Caravan Site: Meathop Fell Caravan Club Site

Area Visited: Grange Over Sands, Lake District

Date(s) visited site: 17th - 19th October 2008

Number of Night(s) stopped on site: 2

Number of people: 4

Towcar Used: 2006 Kia Sorento 2.5 CRDi XE Manual

Caravan Used: 2008 Bailey Pageant Series 6 Loire

Distance towed on holiday: 212 miles

Notes from this trip: We decided to take our bicycles away with us again, but this time was slightly different in a few ways; firstly we were carrying four bikes this time instead of the three that we carried last time, we were using a towing height extension bar from MaxxRaxx which raised the bikes another 300mm (30cm) to give more clearance between the bikes & the caravan and I had my new Ventura Mammoth Alloy frame bike with me instead of my old heavy steel framed one. The morning we were due to go we went and had the Sorento fitted with some new Goodyear Wrangler All Weather tyres and the car was washed before hitching up. We arrived at the site with enough time to set up before the dark set in. Dad and I went out for a ride on our bikes as the dusk set in, we went up to the nearby hotel via the dog walk from the site and back, the weather was quite odd so we just got back to the caravan and put the bikes in the awning as it started to rain. We had an early night’s sleep as we were very tired and the rain did wake us up at times because it got particularly heavy. The next morning we woke up and it was still lashing down with rain on the caravan and the whole site was embedded in leaves off the autumn trees. We didn’t let the rain bother us though, so we had some breakfast and went out to get some paper for Christmas cards at the Paper Mills Factory in Kendal. Then we headed up to Bowness on Windermere to visit yes, the very one Helens chocolate shop and Love the Lakes run by the same people who run this site that we follow; http://www.stridingedge.net/ . We then had a walk around Bowness and noticed how full the lake was as one of the Jetties was completely submerged and closed to the public, all of the trees on the other side of the lake were lovely shades of colours but it was too wet to take any good pictures!! On the way out of bowness we had lunch in a nice restaurant called Sutherlands and then went to the Lakeland shop for a look around and to purchase something that my Gran wanted. We then headed up to Kirkstone pass for a photograph of the landscape to see how it was changing with the autumnal colours and then headed back to our caravan site. We were on the A591 just outside of the entry road to the campsite when we heard an awful noise and the car started to steer to one side, so we pulled over on the entry road to the campsite and realised that one of our new expensive Goodyear tyres had a major puncture!! So with only having the car since the end of July we had no idea how to get the spare wheel down from under the car, so we looked in the book and found out just as a lovely Scottish couple stopped to help. They were also staying on the same caravan site as us and helped up get the new wheel/tyre on the car and get on our way. We returned to the site in the deep darkness so we stayed in the caravan and had some tea. The next morning we went into Kendal to try and see if the tyre was repairable as we didn’t like the idea of travelling home without a spare, we visited two tyre places and both were extremely busy but said the tyre was repairable. So we returned to the caravan site and packed up without getting it fixed as we didn’t have time to wait. We arrived home safely and the next day we had the tyre repaired and back on the car. On the journey to the Meathop Fell CC site the Sorento cloked its 95,000th mile!!

Short Site Review: We arrived on site and the warden highlighted on the site map which pitches were free and would be suitable for our size caravan with it being nearly 27ft long!! We chose pitch 80 in a small Culdi-sack all of the pitches were of a good size, the site was well maintained and the colour of some of the trees was breathtaking with it being autumn. Pitches 20 - 25 were more suited for smaller caravans as they weren’t very long, and the same with pitches 99 - 104. The wardens were friendly and helped with anything you need and the site toilet blocks near the reception were well maintained and heated very nicely. The Information hut on site had plenty of information about things to do and places to visit in the area and it had two public phones in too. The site had a nice dog walk that lead to a Static caravan park or a hotel that has a public bar in it. Despite other reviews we read before visiting the site, the entry road is not narrow and could probably fit two caravans side by side although the roads surface is a little bumpy. Our tip would be approach slowly and make sure you get the right hand turn off the main entry road because if you don’t then you will come to a farm instead (we only know off driving solo to explore the next day). All in all a very nice site, with some pitches having nice views of the Grange estuary, we would certainly consider visiting the site again.

Our Outfit in our estate.

Our outfit outside the reception at Meathop Fell Caravan Club Site.

Our MaxxRaxx tow bar mounted bike rack, carrying four bikes.

My new Ventura Mammoth alloy frame bike.

Autumnal view of Kirkstone pass, note the caravan coming up!!

Our flat Goodyear Wrangler tyre, on the campsites entry road.

Our rig pitched on pitch No.80 at Meathop Fell Caravan Club site.

Our very dirty water hog off collecting some water the night before!!

Some autumnal trees at the bottom of the site, oposite the play area.

All Photographs are Copyrighted to Matthew James Watson.
Copying and taking photographs is prohibited and is illegal under the copyright law.