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

Sunday June 16th 2019 - Another visit to Cumbria

A partly sunny, partly cloudy morning saw me setting off on my 10-day holiday to Cumbria, camping at the lovely little farm site I stayed on at Easter. I'd already taken my son to Manchester airport very early that morning for a short break in Ireland so I'd enjoyed a few hours back home before leaving at 11.30am for my own holiday. The volume of traffic on the motorway was fairly moderate and once I'd got past the turn off for Lancaster it became even less, and with increasing sunshine and blue sky the driving was quite pleasant. 

While studying the map book a couple of days previously I'd noticed Keld Chapel appearing to be just by the A6 near Shap village so to take a break and explore something new I turned off the M6 at Junction 39 and went in search of it. I drove quite a distance along the A6 through Shap village and back but saw no evidence of any chapel, not even a sign for it, however I did see a sign for Shap Abbey so decided to check that out instead. The route took me down a couple of narrow country lanes barely wider than the van and eventually I came to a concrete track leading down through a very steep field of sheep, with the top of the ruined abbey tower showing through the trees down below. 


There was nothing to say if vehicles were allowed down the track so not wanting to get myself into somewhere I couldn't get out of I left the van in the shade of a nearby stone wall and set off walking down the hill. As it turned out, there was a small grassy car park down in the valley with a sign pointing to it, where a footpath took me across a bridge over a small river and past the edge of another field to the abbey itself. 

The remote valley had once been home to a community of Premonstratensian canons, an order which was founded in the 1120s, and the abbey was founded round about 1200 by a local baron who granted the land to the canons. After Henry Vlll's suppression of the abbey in the 16th century its canons were evicted and the land was granted to the Governor of Carlisle in 1540; some of the main monastic buildings were then used as a farm but most were dismantled and the materials re-used elsewhere. 



Walking down the steep field to the abbey I'd noticed a sheep lying on its back; it was still there when I went back up the hill and knowing that a sheep on its back is a sheep in trouble I went across and managed to roll it over, whereby it scrambled to its feet, gave itself a shake and trotted off with its two youngsters. Another ewe had two adorable little babies with her, obviously relative new-borns, and one was so wrinkled it looked like it hadn't quite grown into its skin, in fact it looked rather like it was wearing a fur coat a couple of sizes too big. I had to smile at another little one though - its ears seemed to be bigger than normal, giving it a rather odd appearance, but that definitely added to the cute factor.



Back at the van I released the dogs, gave them a drink and took them for a short walk along the lane before continuing my journey to the camp site, which was done with no further stops. It was 3pm when I finally arrived - I had the same pitch as last time, No.11, but before I could even think about setting up the tent the sky clouded over and it started raining. No way was I putting up the tent in that so I quickly connected the hook-up cable, ran it though the van window and made myself a brew, prepared to stay put until the rain stopped. It didn't, at least not until it was going dark, but I had my bed made up in the van just in case such a thing occurred, so that's where the dogs and I spent our first night, with fingers and paws crossed that the tent would go up the following day.



8 comments:

  1. I'm glad you managed to help the sheep in trouble, the cute little lambs would have been grateful Mum was OK.

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  2. I'm glad too that I was able to help the sheep, it could have been a whole different outcome otherwise, and I'm sure her two youngster were glad their mum was okay.

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  3. Lovely photos at Shap, always makes me sad though. Bloody Henry VIII, took him less than a decade to destroy hundreds of years of the most wonderful architecture ever created. 🤬

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    1. I often wonder what many of these places would look like now if they were still complete - it's such a shame they were destroyed like they were :(

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  4. I love these serendipitous finds along the way like the abbey. We’ve done a bit of sheep rolling in our time too - seems to be an inbuilt design flaw! As for the rain - always good to have a Plan B.

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  5. I love finding places unexpectedly while looking for somewhere/something entirely different. As far as having a Plan B, depending on the circumstances I often have a Plan C as well! :)

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  6. What a wonderful old ruin. The lambs are delightful and I see what you mean about 'big ears'.

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  7. Every time I look at that photo of the lamb it makes me smile - I hope it eventually grows into its ears :)

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