Summer, well the British summer started and with it our camping season. This was our second camping trip this summer and we were so looking forward to it. We picked the Baysbrown Farm campsite as we’d been there before, a couple of years ago and remembered the site being nice with great walks around it.
It was just the same: a nice laid back campsite, surrounded by mountains (so no phone signal lol), a river running through it and really great walks directly from the site.
View of the site from the farmhouse:
We invested in some good walking maps before this trip too, the Ordnance Survey ones, so we were well prepared.
We got to the site about 11-ish in the morning. The journey there was a bit stressful as Harley still hasn’t settled in our new van, he kept whining and generally stressing in the back. We actually missed a turn cause he was disturbing the driver, hubby, we ended up in a one way system in the middle of Ambleside…arghh never mind. We made it there.
We parked up, the field was not busy at all and once Harley was out of the van he ran around it a few times like a lunatic, happy to be free and in the fresh air 🙂
We settled, then made the compulsory bacon butty :), then set of on a walk. We walked towards the farm house, then followed the footpath sign just before the shower block. Once out of the site we turned left and walked down that path. If you keep straight on (there are some paths on the left to Little Langdale and on the right to Great Langdale) this path takes you to the Britannia Pub, see below.
Britannia Pub behind a wonderful old tree
Nice sitting area outside, great if the weather is good!
We didn’t stop for a drink at this point as we had only been walking for 15 minutes 🙂
We followed the footpath by the river (part of the Cumbria Way), which is so lovely.
There are a couple of beaches where Harley went swimming, or tried to, he didn’t quite swim!
Harley checking the territory…
Hubby trying to fool him into the water…
Ok, am going in….
Too cold, am coming out!
You can carry on on this walk for quite a bit, we only went up to the bridge, then turned around.
By this time we had been walking for a couple of hours. So we turned around and went to the pub for a well deserved pint. We love trying local ales when we are in the countryside, some of them are nicer than others! This time we tried the Britannia Gold, brewed by Eden Brewery especially for Britannia Pub, as per the label by the bar! It was delicious, really nice and refreshing, not too bitter! Perfect with some pork scratching lol
All of a sudden, after one pint, we all felt a bit tired, so we went back to the campsite and had a nice snooze in the van. Well, I had a snooze, hubby tried but ended up reading and Harley decided to keep an eye on all the walkers passing by!
Then about 6pm went back to the pub and had a nice meal there and of course another pint of Britannia Gold.
One thing good to know about this pub is that they let dogs in, in the bar. However we tried to grab a table in the bar area but it is so small, they really only have 3 or 4 tables. We were lucky with the weather, it was warm-ish enough and of course still light so we could eat outside.
Then we went back the campsite a different way than the one we came. It’s a bit quicker. From the pub, go over the bridge and on the right there is a road with a dead end sign. Take that one and stick to the foothpath, especially when you come to the sign on the road that says “no pedestrians allowed” here take the foothpath on the right, well right-ish, it’s not really a turn. If you follow this path, it takes you to the narrow path at the entrance of the campsite.
After a bit of reading, music listening and Harley cuddling, we had a good night sleep and woke up to a very cloudy Sunday morning.
Very cloudy! And rainy! Well I have to admit, it wasn’t pouring down, we’ve experienced that in the Lakes before, but still. Was cold and miserable. And to top that, the milk went off (cause I never checked the expiry date when I bought it!) and the morning coffee and cup of tea were not very good!
This said, we had some breakfast, then Harley had a good ran around with Nelly – another border terrier we met on site. She was 9 months old and think she fell in love with Harley. Well, not difficult, he is so handsome 🙂
Then we decided to ignore the weather and go for a walk. We went out of the campsite again, same footpath at the top, but this time we turn right. Through the woods and hills, followed the path to the New Dungeon Ghyll – or Old as someone scribbled on the same sign! We still don’t know where the Old one is! We came out by the road, and here you have a choice- you can either walk to the Dungeon Ghyll on the road or on another path that runs parallel with the road. We took the footpath but it was very stony and we ended up carrying Harley for a bit as he would not move/step onto the sharp stones anymore. Wimp!
Anyway we finally got there and we decided we needed another breakfast at the Stickelbarn Tavern. Sausauge butty for hubby (and Harley!) and baked scone with jam for me. Yummy!
On our way back to the site we had a good run around in the field with Harley, mainly to make sure he gets tired enough to sleep on the way home, instead of whining and stressing! It didn’t work!
Harley loves running in high grass, he thinks he is a kangaroo!
Then we made our way back to the campsite and after packing all up, we left about lunchtime and headed home.
We really enjoyed this camping trip and will definitely go back to this campsite again.
