Windermere

22nd to 24th March 2019

Our first "real" trip of the year, the last one was more of a fact finding mission to see how the new car would perform and whether the caravan had survived the winter.  The caravan is fine and now that it has been fixed the car is growing on us.

Our destination this weekend - the Windermere C&CC site.

Friday

The aim was to get there at 1pm, the earliest arrival time, but signs saying that the M6 was closed soon put paid to that!  Fortunately we managed to navigate around the closure using the A58 and then the M61 and we ended up getting there just after 1.30pm, so it could have been a lot worse.

We got reasonable pitch, but forgot to take a pic of the caravan this time.

As soon as we had set everything up we headed across the fields in the rain to Staveley, for the Hawkshead Brewery Spring beer festival.

Lot's of beers sampled, we stayed for about 6 hours!  It was really busy in the afternoon but we managed to find a seat when we wanted one, and it seemed to quieten down a bit in the evening anyway.

Saturday

Better weather today.  We went for a walk from the site along the Dales way to Windermere, about 6 miles in total.

We got a train from Windermere back to Staveley and returned to the beer festival in the afternoon, but it was packed and we didn't stay long.  We thought the Eagle and Child might be a bit quieter, and it was...a bit.  We sat outside in the beer garden overlooking the river.  The Eagle and Child is a nice pub but we only seem to come to this site when the beer festival is on these days, something we might remedy later in the year.

Some friendly sheep who followed us for a while on the way back to the site.

We got back to the site around 6pm and had dinner in the caravan and a night in.  A fabulous sunset but by the time we noticed it it was too late to go up into the hills to get a pic, and the pic we took from the caravan was rubbish.  One that got away!

Sunday

Up and away early, no problems getting home.

Coming soon...

A three night trip to Castlerigg Hall, Keswick.

Southport

8th to 10th March 2019

Our first trip since the end of November last year.  Not intentionally, we would like to be year round caravanners but circumstances got in our way this year.  Maybe next year.

We changed our car mid December.  We really liked the Kia Sportage and we never had any problems with it, but the lease was up and it had to go.  The new model Kia Sportage was too expensive, so we opted for a Nissan Qashqai instead.  About the same weight, power and torque as the Kia, but so far nowhere near as reliable!

Problem number one - a bit of trim around the passenger door doesn't quite match up.  Poor quality control, well it is made in the UK!  Not worth kicking up a fuss, we thought, and we've got used to it now.

Problem number two - we couldn't get a towbar fitted.  It's a new model so none of the towbar manufacturers currently make a towbar that fits it, something we found out when a mobile fitter turned up to fit one early in January.  Instead we had to get one fitted by Nissan, which turned out to be much more expensive and meant a bit of a delay.

Problem number three - a problem with the adblue system, which has just been fitted to the Qashqai and is supposed to reduce emissions.  A few days after the first warning message appeared it just wouldn't start and had to be towed to our local Nissan dealer.  It took over three weeks to fix, so we missed out on the nice spell of weather in February because the replacement car we got from Nissan didn't have a towbar. 

Good things about the Qashqai - it's very economical.  That's about it.

Hopefully all the problems are out of the way now...apart from an annoying clicking noise from the clutch pedal which we'll probably have to learn to live with.  We had the same thing on a hated Vauxhall Insignia we had a few years ago.

Anyway, that's enough moaning about cars.  We wanted somewhere close to home to see how well it towed and to see if the caravan had survived the winter, so we chose the Southport CAMC site.  Same destination as our last trip last year.

Friday

Despite a smaller engine the Qashqai tows at least as well as the Sportage, and we arrived just after midday after a journey that only took about 30 minutes.

All that was available was a non awning pitch, but we managed to get quite a good one.

A sigh of relief when we found nothing wrong with the caravan after the winter break.

We are thinking of moving to somewhere in the Southport area later this year, so we went for a drive to have a look at a couple of roads with houses for sale. We're not really in a position to move just yet, as we are in the process of sprucing our house up a bit to make it more saleable!

Then we walked into Southport and looked around the shops and had some drinks in some of the pubs we like.  Our favourite this trip was the Bottle Room.  Only two beers on tap but lots of bottles and cans to choose from.  Luckily D liked one of the beers on tap.

We had a late dinner in the caravan and spent the rest of the night in.

Saturday

A very windy day, in the morning at least, but not much rain and plenty of blue sky.  We went for a walk from the site along the beach towards Ainsdale.

Just one pic this trip.

In the afternoon we walked into town and had a walk on the pier.  Last time we came to Southport the pier was closed for refurbishment, but it doesn't look like anything has changed, apart from the cafe at the end has had a bit of a makeover.  We did a lot of walking today, about 35,000 steps in total!

We had tapas in a Spanish/Turkish restaurant in the evening. http://www.bistrobarmed.com  Very nice food, and generous portions - we were too stuffed for dessert! When we booked they told us we had to be out before the belly dancing started at 8pm, so we went to the Bottle Room for an after dinner drink.  We had a look in the window on the way back to the site but there was no sign of belly dancers!  Southport on a Saturday night is like Liverpool city centre on a quiet Sunday!  We must be getting old, we like it that way.

Sunday

It was raining when we woke up and we got soaked packing everything away, but luckily we were home before the high winds and hail storms arrived!

Coming soon...

Windermere C&CC site, for the Hawkshead brewery spring beer festival, then Castlerigg Hall in Keswick.

Southport

30th November to 2nd December 2018

Definitely our last trip of the year, as we are getting a new car in a week or so and won't have time to get a towbar fitted in time for another trip.

Somewhere close to home this time - Southport C&MC site.  Not a particularly nice site, very open with lots of pitches crammed in, but ok at this time of year because it was half empty.  It's main attraction is that it is within easy walking distance of Southport.

 Friday

A very quick journey, we didn't even have time to listen to half of an Archers omnibus that we had downloaded.

Lots of pitches to choose from on arrival and we chose one on the new part of the site, which is quite exposed and it was still pretty windy after the recent stormy weather.  This site at this time of year isn't about sitting outside, so we weren't too bothered.

We headed into Southport after setting everything up and took a few pics of the pier, which was partly closed for refurbishment and the addition of new attractions.  Something to look forward to next year.

Then we headed into the town centre and had dinner in Casa Italia and checked out a few of the pubs.  We like the Tap and Bottle, the Guest House and the Corridor Bar, in particular.  Dinner in Casa Italia was excellent and not too pricey.

Southport at night is a lot quieter than a big city like Liverpool, which is where we have been going out when at home lately, but there was plenty to do to keep us out all night.

Inside the ultra modern Christman tree

We ended up staying out a lot later than intended and had a lot more to drink than we should have!

Saturday

Rain was to be a feature of today...nasty, drizzly rain.  It did cheer up for while in the afternoon but we spent most of the day dodging the rain.

We walked to Birkdale, then got a bus to Churchtown and had a look around the almost deserted botanical gardens.  Last time we came here it was packed.

Churchtown was a bit too quiet, so we headed back into Southport and did a bit of Christmas shopping before heading back to the caravan for dinner.

We went out again in the evening, first to the Guest House and then the Tap and Bottle.  We would have stayed in the Guest House but a band started setting up right next to us and we thought it might be a bit loud!  Both places seemed very quiet for a Saturday night, but we're not complaining.  We didn't drink as much as the night before.

Sunday

A very quick, uneventful journey home.

Coming soon...

That's it for 2018, hopefully we will be back in January 2019.