Camping has never been on my list of top 10 things to do. The thought of lying in a field, in the cold and in the  dark with no kettle, hair straigteners or hot running water has never filled me with much enthusiasm. Why sit in a cold, damp tent eating Pot Noodles when you could be in a cosy B&B enjoying a homecooked meal in the warmth, and have on hand steaming hot showers, plug sockets and a mirror!

Camping in the Lakes

However, with a wedding looming and the economic climate not knowing which way to go, we decided not to splash out on a holiday this year: “One year without a holiday isn’t going to hurt,” I was told.

So when the chance to go camping in the Lake District arose – I must admit, I positively jumped at the idea! “I can be cold for a couple of nights,” I was telling myself, “So what if I don’t have my hair straigteners for a night ot two – I can plait my hair,” “Hot water? Pah, who needs that!”

So last Friday evening after work, off we went. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little aprehensive, after all, I had never been camping – well, apart from once on a school trip when I was 10 years old; where we used one of our classmates as a draught excluder at the foot of the tent, where one of the boys rolled out of his tent and got mistaken for a log and where we thought we heard a bear, which led to us all crying for our mums and the teachers having to bring us all indoors to calm us down! Not the most wonderful of experiences!

An hour and a bit later we got to the campsite, Low Wray in Windermere. It was situated on a working farm and by the lake. We found our plot and started to set up the tent. By this point and having checked out my surroundings (where I also found  toilets, hot showers and hot and cold running water) I was beginning to relax.

So, the tent was up and me and my friend had lit our mango and vanilla tealights, got into our four layers, filled our hot water bottles and we were good to go!

Here are few of our pictures……

Putting the tent up when we arrived

The tent once we got it up!

Me, eating - yes, a Pot Noodle!

Our tent on the camp site

On the first day we decided to go for a quiet ’stroll’ down to Lake Windermere and to Bowness-on-Windermere. We bought a map and started on on little walk – soon to turn into a marathon of a trek! What we didn’t know was that we had to walk to Hawkshead first which was 5 miles away, catch a ferry across to Bowness-on-Windermere and then walk five miles back!

The campsite was located on the side of Lake Windermere

The Claife Estate is where our 10 mile trek started

The rain stopped for us to enjoy the walk by the lake and through the countryside

Wray Castle stood in beautiful surroundings

Me, glad to be sat down after our walk!

Okay, so we only camped for two nights, but I can honestly say I had a fantastic time and we’re already planning our next camping holiday for next year! I can see now why people do it. I used to question why people camped for fun, but now I can see why. So if I can be converted, then I am sure anyone can be.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Where have you been?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.