The previous post was just a basic overview of our trip to The Lake District.  It is not easy to cram 10 days in one post and I really didn’t want to drag it out.  Bob was born in The Lake District and then his family moved six months later, so it is a place he has always wanted to visit.  Besides, The Lake District is beautiful. If you want to know more about The Lake District, click on the link.

We were both very excited to go away as it had been over two years since we had travelled in the van with the dogs.  We thought that if we went away in the middle of September, when the kids were back at school, that things would be more quiet.  I think that everyone else must have thought the same as the place was quite busy.  We also thought it might be easier to just rock up to a campsite, but that was a challenge also.  Some sites work on a first come, first served basis.  We tried to find secluded spots off road, but that was rather difficult.  Many of the roads in The Lake District are quite narrow.  The satnav liked sending us down those.  Fortunately the van was able to navigate them.  Bob ordered a new satnav while we were away where you can program the size of your vehicle to avoid going down roads you shouldn’t.  

There were a lot of issues with the lack of phone signal.  There are lots of hills in The Lakes and that does have an effect on coverage.  We were able to get internet signals at pubs and in towns.  The lack of signal made it a challenge trying to book campsites online or to even call.  It is just something that one just needs to accept and deal with.

There are a few things we realised on this trip that made it different from previous holidays which will have an impact on how we holiday with the dogs in the future.  Firstly, the time of year.  We normally travel at the end of May/beginning of June.  We have done this because the children are still in school, it is low season, and the weather is generally warm in France and Spain.  Prices for a pitch with electricity can start at  €15 euros.  Sometimes you don’t have to pay extra for dogs.  We tend to go with ACSI sites or municipal sites which can cost even less.  It is easier to wild camp or stay overnight in an Aire abroad.  It is also easier to just rock up at a campsite this time of year as it is low season and they are not busy. 

We have modified the van to a point where we can be self sufficient off road if need be.  However, we have not travelled in September with the dogs before.  The biggest issue we had was the lack of space.  We never thought we lacked space before, but when two adults and two dogs are in an average campervan, space is an issue.  Then it came to me.  As we had always travelled in warm weather, we lived outside until it was time to go to bed.  We only went into the van to sleep.  We had the same indoor space, but we utilised the outdoors more.  We also had more daylight.  This meant that the solar panel was charging the leisure battery more efficiently.  We also camped only on campsites.  On this trip we spent a lot of time in the van with the dogs, more than we were used to and more than we otherwise would have had the weather been nicer.  The weather was unpredictable with nice days here and there in-between the rain. The lack of sunlight meant that the leisure battery wasn’t charging up efficiently and so we were limited in using the lights or any other appliances unless we were connected to the mains, but we only had that the first two nights away.  We also had to cook most of our meals indoors, with everyone inside.  You always had to be careful where you stepped, otherwise you could step on a tail or something else.  This could be frustrating at times.  The dogs were actually as good as gold.  So anything they did or didn’t do wasn’t their fault.  The dogs are not great during the drives and get a bit stressed, but once we get to where we need to go, they are pretty happy as they like an adventure as much as we do. They also love being on a campsite as there is usually somewhere they can play.  As much as Bob wanted to try wild camping, there really wasn’t any of that where we were.  I do not consider parking in a car park as wild camping. 

Lets talk about wees and poos.  It is what most people ask about and is something we all do.  We always used to take the porta loo with us.  It either sat in the awning tent when we took that or on the floor in the van the last time we went abroad with the dogs.  We were going to change that up this time to give the dogs more floor space after watching a couple on YouTube.  They used wide mouth bottles and a bivvy loo.  I never quite got the hang of peeing in the bottle even though I managed it the first time, so I either went outdoors or in public places.   We only used the bivvy loo once. Bob was fine with the bottle as he had the equipment for it. Bob got me a Shewee when we popped into Ambleside, but I never used it.  The instructions suggest you try it in the shower to get used to it and I really didn’t have a chance to practice as you are meant to use it standing up and I wasn’t about to do that when I was desperate to go.  The downside to using the bottle and bivvy loo is that you need to hang onto it until you can find somewhere to dispose of it so you can use them again.  I have since looked online and there seems to be a few alternatives that I will look into, and although not entirely environmentally friendly, it would mean that we (I) could use the bivvy loo for #1 and #2 and just dispose of it in a bin.  In the meantime, I will need to practice with the Shewee at home.  In fact, I actually prefer being on a campsite and using a real toilet or the portaloo for the van but I can just as easily pull my pants down and go on some grass as long as no one is looking.  I use panty liners so don’t need to worry about paper.  This may be too much information, but ladies especially need to be considerate of the environment as paper does not biodegrade quickly.  So if you need to use paper, take it away with you.  I always have nappy sacks or poo bags because of the dogs so that isn’t an issue for me.  Being of a certain age, I do like some comfort and I really don’t want to be thinking too much of how and when to dispose of my body waste when I should be enjoying myself.  One of the reasons we changed our toileting regime was to give the dogs more floor space. This didn’t seem to be an issue before as the dogs managed to find a space to sleep around our porta loo, but we also had more stuff than usual because we swapped out bike gear for hiking gear.  If my dogs weren’t so silly, they could have used the space under the bed to sleep when it was pulled out, but they never did that. So we will most likely be taking our porta loo with us again unless I find a satisfactory alternative. 

To me, wild camping is having a great view and pretty much the place to yourself.  I also didn’t think that the car park camping was great for the dogs either.  It certainly wasn’t conducive to me wanting to try out the shower.  I was content with using baby wipes and then showering when on a campsite.   So, as far as I am concerned, wild camping wasn’t a wild success.

After about a week of everything being unpredictable, I was ready to go home, but Bob really wanted to stay longer.  I wasn’t unhappy, but I did expect more from this trip that we weren’t getting.  I certainly wasn’t going to stay away for the two weeks we originally intended.  When we had our aha moment about the differences we had experienced from camping in the summer and then in autumn, we realised that it was time to go and that should we camp with the dogs outside of the longer days and warm weather, it would only be for a weekend as it wouldn’t be fair to everyone otherwise.  The weather in the UK is so unpredictable and is why many go abroad.  The friends we met up with in Burford have gone to Dorset for 10 days and have had the most awful weather.  Unfortunately they just can’t leave as they booked and paid for their pitch with their caravan.  This is why we generally don’t book things in advance.  If we don’t like somewhere, or the weather gets too bad, we can just leave.  That is just what we did the day after we climbed half way up Scafell Pike.  Bob always looks at the weather app and things weren’t going to improve, so it was time to go home.

Every trip we take we learn something. The last three trips have been eye openers and not so great for me.  They weren’t horrible, but they could have been better.  As the dogs come with us, our holidays are pretty much a dog’s holiday and must remain so.  No cities or towns to explore as we can’t go into anything, no paragliding for Bob as I don’t want to be left alone on dog duty all day, no museums or special interest trips as this means someone misses out and ends up on dog duty – just lots of walking, cycling or swimming.  We are still active so we are happy to do this while we can, and the dogs won’t be with us forever, but until then we are limited.  We don’t know if we will ever get to take the dogs back to France again.  Only time will tell.  In the meantime, we will just have to be more thoughtful about where we travel to next and what we are going to do.  We are actually going to have to make a plan and maybe even an itinerary.  Whether we stick to it or not will be another story!  Until then!