Newbiggin Farm Certificated Site, Waberthwaite, Cumbria

We'd wanted to visit Newbiggin Farm Certificated Site ever since they subscribed to AvailablePitch.com a couple of years ago, but time, other commitments and perceptions of how busy the Lake District can be, prevented this until Easter 2010.

Easter 2009 saw many campers cancelling sites at the last minute as snow and bad weather took hold. Now, we ALWAYS pre-book our desired sites well in advance for all Bank Holidays, as we know from running AvailablePitch.com, that sites, particularly the special or popular ones, get booked up months in advance. And if you want to get on a Caravan Club main site for these dates, you either book when online/telephone bookings open in January, or forget it.

Our criteria for the first camping trip of the year: A Certificated Location or a Certificated Site with hard stand (to stop our motorhome sinking to its axles), with hook-up (Easter can be VERY cold) and preferably loo and shower facilities. We also wanted go go somewhere we'd not been before. Newbiggin Farm fitted the criteria, and because we booked early with Colin Walker, we and our friends were in.

CLs and CSs take a maximum of 5 units (CS's can also accept tents), so you are never over-crowded or find yourself on a noisy site during a peak period, and this is a huge benefit at busy times of the year.

The forecast for Easter weekend was not good, indeed Colin told us he'd already had some cancellations as people feared 3 days of wind and rain. In the event, we had a mixture of weather, but not exactly as the weatherman had predicted.

The approach lane to Newbiggin Farm is a little narrow, and care is needed through the hamlet, however, as hardly any traffic uses this road, it is not a problem. We nearly pulled onto the rally field in error, because we spotted another motorhome already pitched up and lemming like, we followed. Just in time, Bill appeared from no-where on his pushbike and guided us the short way on to the camping area, on the left hand side.

Colin, his wife, father Bill and adorable sheepdog Bess run this working dairy farm. A few farmyard smells are to be expected, however the views from all pitches and the welcome from the incredibly friendly and genuine Walker family more than compensate. Warning: Don't stay on a farm campsite if you don't like "country type" smells...........

The camping field is about an acre, very slightly sloping, with the hard-stand area at the bottom of the site. As Colin observed after a night of heavy rain, maybe they'd have been better placing it slightly higher up! Never mind, it worked for us and our axles remained firmly above ground.

More about this lovely Certificated Site in the next blog ........

Image above: Uninterrupted views from Newbiggin Farm Certificated Site, April 2010.

Copyright AvailablePitch.com 2010

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………