Not so lucky with the weather this time!

Skelwith Fold, 10th to 13th May 2013

Friday

Arrived earlyish to find the site less than half full.  This site is a bit car park like, with no grass between pitches, which (says D) makes it harder to reverse the caravan in…nothing to aim at.  That’s his excuse for the poor reversing, anyway!

A slightly sloping pitch in the Loughrigg section of the site.

Note the status aerial on top of the caravan…gone now, but more of that later!

As is customary when we come here, it was off to the Drunken Duck Inn for a beer or two.  Lots of beer this weekend, D sampled 8 in total, but not all of them were pints!

The Drunken Duck…a great place to sit on a rainy afternoon…one day we will come here and it wont be raining!

Got back to the caravan around 7 and stayed in for the rest of the night listening to the radio.

Saturday

The weather forecast for this weekend was spot on…rain in the morning but brightening up later in the day.  So we drove into Ambleside and had a look around the shops in the morning and bought a couple of things we really didn’t need and had tea and a cake.

In the afternoon we drove to Low Tilberthwaite and walked to Little Langdale, to Cathedral cave.  A massive cave, and as we walked in a group of girls were singing, like a choir in a cathedral…very nice.  Of course, they stopped as soon as they saw us!

 

We liked nearby Slaters bridge, too, and left Billy the squirrel travel bug in a geocache close by.

Had to rush back to the site to get changed as we had booked a table for Zeffirellis - a nice vegetarian restaurant in Ambleside – and the buses aren’t very frequent.  They have a jazz bar upstairs and that night’s act was Djangologie – A Django Rheinhardt style quartet.

A long (2 mile) walk back to the site afterwards because we couldn’t get a taxi!  Luckily it wasn’t raining. It was pitch black all the way and we didn’t even have a torch, so we had to make do with using our phones to light the way!

Sunday

The original plan for today was to drive up the Wrynose pass and bag a couple of Wainwrights, but the forecast was for heavy rain, so instead we strolled along the River Brathay to Elterwater, and then over the hills to Grasmere.  It did rain a bit, but that’s what waterproof coats are for.  Not a day for summits, though.

Got the bus back to Ambleside and then walked back to the site, which is when it really started to rain!

It brightened up later, so we walked down to Skelwith Bridge and had a drink in the Talbot bar after taking a few sunset pics.

Monday

Left around 10 and after an uneventful journey we arrived back at the storage site about midday.  Only to find that we had lost the status aerial on the way!  There was just a wire hanging down.  It must have been dangling for a while because there are lots of dents and marks in the side of the caravan, which is more annoying than the loss of the aerial, which never seemed to work anyway.  This caravan is looking very tatty now!

We didn’t go under any low bridges or overhanging tress, so we have no idea how it could have come off.  Just hope it didn’t do any damage to anybody else when it finally fell off!

So, off to a local caravan shop to get a blanking plate to cover the hole in the roof…grrrr.

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Coming soon…

Buxton CC site, which was cancelled earlier in the year due to bad weather.

Black Beck, Newby Bridge

26th to 28th April 2013

Another new site for us.  We were dreaming about statics recently and came across this site, which has a brand new Atlas Florida Excel for sale for £12,345.  The catch is the site fees, which are about £3,500 per year, too much for us.

It has two touring areas, one for seasonal pitches and another for one or two nighters like us.

Reviews on UK Campsite complain of too few toilets and showers…only two of each in the men’s block and the same in the ladies.  They were nice and clean, though, and we never had to queue, for reasons which will become apparent.

Two decent looking pubs within walking distance.

Friday

We arrived very early, around 12.30, and were directed to the touring pitches.

Not exactly busy!

We were joined later by another caravan and a motorhome, but that was it…and the motorhome left the next day.

We are aiming to keep this caravan for at least the rest of the year and are trying to find ways to spruce it up a bit, hence the new curtains and the latest idea…a full length curtain to separate the seating area from the kitchen/bathroom.  D spent an hour or so putting up a curtain wire that we got from Ikea, before rejecting it and using the shower curtain rail instead.  It’s looking good, but no pic until it’s finished.  Next trip.

Good sized pitches with different shades of gravel for caravan, awning and parking areas, which we thought was a good idea.  This is a really good site, except for the lack of toilets which we think would be a problem if the site were full.

A visitor to our pitch

Work done, it was off to the pub.  Two to choose from, each less than a mile away.

The Rusland Pool and the White Hart.  Both are okay.  The Rusland Pool is more of a hotel and we didn’t really give it a chance, preferring the White Hart with it’s better selection of beers and collection of stuffed animals.

Not exactly cute, apart from the foxy looking fox!

A flawed pub, understaffed, tables not cleared, a long wait to be served and complaints from diners about the food (we ate in the caravan both nights this time).  But loads of character and we still liked it!  Plenty of seats on both nights.

Got back to the caravan early, for dinner, and then a really heavy shower put us off walking back to the pub.  Instead, we drove into Ulverston, which is quite a lively town at night.  We got some supplies and retreated to the quiet of the site…and it was very quiet!

Saturday

We were lucky with the weather again, and awoke to blue skies.  Today’s walk, about 6.5 miles from nearby Finsthwaite, taking in Rusland Heights (244 metres), High Dam and Stott Park Heights.

