Country: England
Distance travelled:
Weather: raining in the morning, generally sunny with brief hail at lunchtime

We awoke to rain and wind. With no real need to get anywhere, we lay abed for a good hour enjoying being snuggled up in bed while the wind and rain lashed the van outside. Eventually hunger won out and we succumbed to the need for breakfast. I was just discussing with Mark my plan to walk down to the laundry and shower block when the rain suddenly stopped. Must have been providence.

We trudged off down to get a load of washing done and to take advantage of the very hot showers. I had decided to wash my hair since there was so much hot water and such good pressure. High water pressure seems to be a little unusual in the UK. The clothes dryer ate an extra pound before I could get the dratted thing working and the site manager person had miraculously disappeared so I couldn’t discuss getting a refund. And the washing wasn’t completely dry either.

We have decided not to keep heading to Scotland since we spoke to the head mechanic at Dick Lane Motorhomes and he says he has the part to fix our fridge. He can’t do anything about it till next week however so we are meandering our way back south toward Bradford. Our first stop was at a stone circle called Long Meg and her Daughters. After that drive, I think an alternative GPS system may be on the cards. The one we have has a fascination with back roads. The stone circle however, was all a stone circle could be. The brief hail storm that stuck just as we got back into the van was interesting too. The wind chill had been incredible but I hadn’t expected hail out of such a blue sky. I suppose the patches of snow on the nearby mountains should have been a hint.

A drive through Penrith, where we stopped for fuel and a few supplies was also quite interesting. Penrith has quite a few narrow windy streets and I would definitely liked to have walked about a bit but we even had trouble finding a park for the van in the supermarket carpark. In the town centre would have been impossible.

From there we headed to a likely looking spot for another night of wild camping. This site is located on the shores of the Ullswater and as we were meandering along, we came across the Arial Force waterfalls maintained by the National Trust. Force is a term I’ve seen around a bit in relation to waterfall names and I read somewhere it comes from the Norse term fors meaning waterfall. A quick decision to drop in turned out to be a great decision and we spent over 2 hours clambering along the paths admiring the flow along both deep gorge and wider stream. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

We are now currently parked up a stones throw from the edge of the Ullswater and have had a chicken & vegetable stir fry for dinner. Mark is trialling the shower again and I’m about to collapse into bed. Who would have thought holidays were so tiring?