About Me

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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

Saturday April 20th 2019 Part 2 - Ambling round Allonby

Just less than five miles north of Maryport was Allonby, a little village strung out along the coast road. Most of the cottages were on one side of the road while on the other was a long wide green with a tarmac cycle path running through it and the beach on the far side. Having previously checked out Allonby on Google maps street view I knew there was no shortage of places to park so I pulled off the road and onto a nice grassy parking area about halfway through the village. Street view had also shown me a place called Jack's Surf Bar set back off the road, and outside was a board advertising takeaway pie, peas and gravy for £2.99; now that's not the sort of thing I would normally eat but for once I liked the idea of having that for my lunch while sitting in the van and enjoying the view over towards Scotland. 

The image on street view was a few years old however so I didn't expect to still get pie, peas and gravy for that price, but when I went across to Jacks Surf Bar there was no board outside and I found that it seemed to be more of a proper cafe/restaurant rather than somewhere doing takeaways. A quick look at a menu showed me that what I wanted didn't feature on it at all so I did a quick about turn and went off in search of somewhere else. Jayne had recommended The Codfather fish and chip shop so I tried there and was happy to find there was steak pie on the menu board - so pie, peas, gravy and a takeaway coffee were ordered and back to the van I went.

Now under normal circumstances steak pie from a fish and chip shop would be a commercially produced individual one, which is what I expected, but when I opened the carton I was surprised to find a slice of home made steak pie - and the slice was so big it almost filled the carton it was in. No way could I eat all that at once so I cut it in half and saved the rest for my evening meal back at the camp site.



With lunch over, which I really enjoyed, I clipped the leads on Sophie and Poppie and set off along the green to the start of the village at the south end then walked back along the road. The first thing I came to was Christ Church, followed by the entrance to a small static caravan site then West Winds coffee shop and tea room, in a building which looked like it may once have been the church vicarage. Past a row of modern detached houses I came to Twentyman's ice cream shop, and judging by the queue outside it was a very popular place. Next door was the Baywatch Hotel and Jack's Surf Bar then a row of white painted cottages set back off the road with a pretty little green in front of them.



Past the cottages was Pig in the Bath antique/second hand shop - rather a strange name for a shop but on the small forecourt outside there was indeed a large painted wooden pig in a large wooden bathtub. It was difficult to get a decent photo of it though as there was all sorts of 'junk' around it so I had to make do with a shot of the sign above the door and a model pig in the upstairs window. The building itself seemed to contain a mish-mash of all sorts of stuff but I didn't go in.

On a bend near the antique shop a stone bridge took the road over Allonby Beck which flowed from somewhere inland and ran alongside the road for some distance before flowing out across the beach and into the sea. Close to the bridge on the seaward side was The Codfather and a large childrens' play area, then back across the road was the attractive-looking Ship Hotel. Past the play area was a short row of cottages fronted by a gravel parking area with small wooden footbridges leading across the beck to the roadside pavement. Further along still was the village hall and across from it a large red brick building which was actually a house but had obviously been something else at some time.


Next came what had once been a little chapel but is now a private house, and with no more cottages on the seaward side of the road there was a great view across the green and the Solway Firth to the hills of south Scotland - or there would have been if there hadn't been a heat haze obliterating everything in the distance. After the chapel was another private cottage which had once been a Quaker meeting house - it had an attractive name plaque and quite an unusual door knocker, and going off the antlers I assumed it was a stag but looking at the face it seemed more like a cow.


Past the Quaker house was what seemed to be a small site of holiday chalets then North Lodge, a long single storey property with a 2-storey section at each end and in the centre.That's where the village ended and any semblance of a pavement also came to an end; about fifty yards further on the national speed limit came into force so not wanting the three of us to be in danger of getting squashed by something travelling at speed I went onto the green and walked along through the dunes until I came to where Allonby Beck flowed into the sea. 


My turn around point was a simple wooden bench set among the dunes and with a sweet little memorial under one end. Heading back towards the van I stopped a couple of times to photograph some very colourful flowers in planters and it was while I was snapping the last shot I got chatting to a guy mowing the grass outside his cottage. He had some connection to a local history group and gave me a brochure about the history of Allonby but I only had a quick glance at it and didn't look at it properly until I got back to the van.


Sitting in the van and reading the brochure I'd just been given I realised there was far more to this lovely little place than I could ever have realised and I now had a dilemma. Did I drive back south to the other places I wanted to visit or did I abandon my plan, stay in Allonby, and look for the many interesting things shown in the brochure? Checking the time I realised that I'd spent longer in Allonby than I'd intended so I wouldn't have time to go south anyway and do justice to the two places I wanted to see, but staying in Allonby may scupper any chance I had of actually going elsewhere. So Plan C came into force - Allonby would be there to revisit another time so instead of going south I went north and headed off into yet more unknown territory.



