Sorry readers I left you rather in the lurch earlier this week didn’t I? I mean its all very well setting up the tent, going for a walk and then returning for dinner at the pub but what about the actual camping I hear you cry? How was that first night under canvas? Well, I am glad you asked and very happy to tell you.
We had a lovely time in the pub. It’s funny how Coniston Bluebird goes straight to your head when you’ve had a good walk. I managed to use the payphone here to call both Mum and Dad and Jane to let them know we were all in one piece. There is absolutely no phone reception around here – let alone Internet access. That’s all very well but it’s awkward these days when people are expecting to hear from you. After a nice meal we drove back to the campsite (we really had hardly had anything to drink) and it wasn’t yet dark so we sat around outside our tent shooting the breeze. It was nearly perfect sitting there drinking our rosé wine out of the posh plastic glasses I’d bought. Two slight issues here- firstly it was a rather chilly evening and secondly the wine I’d bought in Booth’s was a bit rough. Hungarian? Really did I choose that?!! Lots of other people were doing the same thing -chilling that is not necessarily drinking Hungarian wine….
Eventually it started to go dark and so I made my way to the facilities which were basic but perfectly adequate and got ready for bed. Marie’s advice of leaving it as late as possible to go to the loo was put into practice and then I said goodnight to Pete and got into my tent and zipped myself in. There is a lot of zipping involved in camping I discovered. It all seemed quite pleasant and on the face of it I had everything I needed for a good nights sleep. However, needless to say this didn’t really happen and I did not manage to get much sleep even though the weather was pretty perfect. How come then? Well here is my top 5 list of reasons for not sleeping:
1) It was rather cold and although my sleeping bag was lovely and warm – my head was not
2) The sleeping mat thing kept slipping down the tent and slightly to the left
3) The girl in one of the tents on our level had a rather piercing giggle and stayed up way too late (maybe 11pm). Ridiculous.
4) My sleeping bag, although large , became horribly contorted during the night as I struggled to find a comfortable position, making finding a comfortable position even more unlikely.
5) The shouty man in the tent next door turned out to be a snorer. This was my main problem. Goodness knows what the 3 other members of his family crammed into his tent did for sleep. Next time I need to remember my earplugs ( oh yes, you read that right….next time…)
Anyway, eventually as the dawn chorus started and the owl gave way to the cuckoo, I think I finally nodded off maybe for a couple of hours. At about 7am I could hear quite a bit of zipping going on next door and so, after unzipping my own inner tent and fly cover, I stuck my head out of my tent. There was Pete already sitting out in his chair fully dressed. Oh dear he hadn’t had much sleep either but then he says he never does!! I got up and went over to the facilities for my 50p shower. There was nobody else around at this time of day and so it was all still very nice and clean.
Next we set about breakfast. It was a lovely morning again and so we put the rug out and got the camping gaz stove on the go. It was a little tricky but Pete managed to suss it out. We had a jolly splendid 3 course breakfast consisting of:
Orange juice and cornflakes
Bacon sandwich and cup of tea
Sausage and mushrooms and cup of coffee
I mean really you can’t ask for more than that can you and it all tasted so much better because of our surroundings. It did seem to take us rather a long time but we weren’t particularly in a rush today. We decided that we’d do our walk today in the beautiful Newland’s Valley which we’d driven past the previous day. We set off at about 10.30 heading towards the little hamlet of Little Town. The car park here was already over-flowing and so we drove on a bit until we came to a farm with a cafe attached. The nice man let us park for the day and after a cup of coffee we were on our way.
Today’s 5.4 mile walk was much more on the level than the previous day and basically we did a figure of eight walk around the valley, with Little Town at the junction of the 8. The scenery here is really impressive particularly on what was yet another clear, bright, sunny day. There are so many interesting peaks and valleys all around. I must admit I didn’t really ache that much either from the climbing the day before or the tenting. At one point though, I did feel a bit woozy and I wasn’t sure whether that was a bit of sunstroke or the lack of sleep?
The walk initially leads along the base of Catbells which Jane and I are due to come back and walk with Joyce and Enid later in the year (could be a challenge….). Then after an ice cream and toilet break back at Little Town we moved onto the upper valley which is a lot more wild. By the way Little Town is famous as the location for the Beatrix Potter book ‘Mrs Tiggywinkle’.
As we walked up the upper valley we realised we’d actually gone a bit too far and missed the bridge over the lovely stream. This was because we were being far too chatty mainly because Pete made the mistake of asking if I had any wisdom I wished to share with him as I approached my 50th birthday. I suppose I could have given a simple ‘yes or no’ answer to this question but do I look like someone that would just use one word when 2000 would do? No, I didn’t think so. But if you too want to hear my wisdom then you’ll have to take me for a nice walk!!
Eventually, we found ourselves back at the pretty Newlands Church and schoolroom and the tiny Chapel Bridge. We got back into the car and then had a detour into Keswick for some petrol and phone reception in order to check the weather forecast with Jane. She assured us that the forecast was still good and so we agreed that we’d camp for another night. Hurrah! I’ve always said that one night in a tent is really just staying up late. Two nights is proper camping.
Back to camp we went and we enjoyed some late afternoon sunshine before driving into Buttermere again for dinner at the same pub. Then back for another night under nylon. Tonight the wind did start to get up a bit but I was much more used to the noises by now and the snoring man had packed up and left taking his non-kiwi boot polish with him (ex-army obsessive behaviour)? I think I actually slept quite well until the wind really got up in the trees at about 4am. It was funny (yes really) because the noise was SOOO loud in the trees and yet it hardly seemed to touch the tent at all. Thank goodness. At about this time the dawn chorus started as well so I think after this I really only tossed and turned until about 7am again when I got up and went for my shower.
By the time I got back, Pete had packed his tent up and was looking slightly worried saying he’d felt the first raindrops. Oh dear. No sooner had I changed than it really started to bucket it down and I must have dismantled my tent in about 10 mins and shoved it all in the back of my car. We did get rather wet but it wasn’t unpleasant as we stood under the big tree boiling our kettle and eating just cornflakes today!
So that was it -after this we were on our way. I really cannot believe how lucky we’d been and I’d had a really memorable, idyllic camping and walking weekend. I’m already investigating other cool camping options……..
Walky Talky 