enclosed, with overhanging cliffs, popular with climbers, and stepping stones in a couple of places.  No open views, but it probably would have been too wet and miserable for a hill walk today.

We took no notice!






The walk started and finished on the Monsal trail, a former railway line, and we passed through a couple of recently re-opened tunnels.



It rained a lot in the afternoon, so we waited in the caravan until it stopped.  Then we headed back into Buxton.

We had dinner in the Buxton tap room, which we noticed was full of people wearing Pink Floyd t-shirts.  More and more came in as we ate and we started to feel that we would be missing out by not going to the concert.  We managed to get a couple of seats in the gallery, so high up we could barely see the band, but at least nobody sitting next to us!

We didn't enjoy the first half of the show much, but the second half was much better.  They played Dark Side of the Moon in full, which was great, especially the screaming girls in The Great Gig in the Sky.

Of course, we couldn't get a taxi afterwards and had to walk back to the site, but it's not too far.  Luckily the rain had stopped.

Sunday

We were a bit late getting up and didn't get away until 10.30, which is late for us.  No problems getting home.

Not sure if we will come back to this site, we like the C&MC one better.  If we do come back here we will insist on a pitch on the top part of the site.

Coming up...

Hopefully we will go somewhere next weekend, but not sure where yet.  We want to get away as much as possible in September.