Reflections on the puddle of life

Last weekend we went on our first camping trip. As Wills and Kate were getting married, here, in UK, we were kindly given the day off to celebrate, and we decided to celebrate by skipping the wedding and pitching up in a field in the Lakes.

The trip up went surprisingly well, usually on bank holidays the motorways are crammed with cars but, perhaps because of the wedding, our trip was relatively traffic free. Pretty soon we were surrounded by the green, crumpled landscape, majestic hills and copious numbers of sheep.

Our campsite was on the banks of Ullswater close to a town called Pooley Bridge. The campsite is on a working farm so when we arrived we were greeted by the sound (and smell) of cows. But more about the cows later. We checked in, and made our way over to the family field to pitch the tent.

This is the campsite:



and after 2+ hours of pitching and constructing and inflating and unpacking our tent was ready for use:



With the hills on one side, and Ullswater on the other, it didn't take the kids long to set out exploring. They found lots of great things to do, like fishing off the jetty:


and skimming stones (my son even managed a 4 x skimmer!):



and they made some friends and played in the adventure playground and had a look at the cows (with their noses well pegged).

The big draw for this campsite is the location. It's stunningly beautiful and the lake is very accessible. There's a lakeside path that takes you down to Pooley Bridge where you can get ice cream or a pub lunch, or a postcard to send to your Mum. Watersports are, obviously, a big thing. We saw the British sailing team practising on the waters, water skiiers, canoers, kayakers and windsurfers. We were planning on going canoeing, but as it turned out the waters were too choppy and we ended up going out on a motorboat instead. The kids loved it, especially when getting sprayed by water or tossed about on the wake of a passing steamer.

At night, the stars were amazing. I've come away with a real appreciation of the impact of light pollution. I've never seen so many stars, I could hardly recognise the constellations the sky was so clogged with them.

There were, of course, the inevitable downsides, but we figure they can all be worked out. Firstly, it was incredibly cold. During the day, the weather was fantastic - sunny, a bit breezy but in a pleasant way. Once it started going dark the temperature plummeted and we ended up sitting around the table each night wrapped in 4 layers of clothes and a blanket, shivering and giggling over a game of Cluedo or cards. Next time we're going to bring a heater.

Food is still a problem, but we're working on that.

Sleeping was a bit of a mixed bag. The first night both my husband and I struggled to sleep. The campsite was a little noisy, but that calmed down by around 10:30pm. We were quite close to a road so passing cars were a bit disruptive, but after the first night that didn't bother us. The cold was a problem until my husband and I zipped our sleeping bags together, then we were toasty warm. But the biggest issue, the one which nearly had us home early, was the cows. The cowshed was right next to the family field and April, as you may or may not know, is calving season. Oh, did they calve. It was like being tripped back to the Jurassic era, I don't know who ever referred to the noise cows make as 'mooing' but that's not the sound I was hearing. More like T-Rex, or Brachiosaurus. I also realised that when people say 'the cattle are lowing' what they really mean is bellowing! It was not fun. Needless to say, I'm no longer likely to suffer any prick of conscience when eating a beefburger.

These minor niggles aside, we had a wonderful time and we were so blissed out by the time we came home we're already planning our next trip.

It has to be said, though, that the real star of the show was the lake. I've never been to Ullswater before, but I can strongly recommend it. It's in a great part of the country, green, crackled with hills that are begging to be walked up, and quaint little villages sandwiched between strips of pristine water and impeccable landscapes.

I leave you with a few images of Ullswater's quiet majesty.