I woke that morning to the sound of rain on the tent; hard to believe after the previous day had been so lovely but I suppose not totally unsurprising for this country. According to my phone it was 8am but the hour had gone back overnight which meant it was still very early; I was lovely and cosy in my bed with no desire to go out in the wet, and as the dogs weren't exactly rushing to the door I awarded myself the luxury of a long lie-in. By the time they'd got to the point of looking rather cross-legged the rain had stopped so I took them for a walk up to the village and back; those members of the group who had school-age kids were in the process of packing up to leave so I wandered round and had a chat to them all then went back to my own tent and put the kettle on for a brew. By this time it was raining again, so with no chance of any good photography and no tv to watch I spent a couple of hours reading my book, then when I got fed up of looking at four blue walls I decided to go into Skipton for a look round the shops.
When I got into town I pulled into the car park by the canal and with a couple of hours on the ticket went for a wander round. Having the dogs with me meant I was confined mainly to window shopping though I did go in a couple of charity shops and bought a cd from one of them. By the time I returned to the van I was feeling quite peckish, so leaving the dogs to curl up in the back I went across the canal to the Boathouse cafe. The menu there isn't terribly extensive, though they do have a 'specials' board, and though I was tempted to have coffee and cake I decided for once to have something different and ordered scrambled eggs on toast. It took a while for it to arrive as there was only one woman serving and one man doing the cooking but it was well worth the wait. The scrambled eggs were absolutely divine, really smooth and creamy and cooked to perfection, and I have to say they were the best scrambled eggs I've ever had - and I'm including my own in that comparison. So if I ever go there again - which no doubt I will - I think I'll be ignoring the cake and having scrambled eggs instead.
When I got back to the camp site I found that the ground was rapidly becoming waterlogged with all the rain and the area just outside the tent was looking rather on the muddy side; it did cross my mind that maybe I should strike camp and go home but I didn't really relish the idea of another wet pack-up, plus I wouldn't be able to get a refund for that night as the site owner was away herself, so I decided to stick it out and hope that the following day would be dry. The wet weather had rather put a stop to another get-together round a communal camp fire so I spent the evening in the tent, alternately reading and playing games on my DS until it was time to take the dogs for their bedtime walk. It was actually a bit earlier than I would normally take them but I thought that rather than lie on the bed, which I had been doing, I may as well get in it, and once I was snuggled in there was no way I was coming out until the morning!
About Me
- Tigermouse
- Hi! I'm Eunice and I live in Bolton, Lancashire, with my two dogs Sophie and Sugar and an assortment of cats - well it used to be Sophie and Sugar, now it's Sophie and Poppie. I first began camping back in 1997 when my then partner took me to Anglesey for my birthday weekend. We slept in the back of the car - a hatchback - using the cushions off the settee at home as a mattress, and cooked and brewed up on a single burner camping stove. The site was good, the views were great, the weather fantastic and I was completely hooked. Following that weekend we got a two-man tent and some proper accessories and returned to Anglesey two weeks later, then over time we progressed to a three-man tent followed by an old trailer tent, then a new trailer tent, a campervan and finally a caravan. When my partner decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the street - literally - in April 2009 and I suddenly found myself alone after fifteen years, I decided there was no way I was going to give up camping and caravanning if I could cope on my own. This blog is the story of my travels, trials and tribulations since becoming a solo camper - I hope you like it