A drive to the Peak District & a farm campsite.

Today's route, more or less - per Google rather than our satnav!

Yesterday we left Pencelli Castle campsite and took a nice winding route through Wales and up to the Peak District.  We got the satnav to take us via the shortest route to make it a bit more scenic although on google maps (for this blog's purpose) it is not quite exact but it gives you an idea.  With the shortest routes we had to be careful that the roads weren't too narrow for our caravan but we did have one or two hair raising experiences when we came across a local who would be tearing down the country lanes at a great rate of knots and find us taking up the road.  Needless to say, they either had to inch past us or reverse back to a wider bit in the road.  We nearly got clobbered going around one hairpin bend in the road with high hedges when a vehicle coming towards us came around the bend at quite a speed.  We were fortunate our brakes and his brakes worked very well!

The drive through Wales and the Peak District was lovely and brought back some memories of when I used to go walking in the the Peak District.

Our campsite is on a farm not far from Bakewell and Buxton:  Dale Farm (http://www.dale.farm/).  By the time we arrived both the car and caravan looked as if they had been in a mud-slinging session.  They were so dirty they were almost unrecognisable.  We managed to get the caravan parked up on one of the hardcore sites without churning up the site or the driveway too much.  It was all very muddy because of recent snow-melt and rain, and more mud on the car and caravan didn't matter. 

Photograph off the internet to give you an idea of the Dale Farm campsite

We discovered that we would have to cross a muddy farmyard to get to the toilet/shower facilities.  Fortunately I had brought my gumboots with me for some reason or another so they came in handy but they had to remain outside when stepping into the caravan.  I hoped that it wouldn't rain overnight otherwise I would step into water-filled gumboots.  Paul didn't fare very well - he didn't bring his boots.  He wore Crocs clogs and his feet sank into the mud a couple of times...

Well, it is a farm!

We noticed that a woman was camping in a tent on a terraced pitch near us.  The tent was sizeable but camping during mid winter???!!!  And there was still snow lying around ...  I hope there is some form of heating in the tent or that it is well insulated.  Brrrrr....

We went down to the local pub for a nice enough pub meal.  We found a table next to a roaring fire and soon felt cosy.  The pub-owner's cat soon joined us but spent much time on Paul's lap.  Apparently Paul was sitting in the cat's usual spot!  It was nice to have kitty company.

When we got back to the campsite got into our dressing gowns and picked our way across the mud, in the dark, to get to the shower.  It is a paid meter shower.  So Paul had to traipse back to the caravan to get some coins to operate the shower.  And it had started to rain outside...  I think it was about £1 for 5 minutes but we BOTH managed to shower within those 5 minutes - we didn't have many coins!  I'm small so I don't take long in the shower, fortunately.