Saturday April 20th 2019 Part 1 - Mooching round Maryport

I woke that morning to sunshine over the fields beyond my pitch and the promise of another glorious day. After a short dog walk down to the on-site wildfowl lake I sorted out some breakfast and ate al fresco while taking in the view in front of me and formulating a 'sort of plan' for the day. There were four places on the coast which I particularly wanted to visit, starting at Allonby and working my way south to St. Bees, so just in case the good weather didn't last this was going to be my 'big day out'.


It was an easy drive from the site to the coast but as is often the case my 'sort of plan' was changed at the last minute. I had to drive through Maryport to get to Allonby and as Jayne had given me directions to a promenade in Maryport where I could walk the dogs I decided to start there first and go on to Allonby later. I found the promenade easily enough and with a long pleasant green and gardens at the base of the cliff it was a pleasant enough place to walk although there wasn't much else there.


Wanting to photograph the lighthouse my original thought was to walk there but looking across from the promenade it seemed to be quite a distance round to it so I decided to drive there instead, and having previously checked out the harbour area on Google maps I was able to find somewhere to park for free close to the aquarium building. On a corner of the harbour just across from the aquarium was the Alauna Aura, a new sculpture installed in August 2018. At over two metres in height its design is based around Maryport's development over the years, including its Roman history, mining, railways, shipbuilding and its connections to HMS Bounty and the Titanic.


Leaving the sculpture behind I wandered along the harbour side until I came to the end of Elizabeth Dock where several colourful fishing boats were moored up. Across the harbour was a wide green space, a couple of car parks and a small caravan site, with a marina at the far side - the lighthouse was situated on a wide breakwater at the far side of the marina and still a long way to walk, so again I decided to take the easy way out and drive round.


When I finally got round to the lighthouse I found quite a large parking area which was free and made a good place to leave the van while I had a mooch about. The old lighthouse, which photography-wise was the more interesting, was situated on a bend in the breakwater; built around 1856 it features a slender octagonal tower on a single-storey stone base, though it's been inactive for a number of years. In 1996 a new aluminium tower was built at the end of the breakwater, and though it's smaller and less powerful than the original lighthouse its light can still be seen almost ten miles out to sea.


Across from the old lighthouse and built up a steep bank was a derelict stone building with no roof and partially demolished walls. There was nothing anywhere to say what it had once been but there were wide stone steps leading up one side of it so I went up to see what was there. The answer was 'not much' but the view looking back towards the town was good - and looking right over to the left, to where I'd first parked the van on the promenade, I was glad I hadn't walked all the way from there to the lighthouse.


With that last shot I made my way back down the steps and round to the van; I'd been mooching round Maryport sea front and harbour for almost two hours and it was time to move on. It was also getting on for lunch time, and having seen something on Google maps a few days previously I knew what I wanted and where I would hopefully get it from so off I went, out of Maryport and heading a few miles north in the direction of lunch.





Friday April 19th 2019 - The start of a new adventure

After spending several years camping in North Wales each Easter, and having not-very-good-weather for the last few of them, I decided that this year I would have a complete change of direction and location. Instead of going south from home I would go north, and so it was that I got myself booked into a small out-of-the-way camp site in the north west Lake District from Good Friday to the following Tuesday. I'd never been to that area of Cumbria before so this was going to be a whole new adventure for me and the dogs. 

After just over a week of sunny but chilly days the temperatures started to increase in the few days leading up to Good Friday and I left home at 8am on a sunny morning which was already fairly warm even though it was still early. Setting off reasonably early meant that the traffic was still fairly light so my journey up the M6 and across the A66 was an easy one with no hold-ups, and as I got further north and west the scenery just got better and better. Driving along the west side of Bassenthwaite Lake I was met by a 'wow' view several times but unfortunately there was nowhere on my side of the road where I could safely pull in, so any photos would have to wait until my journey back.

I couldn't get onto my pitch at the camp site until 1pm so I'd previously arranged with my blogging friend Jayne to call and see her while I was en route, and I pulled into her driveway at 10.30am. After corresponding via our respective blogs and email it was great to finally meet her; I was provided with coffee and hot cross buns for elevenses, Sophie and Poppie were given some duck strip treats to chew on, we had a short dog walk round a very pleasant block and a tour of her large and very wonderful garden, which is an absolute credit to all the hard work she and her husband have put into it over the years. 



Eventually though it was time for me to leave and after saying our goodbyes I headed off for the camp site, though I did make a brief stop along the way to photograph a view of the River Derwent which I thought was worth a shot. A sheep and twin lambs with cute little faces were grazing nearby so I snapped those as well then continued on my way to the camp site.



The site is part of a working farm so after booking in at the farmhouse I went to find my pitch - no. 11 - and once I'd decided which way round to park the van and put the tent I made a start on setting up our home for the next four nights, although we would actually be sleeping in the van. With everything finally sorted I took the dogs for a walk round to familiarise myself with the site and the farm and came across three pygmy goats enjoying the sunshine in a small enclosure.


Back at the tent I fed Sophie and Poppie, made myself a sandwich and a brew then sat for a while just taking in the views and enjoying the peace and tranquility. With fields all round, Skiddaw and other fells in the distance, and no noise other than the birds, sheep and resident chickens I had a feeling I was going to like this little site.