Month: February 2016

Coniston, The Lake District

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Some top advice 😉

This was our third visit to the Park Coppice Caravan Club site at Coniston and it never loses its appeal for us.

http://www.caravanclub.co.uk/caravanclubapps/applications/uk-caravan-sites-and-parks/SiteDetails.aspx?csid=21956

This was our first motorhome destination in 2014 after buying Jolly.  Check out our two previous blog posts for info on what we got up to.

We were extremely lucky with the weather this time, having booked this jaunt several weeks ago and finding ourselves blessed with the best weekend weather of the last few weeks.  We arrived on site mid-afternoon and were soon pitched up and relaxing.  This is a large all year round site of 252 good-sized pitches set within woodland.  However, the site only has the top end pitches open out of season.

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Pitched up

We enjoyed a couple of hours taking in our surroundings in the sunshine with a brew or two and some nibbles, before climbing on our bikes and cycling the couple of miles into the hamlet of Torver.  The bridleway there is an old rail track which takes you safely away from the main road.  It is easy to blink and miss Torver as you pass through, but we recently discovered that Torver has an extensive history since its very earliest days when Vikings settled there and farmed the land.  Also, an interesting fact we discovered is that in 1954 the first major UFO sighting in Britain is recorded as taking place near Torver …

 

Ooooh!  Anyhow, hoax or no hoax, it is our tradition for the first evening at this site to have a few drinks and tea in Torver.  Previously, though, there has only been one choice of pub in the village – The Wilson’s Arms.

http://www.thewilsonsarms.co.uk/

… but this year we discovered that the Church House Inn, just across the road, has now reopened adding a little more variety.  We noted too, from chatting to another couple of motorhomers, that the Church House Inn provides 5 caravan/motorhome pitches to the rear with electric, shower & toilet facilities.  They hold regular live music nights, food nights and beer festivals at this pub so if this is your thing it’s worth checking out their website for upcoming events.

http://www.thechurchhouseinn.com/

Needless to say, we managed to fit both pubs in and enjoyed a few drinks, game of cards, and a hearty meal of fish and chips at the Wilson’s Arms before returning to Jolly to cabin up for the night.

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An impressive Torver sunset

Our next day was spent well wrapped up and cycling in and around Coniston, just taking in the fabulous scenery on a perfect winter’s day of sunshine and blue skies.  Suzie enjoyed some great photography too.  We meandered around and enjoyed a warming hot chocolate and cake at the Bluebird Cafe down by the boating centre at Coniston Water.  Yum!

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http://www.thebluebirdcafe.co.uk/index.html

We then decided to explore Tarn Hows which we hadn’t done on previous visits.  This is approx. a mile and a half away from the centre of Coniston.  It is an often quite steep wooded track up to the Tarn, which was made trickier for us as we pushed our bikes all the way up to the top car park!  That said, the rewarding views of the Tarn and the exhilarating downhill return journey by road more than made up for our earlier efforts.

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Tarn Hows is a popular visitor attraction and said to be the most photographed water in the Lake District.  It used to be three smaller ones called High, Middle and Low Tarn. Until in 1862, a dam was built to raise the level, and with other landscaping the Tarn we see today was created.  The Hows are the surrounding small, wooded hills.  The spot was once owned by Beatrix Potter who later passed it on to the National Trust for future safe-keeping.

We managed to capture some lovely photos of the amazing scenery encountered during our day:-

After all that exercise we were, understandably, quite thirsty(!) and cycled down into Coniston for a couple of well-earned pints of Bluebird Bitter by Coniston Brewing Co at the Black Bull Inn.  We then ate at The Ship Inn on the way back to camp.

https://www.robinsonsbrewery.com/shipinnconiston

We slept well that night 💤💤 after a perfect weekend.

Our next planned Jolly jaunt isn’t for a few weeks, unless we manage to cram a cheeky one in between, who knows!?

