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The home of Roger and Marion on the Internet

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One of the challenges of camping and caravanning is finding the ideal site to fit your requirements. Once you have decided on the area you want to visit then the fun starts. Our intrepid couple are not unlike others, in that they are a bit “picky”.

Marion’s mum was having a birthday party as it was her eightieth birthday. They planned to go down to Suffolk in the camper to avoid any member of the family having to put them and the dogs up. Roger’s friend, Rog said that they would come to the site as well for the weekend and look after the dogs while Roger and Marion went to the party. He was also hoping that while he was there his sister who had not seen for a while would also pop in.

 The site picked was one that was ok for dogs and children. This did not necessarily come into the “ideal” site for Roger and Marion but it looked like a good compromise. In fact it was quite unique in some ways. Roger  son, David had a good time.  When it began to get dark the owner of the site brought out some glow sticks for the children. These came in a variety of colours and the children loved trading the colours with friends and generally running around making patterns with them. He also did something quite unusual in modern day campsites by actively encouraging people to have open fires. He sold logs and firelighters and had bbq areas for large groups. Overall the atmosphere on the site was relaxed and friendly. The main problem was, and yes you are correct there was a snag (I’m coming to it) that being July it was time for leaving school and finishing exams parties. There were at least two largish groups of teenagers on the site who drank alcohol well into the night and were rather noisy as a result. This was rather difficult for families with younger children as well as the adults. So often it has on site details “no single sex groups" or “no groups” and you can understand why. It was a shame because otherwise the site itself was great. When you read camping magazines there are very often letters complaining about various things including parties, noisy children, dogs, in fact almost anything. It all comes down to consideration for others whatever your age or interests.

The family occasions were very successful. Roger and Marion had a great time at the party. This included meeting lots of family members not seen since uumm, can’t remember. Rog’s sister did come to the site and spent the afternoon reminiscing and catching up on news. 

There needs to be camping facilities for all tastes and requirements as these are many and varied. As I continue this particular epistle you will see how the choosing of sites has evolved.

Marion and Roger are particularly fond of Derbyshire and decided to pick an “adults only” site in this area. It was a nice site with good facilities and the weather was great.  It was a bank holiday weekend and the first night was fine. However, I’m sure you will know what happened next without me saying. The caravan next door had four adults in it who had a bbq. Nothing wrong with that I hear you say. Trouble is at two o'clock in the morning they were still sitting outside drinking beer, and being very noisy. So once again sleep was disturbed. Ok that’s one night we will see what happens tonight. However during the day (after getting up very late) next door went shopping and brought back new supplies of beer and bbq. That did it I’m afraid! “Let's go home" was the cry and they packed up and went home. 

