Cumbria

4th August 08 Mal was up early like someone on Christmas day, clearly excited that we were going away for a couple of days to practise. Fed on porridge we set about preparing the MH for our journey. Quack expertly guided Mal out of our spot, which had been home now for about 2 weeks, we said our goodbyes & headed off. First stop, Clitheroe for a weigh in! We had no idea what we weighed – the kind chap did it for a donation to the bacon buttie fund! Front1520kg back 2340kg total 3860kg. Our maximum load can only be 4 ton front 2100kg & back 2400kg so we are under on both. Some rearranging on both the front & back is required. For those of you (like me) who don’t understand payloads the front of the MH weighs the same as a mondeo!! Next stop Leisure Tech to check out where we are having our satellite & other things fitted, they appear to be a good outfit – we will see!! Then off to Preston to leisure village to check out their wares. We bought a couple of useful items. Then on to Hymer were they sorted out our items on the snagging list, for any potential buyers this was namely the freezer lock, trim outside, trim inside, extractor fan & lockable water cap, all in all it took them about an hour. Then off to Cartmel for our first ‘solo’ camping. Journey was great, weather first class. We arrived in Cartmel at about 6pm after some narrow lane manoeuvres. Anyway we came to a stop & concluded we were lost! With a tiny mobile signal Mal rang the campsite guy. He said “oh did you follow sat nav” yes Mal replied “ah that’s what the problem is, I’ll come & get you”. Thankfully Norman as we came to know him arrived to guide us round to the site. He told us ‘pick’ our spot in the field. There were a couple of other caravans & 1 MH, oh & a resident gaggle of geese along with some hens & cockerels! We found a nice spot with great views of the Lakeland hills. Once we had filled up with water kindly aided by Norm we settled in & I cooked up a storming meal, washed down by a nice bottle of rose. We chose a film to watch & settled down for the night – the film went into our rubbish category! 5th August 08 Arose to a nice sunny morning. Mal prepared breakfast& we planned our day. We headed off to Grange over Sands on our bikes, cautiously advised by Norman it was uphill coming back! I assured Norm I may call upon him to collect me…. He kindly checked if we wanted anything from the supermarket & if we had a good nights sleep, he had been awake in the night with pigs & piglets in the barn. Our trip to Grange was quite hilly & as I currently have a bad chest I was out of puff & wheezing……but I kept at it, only to be almost mowed off my bike by a bonkers BMW driving woman! She clipped a car wing mirror on her way past & a guy driving a van exclaimed “what a stupid woman”. Mal quickly spotted she had pulled over & went to have a word’. Explaining she had almost caused a serious accident & she had hit another car. She was completely oblivious that she had almost hit me – she told Mal to go away as she had done nothing of the sort! Mal took her reg & that of the car she had hit & we headed down to the police station. The officer took her reg & said he would go to visit her, commenting she was probably one of the morning sherry brigade! We did not let this spoil our trip out & headed down to the promenade, which was beautiful. We saw lots of glorious flowers & caught their heady scent on the warm breeze. We had a light rain shower but it was kind of nice in such fine surroundings. Our bike trip was about 6 miles & we arrived home just before the big rain. Prior to lunch we embarked on a best of 3 backgammon game, Mal was crowned the overall winner (I am sure this will be a common theme throughout our trip) – but that’s the joy of being with Mr competitive! It rained for most of the afternoon, stopping momentarily for us to enjoy a bit of exercise playing in the field with the frizbee. We enjoyed our time reading & sorting through a couple of tubs of books. With the continued rain I asked Mal if we would be able to get the MH out tomorrow he assures me we will – time will tell. Well, just as we were settling down to watch a film we had a visit from Norm – to say due to the incessant rain & the farmer going out early tomorrow to the Cartmel show, he wondered if we wanted to move the MH tonight. We agreed to this, may be a good idea. Our first plan was to reverse up the hard standing track behind us; if we got stuck the farmer would pull us out. Mal set off reversing with Norm & I giving directions (me dressed in a pale pink velour tracksuit & pink crocs – not ideal attire)! There was a sudden clunk & something dropped down from underneath the MH, what appeared to be a metal stanchion. Mal got stuck in the mud & after another failed attempt decided to try turning around & driving up, he did this with success. A number of other campsite residents came out to offer their support. Mal investigated the piece which had dropped down which was part of the switch for the grey water waste. Norm & I quickly got buckets of water & set about cleaning the copious amounts of mud from the MH. Once finished Norm & I looked like we had been in a mud wrestling competitionn. Norm & the other chaps went back off to their respective homes - we later learned Norm's wife had made him sit in his wet clothes all night 'cos he wasn't due for a clothes change until tomorrow.....oh the joy of travelling. Mal taped up the offending broken underside & I decided to go inside only to find the door wouldn’t open – talk about comedy of errors! Mal took a look & found it was the striker plate on the door which had come undone. I must say I am feeling a little disappointed with the quality of the MH at the moment! So no wonderful Lakeland view tonight, we are in where the chickens, geese & cockerels live – so an early cock-a-doodle-do for us tomorrow!