Apart from not putting the handbrake on tight enough and the caravan rolling with Lily inside there wasn’t too much drama. Disaster averted and so we started our next summer 2021 holiday at The Quiet Site on Ullswater.
You’ll remember form the last trip away with the girls that I was getting a bit worried about this trip and whether it would finally sicken the girls of the caravan. And a friend kindly pointed out that I’d probably have the ‘Fit Family’ on one side all kitted out for hiking, paddle boarding , you get the idea. And on the other side there’ll be the ‘Non tech family’ reading their books and having in depth conversations. As you can imagine this made me feel so confident!
I think I can pretty confidently say it was a success. Yes, there were fights and hair pulling ( I know they’re 12, I too thought they’d be over that!)
But nowhere near as bad as the last time and there were moments when I could have genuinely cried with joy at them getting on.
The site was amazing, I would highly recommend it. We’ve been on sites in the past where parties are going on till the early hours, this place was what I would call a good old, traditional family campsite. The sound of children playing till about 10pm and then it’s like someone flips a switch, turns them off and all is peaceful and quiet for the rest of the night…pure bliss.
The heat was unbelievable, try putting up an awning in 27 degree heat, but I bloody well did it! And this continued the whole week, completely unheard of in the Lake District.
We did some fab activities at Brockhole tree top trekking and with Keswick adventures and the girls really made me proud again, pushing themselves and overcoming fears.
I think the stand out moments for me was all making tea together, each with a different job and then sitting down to eat outside. Lily coming out to ask if we could play cards and on another occasion Anna coming out to ask if we could play bat and ball. This may not sound much but for me this absolutely made the holiday, we were having fun together and not in an organised trip kind of way but a pure, spontaneous fun kind of way. I thought these moments were gone forever and I’m under no illusion that this could have been a one off, but I will hold those memories dear and I hope the in the future the girls will too.
And of course a holiday couldn’t go by without any hic ups, we had such a good kajaking session with Keswick adventures. I’d booked a private session and Brian took us out to an island on Derwentwater. We had a right laugh, apart from losing my prescription sunglass, which I had on as I purposely capsized and then very shortly after I lost my waterproof camera. But do you know what, it didn’t matter, these things come and go and as Anna said, “we know what we’ve done and how much fun we’re having, we don’t need photos”
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