Carlisle

12th to 14th September 2022

It took about an hour and a half to get from Ravenglass to Green Acres caravan park, Carlisle, and it rained most of the way!

A new site for us and the furthest north we have been in the caravan...almost Scotland!  A neat and tidy site with excellent facilities just a short bus ride outside Carlisle.  It has a boules pitch or green or whatever it is you play boules on and a badminton court.  We didn't have time for either, sadly.

Monday

Contactless check-in so we went straight to our allocated pitch.

We had a look around the site and then headed to the bus stop to Carlisle for dinner and drinks. It turned out to be 1.4 miles away so a bit of a dash to get there.  Caught the bus with minutes to spare!

A couple of the places we wanted to go to were closed on a Monday but we had an excellent meal in the Thin White Duke (nothing to do with David Bowie) and then drinks in the Last Zebra (it has a full zebra pelt on the wall) before getting a taxi back to the site.

Tuesday

The main reason for coming here was so that we could walk along Hadrian's wall, which is what we did.  About 6.5 miles from Milecastle Inn to the visitor centre at Housesteads.  We got a bus one way and walked back to the car.

The weather was excellent.  Too excellent, maybe, we got a bit sunburnt, but it was nice to finally get to see the wall.  Last time we tried it was pouring with rain and we gave up!

Quite a strenuous walk with lots of up and down.  We were too tired to do much in the evening but the weather was okay so we had what might be our last barbecue of the year.

Quite a good sunset.

A caravan a few pitches away had balloons and ribbons all over it and a "just married" sign.  The bride and groom did put in an appearance with best man and a bridesmaid.  They had a quick game of boules and then vanished for the rest of the night.

Tuesday

Five nights is a long time in the caravan for us, so we headed for home early on Tuesday quite tired out!  The journey didn't take as long as we thought it would, so this might be a site we will come back to in the future.

Coming soon...

A non caravan trip to Haworth, then maybe Coniston later in September.

 

Ravenglass

 9th to 12th September 2022

Our main caravan trip of the year - three nights in Ravenglass followed by two nights in Carlisle.

First the C&CC site at Ravenglass.

This used to be our favourite site, bar none, and it still is a really nice site, but we think the village of Ravenglass is not quite the same since covid.  The Ratty Arms is no longer open every day and closes at 9.30pm when it is open.  Still a great selection of beers, though, unlike the Inn at Ravenglass which seems to be focussing on Scottish beers.  We were a bit disappointed earlier in the year but thought we would give it another go...and it makes a change from Kendal!

Friday

A traditional Friday start and no nasty surprises on arrival because we requested a specific range of pitches and the wardens here are very obliging.  Forgot to take a pic of the caravan on this occasion.

After setting everything up we went for a wander around the village and a pint in each if the pubs before retreating to the site for a barbecue. 

A sign at the Ratty Arms

We were pleased to see that the campsite cat was still there.  

Then it was back to the Inn at Ravenglass, but not a very good sunset tonight.

Saturday

Up early for a long drive to Loweswater and a more challenging than expected walk up Mellbreak (512 metres).

Very, very steep to begin with, but we made it and didn't get left behind by a group of much younger men.  Quite a lot of cloud around but it didn't rain.

The second half of the walk was a stroll along the length of Crummock Water.

Our good deed for the day...

Stopped off for a pint at the Kirkstile Inn and got a few bottles to take away.

The weather improved so we had a salad for dinner sitting outside the caravan, then watched the sun set from outside the Inn at Ravenglass.

Sunday

We went for a walk along the shore of nearby Eskmeals Dunes nature reserve.

Our picnic on the beach took a turn for the worse when we noticed the tide coming in and despite retracing our steps as quickly as we could, the path at the start of the walk was completely submerged when we got there and we were cut off by the tide! We did attempt to get through, but ended up ankle deep where the path should have been. The waterproof shoes couldn't cope and took about 3 days to dry out!

We retreated into the sand dunes and sat under a tree waiting for the tide to turn.  Note the low bridge with the road completely under water...our car was just to the right of the bridge and we feared the worst.  Luckily a farmer came along, looking for some of his cows which had strayed into the dunes, and after he had located them and made sure they were ok he showed us an alternative route back to the car across fields.  The car was ok, the water hadn't quite reached it.  We can laugh about it now...

Back at site we had dinner in the caravan and then a night in, not wanting to venture out into the rain which was quite heavy all night.

Monday

We waited for the rain to ease but still got a bit wet putting everything away and set off for Carlisle about 10.30.

Coming soon...

Carlisle.

Kendal

 29th to 31st July 2022

Our love affair with the Kendal CAMC site continues...our fourth visit this year.  We do like this site but it is mostly because we can't find availability anywhere else.  It's a bit of a mystery why this site is so unbusy during the school holidays, but we're not complaining.

Friday

We arrived shortly after 1pm and were congratulated by the warden for being the first arrival of the day.  Lots of available pitches, including dream pitch no. 21.  D told the warden that we would aim for that pitch and he gave us the key straight away.  We couldn't have asked for a better start start to the trip.

A frequent visitor to our pitch, it was almost eating out of our hands.

Just phone pics this trip because our camera has died and we haven't had a chance to get a new one yet.  Oh, and the rubbish weather...but more of that later.

The weather was great on the Friday, so much so that we dared to think this might be a 10/10 trip.  As is customary when we come here we went for a stroll to the nearby farm shop and then to the Strickland Arms, before a very successful barbecue in the evening.

A lot of sausages but some were for breakfast the following day

Saturday

What a difference a day makes.  It was raining when we woke up and it didn't stop all day!  Thank God for the canopy which meant we could sit outside and weren't cooped up inside the caravan all day.

It eased off a bit in the afternoon so we donned our waterproof coats and went for a stroll along the river, but that was it.

Afterwards we managed to make it to the bus stop between downpours and got a bus into Kendal where we had dinner in Pedro's.  Excellent food and we particularly liked their mago and passion fruit sangria.  Then a few drinks in the Fell bar and the Bowness Bay Brewery tap, then a bus back to the site.

Sunday

We awoke to the sound of rain and thought we would get soaked packing everything away, but it stopped just in time.  Blue sky everywhere as soon as we hit the M6.

Coming soon...

A break of a couple of weeks for a short film festival in Southport and then getting the car serviced.  We hope to go somewhere mid August and at the moment it looks like it might be Kendal again!