Having enjoyed a three day week (if only it was every week) we set off on our travels to the Lakes for a little birthday getaway.

We thought it would take 3 hours but Bertha reached a record breaking 70mph on the M6 so we managed to reach ‘The Quiet Site’ in 2!

Great campsite with only a few fellow campers on Wednesday night, although it filled up towards the weekend and was probably a bit ‘big’ if you like the more secluded sites. Free hot showers though and a useful camp shop to stock up on the essentials such as blow up mattress stoppers…we’re still saving for some new bed foam!

The bar was fantastic, an old barn dating to 1752, check out the slightly bonkers pool table if ever you visit – there is a huge wooden beam across the centre of the table at shoulder height which makes for interesting play and there was good selection of real ales which we were pleased about, a play room off the side of the bar if you have little ‘uns and a table tennis room. Oh, and they stocked scampy fries….

On the Thursday we set off on a long walk, not realising quite how hot it was going to be – better than rain though! The map was supplied by the campsite and is downloadable from their website – we chose the Aira Force walk, 8 miles – and the views were really amazing, highly recommended. When we finally got to Aira Force waterfalls and located the tea rooms (quite a challenge in itself!) we had a well deserved piece of cake and downed a few litres of water. Our tired and hot little feet found a nice pool to dip themselves into which revived us for the last several miles….we also knew we had supplies for a BBQ back at camp that kept us going!

Friday was a more typical British summers day with lots of rain so we explored the local towns of Keswick and Penrith. I fell a little bit in love with a Commer campervan that was for sale in a car park in Keswick…but don’t tell Bertha (it wasn’t as lovely as her anyway).

Home on Saturday morning in time to source some last minute wigs for a fancy dress school disco party at a friends that night!

On Sunday morning we woke up early and excited as we were heading off for our first sleep in Bertha! We set off around lunchtime, got stuck in traffic, had a mishap with the newly fitted stereo (i.e. it stopped working after about half an hour – long story, something about batteries which I still don’t fully understand!) and finally made it to Clapham for mid afternoon – not London of course but North Yorkshire.  A nice campsite but it was a little bit busy and seemed a bit more like a caravan car park than tranquil country retreat.  Still, we had a plot and an electric hook-up and there were plenty of fields and country smells nearby.  I was a bit nervous about plugging her in for the first time but Richard was confident the whole van wouldn’t blow up which, of course, it didn’t!  The fridge stayed lovely and cool, the lights worked (but were incredibly dim) but there was still no stereo.  Anyway, we had a nice evening, strolled into the village and found the local for some food and drink and came back to bed.  Three hours later we both had terrible back ache and hadn’t managed much sleep.  It seems that Bertha seriously needs some new bed foam so we’ll be investigating this soon.  On Monday morning we created a feast of ‘Camping Omlette’ a dish perfected by our friends Selina and Karl – basic recipe = lots of stuff you’d normally find in a full english breakfast (bacon, sausage, black pudding, tomato, mushrooms) cooked up and all thrown into an omlette.  I have it on good authority that cheese makes a yummy addition.

Our journey home took in the Ingleton Waterfalls Walk - been doing this since I was a kid.  Lovely but busy and you have to pay to do it (humbug…never used to when I was a nipper..).  A great weekend ended with us showing Bertha off to my extended family who were all very impressed!

The ‘technical’ chap who was going to show us how everything worked was off that day so they couldn’t give us a grande tour. Slightly annoying as we couldn’t really say we’d wait to pick her as it was a 2 hour round trip.

The journey home was quite eventful, the air vent in the roof popped up whilst going down the motorway. In fear of it ripping off completely I pulled over to secure it down… my efforts proved to be to no avail.

Anna was in front in the car and it was too late for her to pull in time. Thinking that she would slow down I set off merrily back to Leeds. Unknowing (in the excitement I forgot to take my mobile) she thought something more serious had happened and started heading back down the motorway as soon as she could get on the other lane…..

Also the wing mirrors decided to push themselves when going over 60mph in making it impossible to overtake (another job to go on the list) and it was chucking it down which didn’t help.

Eventually we both made it back home, after I had made an accidental detour round South Leeds (adding an extra hour on the journey!) and Anna had fruitlessly driven up and down the motorway.

Anyway we laughed about it after and we’ve got our lovely new campervan home in one piece!!

Bertha we love you bertha