A Detour to the Lakes

A view of Ullswater Lake

Cumbria, England, 12th - 14th April 2015

Whilst we needed to travel all the way to Carlisle we thought we may as well make a short trip out of it by having a couple of nights in the Lakes and it was a chance to give the van a test run after having not been used for living in for the past couple of months or so since we got back to the UK. As it had been stood during cold weather and in snow it was useful to check
the water system (although the water had been drained down whilst stood), the heating and the fridge were all functioning well before we got abroad again.

Jo had been visiting her parents for the weekend so I picked her up from York train station en route and we headed to Nandos which we’d been wanting to do while we were back, after all we had a free quarter chicken to use up! We then made the journey up to the Lake District in the evening and parked up in a large layby in the village of Shap which was just off the M6 and en route for Ullswater where we were heading. The next morning we drove the rest of the way to Ullswater and parked in a car park in Pooley Bridge to go walking. We paid for 4 hours parking so planned to walk for just under 2 hours then turn around and head back. We followed a route along paths then uphill across fields which got quite boggy in one place. We had a look at a derelict barn and stopped at a couple of points to eat our cereal bar snacks to keep us going. The weather stayed fine but it was cold with a chilly wind, I could’ve done with a hat on. We had an enjoyable walk and it was nice to get out after a busy period of working and doing travel prep jobs.

The return walk was quicker than the other direction so we just had enough time to warm up and have some soup for a late lunch when we got back to the car park. We hadn’t got much food with us so we went to Penrith to get some supplies from Morrisons. On the way there handily we passed Go Outdoors and I had a fleece with us with a fault I wanted to return and replace so we called in there too and got that done.

We drove back to Ullswater and followed the road around the northern side to a freecamping spot we had noted down which was a small parking area just off the side of the road next to a stream and small bridge over it. On one side of Cow Bridge the car park had a sign with no camping listed on it amongst other things, but on the other side of the stream there were no signs so we parked here for the night.

 

Our overnight parking spot at Cow Bridge

The next morning we had to be up early to get to our appointment in Carlisle to have a faulty glow plug removed that had seized and sheared off when attempting to replace it. After this was completed successfully we decided to start heading back so we could get on with our final preparations to get away abroad again. After getting my replacement fleece out to look at last night I found it still had the security tag attached so we called at Go Outdoors again on the way past to have it removed.

Once we were home, now the van was all good to go we got on with getting our remaining jobs done.

- Matt