Eighteen: Troutbeck (04/07/09 - 07/07/09)

Just when I think I've got Him'n'Her sussed they blinking well go and surprise me - straight after filling my water tank we're off...no eight hour wait for me while they go and 'work'. "So where are we off to, then?" I wonder. Five minutes later my wonderings are answered...back home!! Seems they forgot to put their bikes on the rack - I'm gonna have to write them a very big checklist, the poor dears...mind you, He'd probably forget to check it ;-)

Bikes now on, off we go again...obviously heading for somewhere nice and flat if they're thinking of going cycling, hehe!

So, south down the A1, west along the A66 and straight into Mainsgill Farm - breakfast for them, a chat with the alpacas, emus, donkeys and cows for me...but no camel to be seen today.

After they've filled up we continue west on the A66 until we get near Penrith, where we turn south down the A6, go through Shap, skirt Windermere and then turn right up the Troutbeck Valley to Limefitt Caravan Park. I'm given pitch no 99 - so you can guess the size of the place...but, as it turns out, most of the pitches are statics or holiday lodges with just a couple of short avenues for those of us who like to travel around a bit. It was a fairly good site, with nice views and good facilities, although the dodgy mucky beer they had in the onsite "traditional Lakeland Inn" counted a bit against it (end of the barrel stuff or something I heard them say).

The pitches were also very regimented and fairly close together, although I got on well with my immediate neighbour, a smart caravan from Leeds whose people, a taxi driver and his wife, were leaving her there for the week to look after their son and his family.

Having settled me in, including extending my sun canopy (or rain shelter, as I prefer to think of it), Him'nHer went on a tour of the site, a stroll along the banks of Troutbeck, got bitten by horseflies (His right elbow and pinky knuckle didn't half swell up, and had the aforementioned really mucky beer. After a bit of a chill and a yummy tea, it was off to bed - upstairs!! Can't wait to see them struggling down in the morning ;-)

Well, they didn't struggle too much, actually, so it was only mild chuckles for me, rather than loud guffaws!

After a fine breakfast - some Cumberland sausage they had bought at Mainsgill yesterday, they set off up Wansfell Pike which, they later told me, was a fine walk with lovely views of Lake Windermere, The Langdales, and the Kirkstone Pass and some fine-looking sheep. They said the only thing that had spoiled it was a large group of doctors who all wanted to be the centre of attention and so talked incessantly and very loudly. To get away from them, Him'n'Her deviated from their planned route, when they realised the loud ones were on the same trail, and were fairly quickly away from them, although they could be heard in the distance for some time.

On the way back they called into The Mortal Man in Troutbeck for some mucky beer (Old Speckled Hen - nice mucky beer, not end of barrel yuck) only to find the loud ones hogging the bar...but they quickly moved out into the beer garden and so Him'n'Her sat in a quiet corner of the bar and engaged in some decent conversation with a couple from down south who were staying in a hotel run by John Lewis for their employees.

After that it was a nice stroll back along a path complete with badger sets and swifts to have a nice meal and then off to bed - once more upstairs. They seemed to sleep fairly soundly until they were woken, not by the sound of the rain, but by the scritter scratter of a crow doing a Gene Kelly impersonation.

After another hearty breakfast it was off for a ramble along Robin Lane and through Skellghyll Woods to Ambleside for a spot of retail therapy and something to eat at, yeah, you've guessed it, Lucy4 - their favourite bistro, and very nice it was too, apparently. I was expecting them to arrive back in a taxi, what after some mucky beer and pims with their meal, but apparently that chap from Leeds wasn't able to get to them in time, so they decided to walk back and, even though it was after 9.00pm, I sent them off for a shower before I let them get into bed...but downstairs this time... too tired to climb the ladder, bless their cotton socks.

The following day we pack up and head off home, calling in at Keswick for a bit more retail therapy and fish'n'chips at the Old Keswickian - apparently, they were not as good as on previous occasions, but this didn't spoil what had been a fab weekend.

See more of their photos here.