A weekend in the lakes
Given that Dougie no longer has that embarrassing horn problem, we decided it was high time we went on an actual camping trip!
The Plan
The aim was to drive up to the lake district to Stonethwaite, pick a camp site then settle in and wait for some climbing buddies to turn up on the Saturday.
So we got up early on Friday, hot footed it back to Sandbach, packed the van, checked the fluids and set off.
It actually worked out pretty well!
Got onto the M6 and settled in to the Easter traffic, had a humorous race with a green T4 (first to 10 miles an hour) and generally relaxed in the lovely sun spotting all the lovely buses stick in the tailback going south. First stop was just after Lancaster. We had managed 60 miles in 2 hours.
But from then on the traffic lightened and Dougie chugged up to a respectable 55mph. We even over took a caravan!!
Now were hadn't really realised this before but the motorway is very, very bumpy. Especially in the slow lane. Luckily duct tape was on hand to save the day.
We eventually pulled off the motorway and had a quick pitstop at Keswick. As we needed to pick up some last minute goodies this meant we had to stop. Which meant parking. Now normally this would be the stuff of nightmares but somehow we (I was driving but Tom was providing the eyes) got reversed into the last parking space in the town center. I was amazed. Dougie behaved perfectly. I think he was surprised too as couldn't resist a little bit of squeaky horn action in celebration. I really wish I had remembered a photo!
Mountaineering/Off-road
The very narrow road past Borrowdale then led to the tiny village of Stonethwaite and the first campsite of choice. We arrived only to be told it was full. Now this was fine as there was a back-up site round the corner but the access was described as "a bit tricky." When I asked how bad, the campsite owner replied "Well I wouldn't try taking my bus up there".
This next bit I will gloss over. We made it. Despite having to reverse down a mountain (no I am not joking), scrape through a rocky gap (only the wheel arch, and only a little bit) and ford a river (stream) we made it. It took me a fair while to calm down after than.
Luckily dinner helped!
Beefburgers topped with goats cheese, lamb and mint burgers then ember roasted sweet potato with a bottle of vine. Ahhhh. And just in time to enjoy the sunset.
We settled in for a lovely night (if quite chilly night) with the view of the stars from the back window and a mug of cocoa.
Poo sticks and climbing
I find the easiest way to wake yourself up in the morning is to jump out the van and discover your flip-flops are frosty. It's an experience and causes me to pull a rather alarming face.
On the plus side, the hob in the van means once you have dashed to the toilet block you can return to bed and hot porridge. See how happy Tom is?
Following this hearty breakfast we set off to explore past the campsite. We wandered though Langstrath valley in search of the landmarks written on our handmade map of climbing spots.
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| The view back to the campsite, its just round the bend in the river. |
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| Black Moss Pot, a haven for skinny dippers |
Turns out we could follow a map! Having scouted out some potential climbing boulders (and a swimming spot for later in the year) we collected some firewood and headed back to have some lunch while waiting on the other guys arriving. We also attempted to play poo sticks under one of the bridges but alas the water was running pretty slow. I think I lost by default as my stick got stuck in a eddy and technically ended up upstream!
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| Our spot |
We met up with a couple of guys from RockOver and spent the afternoon chasing the sun and doing a wee bit of bouldering. Then BBQ and watching the sun sink behind the mountains surrounding the valley.
The next morning we unfortubately had to be up and moving pretty quickly in order to make it home for lunch. To my eternal delight, Dougie started off pretty much first time!
Unfortunately though we ran in to a slight hiccup one the way home. Basically every couple of minutes the van would loose all power. Not so helpful on the hills. So quick googling on Toms part and we came up with the hypothesis that the fuel filters were probably blocked with crude from the fuel tank that got stirred up when we went off road. Needless to say it made the drive a bit more interesting but we did make it home in one piece. still grinning.
We I was, Tom fell asleep!