Day 1.
We have arrived at our lovely campsite at Stacksteads Farm nr Ingleton. It has electric hookup, very important to us, good shower and toilet block and not to far to get water and dump unwanted fluids. On arrival there was 4 caravans on site but one was in the process of packing up and leaving. Evening meal of lasagne and boiled new potatoes a cup of tea and then sort the van out to make it habitable for our stay.
Day 2.
Lovely lazy start to the day not getting up until 9am then a nice plate of egss, bacon and sausage to start the day off with and of course a brew. There was a lot of activity going on with the remaining caravans packing up to leave which left us on our own on site. With a lovely blue sky and a tremendous forecast for the whole day, we decided to go to Ingleton Waterfalls trail which is a circular walk of about 4.5 miles http://www.ingletonwaterfallswalk.co.uk/. The brochure says "The trail follows a well defined footpath over moderately inclined ground." Yeah right, i don't know who thought it was moderately inclined but it soon had us puffing. "Steps are provided where a steep climb is required." Some of those steps meant our knees were level with our chest when we were climbing them, so for steep climb read crane hire is recommended. "The footpath is not recommended for wheelchairs or pushchairs." You wouldn't be able to get them beyond the first 100 yards if you did try it! "Time required = 2.5 to 4 hours".
We took 3.5 hours in total with an ice cream break after the first 1/3rd then a lunch break after the 2nd 1/3rd. We stopped and started all the way round taking some wonderful pictures of waterfalls which are truly spectacular, please look at my website for these www.playbytecomputers.co.uk soon. All the recent rains have helped to swell the rivers of course so there was a very good show rather than the trickle that I was expecting.
I was carrying a back pack containing our lunch and my photographic bits and pieces which meant it was around 5lbs in weight as well as the camera slung round my neck. I managed to slip over 3 times altogether on the journey but I am pleased to report no damage was done only to my pride.
We are both pleased to have completed a long (and arduous) trek,  in what we think is a good time of 3.5 hours and despite being able to wring the sweat out of my cloth cap at the end neither of us felt worn out.
At the end of the walk there was the obligatory cafe but it was a welcome sight for us as it meant a cup of tea (pot of tea for 2 cost £2.90). and while we recovered we decided to take a scenic drive back to our motor home going via a pretty village called Dent which still has cobbled streets would you believe. Our journey to this village meant going over a single track across country which was so beautiful, mind you this also involved opening and shutting cattle gates every few miles. After we had closed our 3rd gate we saw a cyclist pumping his way up a steep incline towards us and he stopped about 10 mtrs away so I stopped the car to ask him if he was ok as he was leaning over his handlebars gasping for breath. He managed a smile and gasped out "Yes thank you", so we moved on. Well its no wonder he was puffing the downward slope went on and on for about 3 miles with twists and turns just like you expect to find the Alps, he must have been extremely fit to have managed to get to the top like he did!
The drive back to the motor home was relaxing and with so much beautiful countryside to gawk at we managed to build up a fair bit of traffic by the time we got back to Ingleton. Into the showers for both of us then a nice cup of tea and decide what to have for our evening meal which was chicken curry for me and chicken korma for marion, on a bed of rice. We found that no one else had joined us on site so we have this wonderful place all to ourselves.
Day 3
Another lazy start to the day and the outlook is dense clouds and a lot cooler than yesterday. Breakfast was the same as yesterday, and no we never get fed up of bacon eggs and sausages.
We decided to take in another local attraction today called White Scar Caves http://www.whitescarcave.co.uk/frame.htm. We left the motor home at 10.30 and arrived 10 mins later ready for the next guided tour at 11am. Paid for our ticked and received a hard hat each and we were off with a young man who really knew his stuff and was very entertaining all round the tour. It was a cool 8 degrees in the caves and very damp as well so make sure you have your jacket on and buttoned up to prevents drips getting down your neck. In some places you had to stoop low and that is when our hard hats came in very useful, I think I was the first person to bump his head in the group and soon after that everyone was doing - except of course for the children who didnt have a problem. It was fascinating to see all the stalactites and stalagmites in the cave system some of which have been growing for over 200,000 years! How do you know the difference between them, well the saying goes that stalactites have to "Hang on tight" while stalagmites have to use their "Might to push up".
Now we saw lots of shapes in the caves that have been given names over the years like, Judges head, Devils tongue, Witches fingers, Sword of Damacles and Arum lily.
The tour lasted 80 mins and was about 1.5 miles long, but with all the bending and squeezing you had to do and not forgetting the 97 steps you had to climb up as well as down, we felt worse than yesterday after doing 4.5 miles.
On leaving the caves we decided to go for a drive across to Lake Windermere and pick up a bit of shopping at the same time. On arrival at a central car park someone very kindly gave us a parking ticket that still had 1.5 hours left on it. so not wishing to look a gift horse in the mouth we accepted graciously.
After the food shopping we decided to drive round the lake and then come back across on the ferry and gentle wend our way home. Best laid plans of mice and men, Roger must have missed turning someplace as we never got to the other side of the lake but it was still a nice drive back.
Day 4
As we were packing to go to the new site I find the electric cable is caught under the back wheel of our car so I moved the car only to trap it with the front wheel. So moved the car again and yes i managed to trap the back wheel again. How many people does it take to wind in an electric cable? Apparently two!
So we moved off to our new site which is only sixty miles away. We knew we had arrived at the right one as our name was on the notice board. Found a good hard standing beside the river and set ourselves up. They have a very quaint system here for paying the fees. You collect an envelope from a rack in the toilet, which is actually a garden shed, put the money in and fill out a form and drop it in a letter box! The shower is also inside a garden shed. We have not tried that out yet. The photo will tell the whole story.
