Castlerigg

Another weekend and another adventure in our campervan. It was our longest weekend away as we stayed at Castlerigg Hall campsite Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. We also tried out our new posh inflatable tent awning, which amazingly stayed up through the winds of storm Kathleen.

Castlerigg Hall campsite was very friendly with immaculate toilets and showers. Definitely a popular spot, with views across Derwentwater and onto Catbells. The Catbells light festival was the main reason for our trip. Unfortunately, it was cancelled due to the storm, which was the right decision. It has been rescheduled for the summer and we’ve booked a spot at Castlerigg Farm campsite, as Castlerigg Hall campsite was already fully booked.

Anyway, Friday morning the weather was mostly rain free, so we walked into Keswick. Gordon wanted to make friends with some cows.

Keswick wasn’t too busy, but with a break in the weather we opted to walk up to the top of the nearest Wainwright, namely Latrigg, one of the smaller fells. Being an idiot, I mapped the shortest route to the top, which appeared to be almost vertical. The view from the top wasn’t too bad, as we were just below the clouds.

We took the easier route back down, sensibly, returning to the campsite to dry off. The campsite had a mobile pizza van on a Friday night, which was a good alternative to cooking. That evening was wild in the van, with the wind and rain howling. We survived, albeit with very little sleep. The people in the campervan nearest to us had decided to take down their awning, we probably should have done the same as we had to dry it out when we were home.

Saturday morning was dry and sunny. The forecast wasn’t great. However, it was pleasant enough for me to run into Keswick to join in with Keswick parkrun, which was celebrating their tenth anniversary. The run director also mentioned that the previous weekend, Easter Saturday, there had been over 500 runners and walkers. Hats off the volunteers. My advice would be to avoid the Lake District at Easter, if you can.

After a shower the three of us returned to Keswick, which was far busier. We bought some snacks for Gordon and had a coffee and cake in a very pleasant little dog friendly cafe. Gordon was too friendly and far too excited, so we sat outside, just as it started raining.

That evening, the weather was even wilder, if possible. The funny thing was that down in Keswick you wouldn’t have known that there was a storm at all it was so calm. After another restless night worrying if the whole van was going to blow away, we packed up and headed home.

This was our first three nighter and once again we learned a lot. We learned that we needed better tent pegs to hammer the awning into the hard standing pitch. We also learnt that the awning wasn’t too difficult to put up or take down, even in the wind, although we will probably won’t use it every time.

Here’s to our next weekend away, wherever it is.