Island Hopping - The First Leg - Derbyshire to Ardrossan

The AA route planner advised that our original plan of driving from Derbyshire to the Kintyre Peninsula would take 8.22 hours (based on a car) – a distance of 413 miles – flamin’ heck – we’d be exhausted. Plan B – Island Hopping had us driving to Ardrossan at 5.39 hrs, 315 miles – still a long haul in a motorhome, so an overnight stay was advisable. We broke our journey at Ashes Exclusively Adult Caravan Park, south of Kendal in the Lake District, so we could take in some of this beautiful area. This site is ideal for stopping off, as it's only 3 miles from the M6 motorway.

Ashes used to be a CL, then a few years ago gained permission to become a 25 van site. Run extremely professionally by Alison and Ian Mason, the site is set in lovely countryside about 3 miles from Kendal. With country views from all pitches, this was a very quiet and peaceful site, despite being full. The pretty, small, but very adequate, heated stone-built toilet and shower block is luxurious – hotel standard in fact, and there are two separate unisex toilets with washbasin, which are equipped for the less abled.

Walking or cycling into Kendal isn’t really an option from the site, unless you are super-fit, and taking our motorhome in to the town wasn’t something we wanted to do on a Saturday, so we got a taxi both ways, at a cost of £10 per journey. Kendal was delightful on the weekend we were there as there was a Street Art Festival, with all sorts of performers doing weird and funny activities. Did anyone else see the bloke in the window of Toni and Guys with a huge blob of shaving foam in a strategic place (which wasn’t his face) or the Black and White Men on the minute tandem? It was a great start to the holiday.

Back at Ashes, there are several walks from the site, and Alison has folders of information on the area which can be borrowed for the duration of your stay. This is also a site where you can just sit and enjoy the views and the fabulous English sunshine(!). We could have stayed on longer, but Scotland was calling, and our ferry was departing soon………