ONWARD!>>>>

Suzie & Bri

Three Rivers Caravan Park, West Bradford, Nr Clitheroe, Ribble Valley

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We had an overnight stay here last weekend while we were over visiting family in Clitheroe.  It’s a good couple of miles outside Clitheroe, but we used the site as our usual two choices in Clitheroe itself were closed that weekend.  It was just a flying visit and we were only on site to sleep, so we didn’t make use of any of the facilities. A lot of the pitches here are very sloping, but that was fine for just a night.

It’s a popular site for families, in view of the facilities available, and it was quite full as it was the beginning of half term week.  The sun shone too which added to the beauty of this site’s rural setting.  For more site info check out the link:-

http://www.touringtenting.co.uk/lancashire/three-rivers-woodland-park?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

You’ll need a car to explore the surrounding area here as there is very little within easy walking distance.  For us though, it was a great weekend spent with our nearest and dearest.

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A Valentine’s meal for 6! ❤️

Our next stop is a return to the Lake District and one of our favourite annual haunts.

ONWARD!>>>> 🚐

Suzie & Bri

 

Redwell Fisheries, Arkholme, Lune Valley

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Well, well, well, guess who drove on this adventure …

Suzie finally getting behind the wheel for some experience in preparation for longer trips and shared driving
Suzie finally getting behind the wheel for some experience in preparation for longer trips and shared driving
Easy peasy!
Easy peasy!

We visited Redwell Fisheries following our previous cancellation due to the fact that the only eatery for a couple of miles around here was closed the week we had originally booked – these are vital considerations for any adventure! 🍴🍺🍷😉.

We had booked ahead at Redwell, but there seemed to be a little confusion re. which pitch we were to be allocated and we had to wait a couple of hours before receiving our electricity supply.  No worries though because by this time we had already activated our gas supply for Jolly’s heating, hot water & fridge, and made our way to the nearby Inn for tea.  When we returned later everything had been sorted for us and we had a thoroughly comfortable stay.

We only used Jolly’s onboard facilities as usual, but Bri poked his head into the toilet/shower facilities and declared them perfectly adequate and clean.  There was electric, water and grey waste point on each pitch, and a chemical toilet disposal point on site.

http://www.redwellfisheries.co.uk/

Although not as aesthetically pleasing as Horns Dam, Goosnargh, Redwell Fisheries had well kept, spacious fishing pegs.  The lakes were all connected, appeared well stocked and gave us a very successful day’s fishing.  In fact it was our best fishing – 10 bream/rudd/roach caught between us.  We were well kitted out and set our stall out beneath our large fishing brolly and fished from midday for approx. 4.5 hours in pretty much constant rain.  The feeding frenzy started around 3pm until we left, with white maggot being the most tempting bait, but worm also pulled out one or two.  The number of catches more than made up for our damp and cold bones when we returned to Jolly at the end of the afternoon.

After freshening up, a little liquid refreshment, hot shower, and smartening up, we headed to the local Redwell Inn for our evening meal.  It is approx. 10 mins walk from site along the Kirkby Lonsdale B road. It’s best to cut through to the grassy area at the top of the site (opposite end to the entrance) to access the road up, as walking up from the entrance which we had to do on the second night due to the amount of rainfall, is a little scary.  It is a fast road with some bends and at this time of year in the dark you need your wits about you.  We wore our high viz jackets, carried a torch and stepped well into the grass banking as any vehicles passed.

We ate here both nights and were very impressed with the food.  On top of that, we think the staff at this pub are a real credit to the place.  Friendly, fun and very attentive to the needs of customers.  On the second night, they were experiencing some difficult customers who had set the evening bookings back considerably.  They were very apologetic to us and supplied a couple of rounds of free drinks to us and another group waiting.  We were very happy just relaxing in the bar and reassured them it was no problem at all.  To top both evenings off, the staff gave us a lift back to Jolly, due to the bad weather.  In fact the owner/chef, Rob, dropped us off himself on the last night.  So they literally went the extra mile for us! 👍

http://www.redwellcountryinn.co.uk/

Another great weekend.  We’ll happily return here in the future.  Our next Jolly outing though is just an overnighter to visit family next week.  We’ll be staying at a different place to the two we’ve used in the past though as they are closed.  Should be interesting, we always look forward to trying new sites.

Til next time, ONWARD!>>>>

Suzie & Bri