We arrived at High Dam car park only to find a) the ticket machine wasn’t working…great, £4.50 saved, and b) D had forgot to bring the camera…grrrr.  We drove back to the site, but no sign of it inside the caravan, then we found it after a quick rummage amongst coats and things in the boot of the car.  Back to the car park.

 

Lunch

Lot’s more pics in the gallery.

And so to the winner of the best view from a bench competition…this, at the top of Stott Park Heights, overlooking the southern end of Lake Windermere…

On the way back we stopped for a cup of tea and a cake at Lakeside, which is where the Lakeside & Haverthwaite steam train terminates.  We were too busy eating the cakes to get a pic of the train!

Back at the site, we managed to get a look inside the Atlas Florida Excel and a couple of other caravans.  They were all very nice, but the site fees are far too high and we managed to avoid signing anything!  The salesman could tell we were time wasters, we think, but he was nice enough all the same.  All of the staff were very pleasant, even whoever it was that poked a UK Campsite reviewer in the chest whilst telling him off for driving the wrong way down a one way road!

Toyed with the idea of having a barbecue, but it was just a bit too cold, so we had dinner in the caravan and then went back to the White Hart for a couple of drinks.

Sunday

It was raining when we got up, but we didn’t care because we were heading for home anyway.  Not sure if the other caravan was leaving too, there was no sign of anybody when we left at 9.30.  If they did leave, they left the site empty!

Overall, we really liked this site and will return, although not in high season because we think the facilities would be stretched.  Same time next year…it’s a date.

 

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Three nights at Skelwith Fold.

Getting warmer!

Barmouth, 19th to 22nd May 2013

A three night trip to Hendre Mynach, Barmouth, a new site for us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great location, about a mile from Barmouth town centre, near the beach, good sized pitches, good facilities, friendly staff, and surprisingly quiet at night.  Surprising because it is a really big site.  As well as lots of pitches for caravans there are a couple of large fields for camping, but these were pretty much empty.  It probably gets very busy in the summer, but at this time of year it’s hard to fault.

If we were being really picky, we could point out that the on site shop is rubbish, or that there is no heating in the toilet/shower blocks.

We will definitely return, maybe in the autumn.

Friday

Arrived around 1.30 after an uneventful journey on A roads rather than motorway.  Stopped for lunch near Bala, overlooking Llyn Tegid.

Toyed with the idea of putting the awning up but decided against it, so a very quick set-up.

Blue sky!

You can’t see the sea from the site, but the promenade and beach are just a short stroll away, across a railway line.  You have to walk right to the end of the site to get to a crossing, which would be better if it wasn’t in the opposite direction to the town centre!  Walking back from the town, you have to go past the caravan to get to the crossing and this added about half a mile to the journey, but it is a nice walk.

We headed into town, enjoying the nice weather, and had a look around and an ice cream.  There are a few pubs in the town and the ones we tried were nice enough, especially the Last Inn which became our pub of choice for the weekend.  We liked it so much we booked a table for dinner on Sunday night.

Got back to the site quite early and had dinner in the caravan, then listened to the radio and did a bit of reading.

New curtains, much nicer than the old red ones.

Saturday

The plan today was to walk from Barmouth to Penmaempool along the Mawddach trail, an old railway line which follows the estuary, and then get a bus back.  We have cycled this route before, but haven’t walked it.  About 9 miles, but completely flat.

Barmouth from the bridge across the estuary 

The toll bridge at Penmaenpool , for sale £350,000

There are more pics in the gallery at the end.

We made it back in one piece and the weather was so nice we decided to have a barbecue.  Fairly successful, but the coals didn’t stay hot for long enough so we had to leave some of the food.

Afterwards we strolled to the beach to catch the sunset.

 

D re-enacting a scene from Karate Kid (no pic of him falling off)

Lots more sunset pics in the gallery.

Sunday

What a difference a days makes.  It was grey and cloudy when we woke up and then it started raining.  We drove into Barmouth for their “massive car boot sale”, which turned out to be three stalls, and then made a fabulous find in a discount shop…a handheld hoover for £19.99.  Not a rechargeable one, but one with a power lead.  We’ve had rechargeable ones in the past and found that they don’t work.  This one is great – we are easily pleased

Then lunch in the caravan, until about 2pm when D had had enough and had to get out.  We headed up into the hills above Barmouth in light drizzle.

Not very nice weather to start with, but it soon cheered up and it was blue skies when we got back to the site.  Great views overlooking Barmouth, but the camera batteries (and the spare ones) ran out on us, so not as many pics as there would have been otherwise.

The summit of Craig y Gigfran, 183 metres

Dinner at the Last Inn in the evening.  We needn’t have bothered to book, there weren’t many people there, but dinner was really nice, as was the beer, which is unusual for Wales!

 Monday

We woke up very early and left about 9am.

Here are some more pics.

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Coming soon…

Two nights at Black Beck caravan park, Newby Bridge, Cumbria.  Another new site, chosen because according to their website you can buy a new Atlas Florida Excel static caravan for just over £12,000.  What’s the catch?  We’ll find out next weekend!