We set off to find a local fish and chip shop but ended up in Carlisle, 40 miles away.  It has a lovely shopping centre, probably the best we have seen but they didn’t have a fish and chip shop. Set off back home to the campsite looking for the aforementioned fish and chip shop on route.
We have planned activities for day five so a hearty breakfast is required. The day involves a steam boat voyage followed by a six mile walk .
Day 5
Another lovely breakfast of sausage, bacon and eggs and then we were off to Ullswater Lake to catch the ferry from Glenridding.  Absolutely lovely weather for the whole day, we are being blessed with a lovely week.
The ferry took us to Hotown for £5.20 each single where we got off and started on our 6.5 mile hike around the lake back to Glenridding. Why did we do this you may ask, well it is all part of our fitness regime to try and lose weight. Despite taking 4 breaks of about 10 mins each to have a drink and take in the tremendous scenery we managed to get back to our car in 4.5 hours, not bad for an overweight old codger eh!
The trail was steep at times and very rugged with loose boulders and tree roots to be negotiated as well as some level areas of reasonable track. All in all we managed to get round without any injuries I’m pleased to say other than being very tired of course. What a way to spend our 4th wedding anniversary eh!
We have tried to find a decent eatery around here but the pubs are very far and few between which surprises me, so we had a cup of tea and a couple of scones and decided that we would have a good meal out tomorrow. We intend to have a quiet day tomorrow so looking for a decent place to eat will probably take all of our time but the scenery is wonderful around here so we are not complaining.
Day 6
What a wonderful week we have been having with regards to the weather alone. We got up to another wall to wall blue sky and had our usual breakfast of sausage, bacon and fried egg. During which we worked out where we wanted to go and decided on going to Keswick and a 3 mile walk round part of lake Derwent. Finding a car park was of course difficult in the centre of town so we followed a sign for car parking at the lake, bit too subtle for me i guess as I didn’t see the sign when we first came into town.
Car parking fees were reasonable and we went down to the ticket office and purchased a hop on and off ticket for £8.50 each and set off.
These little ferries go round the lake in either a clockwork or anti clockwork direction and we wanted to go anti clockwise as our stop for the beginning of the walk was only 2 away. No you guessed it the one we got on went the other way round and our stop was 8 away, still never mind we saw some wonderful scenery on the way round.
At the required stop we got off and put our walking books on and set off onto what proved to be a very easy and gentle walk all round the bottom perimeter of the lake. We made a couple of stops for our drinks and managed to get to our destination, which is a ferry pickup point, in 1.5 hours. Wow we were surprised at how quickly we had done it so we had obviously increased our pace a bit today.
Anyhow, as we got to the pier the ferry was just pulling in and it was going in a clockwise direction so not only did we pass our starting point we also got to see the rest of the lake itself.
A bit of stiffness had crept in by the time we got off the ferry and we wandered off into town looking for a place to eat. Found one with no one in, it was 4 pm, so Marion had a lasagne and i had a chicken curry. Marions was fine but mine looked like chicken ratatouille when it arrived but it was a curry, guess they make em different up here.
Next stop was for an in ice cream then off to find a supermarket to but a couple of things for sandwiches for the next couple of days then off back the camping site for a well earned rest.
Day 7
Well this is our last full day here in the Lake District and we have woken to a grey and overcast one. On with our usual breakfast then we went to Ravenglass to take a ride on their 15" steam railway to Eskdale.
A return tick cost £10.20 each but as it was for a journey of over 6 miles we thought it would be worth it. We could have got off at any stop along the way and looked around then wait for the next train to pick us up but we decided to look from the carriages and decide to get off on the return journey. When we arrived at the end of the journey we set of for a little meander and found a footpath directing us to Stanley Gill waterfalls. As you may have gathered by now we like waterfalls so off we went in search of it especially as the signpost said it was only 1/2 mile away. On route to the waterfalls we had to cross over a small bridge over a river and there was several lads jumping in from the parapet into a very deep looking waterhole in front of the bridge. There must have been some spectacular scenes of raging river here to have carved this out over the years. We decided to go down to the river bank and eat our sandwiches while being entertained by these lads. The water looked mighty cold to us but as we were not going in we didn’t really care. The lads were finding all sorts of advantage points to jump from including the branch of a tree to make the jump even higher. They seemed to have no fear what so ever of the height or the danger but I guess that’s youth for you, not that i remember doing anything like that as a lad.
We took our photos of the small waterfall and then wandered back to catch the next train but stopping for an ice cream while we waited for the train of course.
Absolutely superb views from the train including Scar Fell Pike in the distance; you will have to wait to see the pics once I have put them up on my website next week.
On the way back marion wanted to revisit a lake from her childhood that she remember that was close by which was West Water Lake so off we went. This lake is a bit special in that there hasn’t been any development of tourist industry in the lake side so it was in its natural state which was very beautiful. One side doesn’t have a shore line and seems to go straight up the rock face.
The trouble with writing this blog has been that we have had to stop on the top of a hill to be able to get a signal but that has been a small price to pay to have been able to bring our visit to you using a T-Mobile USB stick modem which has worked flawlessly throughout.
Tomorrow we will be heading home leaving the site around 12 noon and hopefully getting home around 4 ish. If you have been following our travels Marion and I hope that you have enjoyed the experience and we will talk to you all soon. Bye