Caravan Site: Troutbeck Head Caravan Club Site

Area Visited: Penrith, Lake District

Date(s) visited site: 20th - 22nd March 2009

Number of Night(s) stopped on site: 2

Number of People: 4 (plus 4 visitors)

Towcar Used: 2006 Kia Sorento 2.5CRDi XE

Caravan Used: 2008 Bailey Pageant Series 6 Loire

Distance towed on holiday: 189 miles

Notes from this trip: This has been our fourth trip to Troutbeck Head Caravan Club site, we keep returning as the site is really accessible, has great views and is really well maintained. This was our first trip of the year, the van had been rolled out for the first time - it had been cleaned inside and out ready to get going. The Sorento now nearing 99,000miles is still going as strong as when new and towed the van effortlessly from our home across and over the hillside into the Lake District. We arrived on site at around 18:15 on Friday night as the sun was setting over Mount. Blencathra and we erected the awning and set up pitch in the dark. Whilst setting up i noticed an outfit that seemed rather familiar. The next morning we rose to beautiful sunshine with temperatures that seemed quite hot considering it was March!! Dad and I went for a site walk after breakfast in the awning and found out that, the familiar outfit happened to be two members from the Caravanning4u forum I post on; they were Owen & Yvonne (known as Bez65 on site). We had a good chat in what heat the sun had and then we headed for Windermere via Kirkstone Pass. As you may have seen on the main part of my website, i am doing a diary from Kirkstone Pass - it has photographs from different months to show just how much the landscape can change an evolve over time. So naturally we stopped and I got a few photographs then we headed on for the little town of Windermere. We popped into some shops we wanted to visit and got some meat for a bbq, which we intended having that night back at our caravan on site. We got back to the site early afternoon and re-stocked our water and emptied the waste water, and whilst lighting the bbq's we noticed how much the weather was actually changing. The wind got up and blew the bbq's out, we found that we had no lighter fuel or paraffin blocks so we abandoned that plan and cooked the meat on our George Foreman grill in the caravan. By this time our four guests had arrived (my brother and his fiancé & their two children). We had a good afternoon into evening, and made use of the site's games room and Play Park (for my nephew). The next morning we awoke early to again a rather pleasant morning with sunshine and temperatures that weren’t too bad, the wind did start to rise though as we had breakfast. I then noticed some condensation between the two glazes of some of the caravans windows (easily sorted with a hair drier or sunny day - as i now know). After breakfast we started to pack up, I put the towing mirrors on and did the minor jobs whilst Mam and Dad unpegged the awning. We then took the awning down together (it took us all as it was so windy!), after the awning was packed up we hitched the outfit up and made tracks back home. When we got back home i noticed some black marks up the caravan at the front, they weren’t easy to remove so after a previous situation (trip six in my diary) I decided it was diesel or soot from the exhaust. So i decided this will be looked into in the future, next trip in 2 weeks time...

Short Site Review: When we arrived at the site we drove around the site and chose our pitch, the site was very nicely laid out with most pitches having a good Lake District view. All of the pitches were well maintained and quite large; we pitched and then went for our water at one of the three very clean service points around the site. The toilet facilities were very clean and well maintained, the ladies were on the left hand side and the gents were on the right hand side with information displayed in the hallway between the two toilet sections, both toilet blocks were laid out the same. The site had a nice forest dog walk at the top of site which lead into the nearby Matterdale forest, at the end of the site dog walk very nice views can be seen from the gate. Also the Troutbeck head CC site features a very well kept game room with two pool tables, games machines and table football plus loads more information!! The wardens were friendly and helped with anything you needed; we will bare this site in mind to visit again.

Our outfit just outside the Troutbeck Caravan Club Site Office - when we arrived.

A picture with the camera sat on its tripod, whilst we set up and pegged with awning out in dusk.

Our rig picthed on pitch no.117 at Troutbeck Head Caravan Club Site.

Myself & Yvonne at the front of her & Owen's Xplore 596. (Picture taken by dad)

The stunning view of Kirkstone pass, Spring really has sprung.

A Panoramic of the corner of the site where we were pitched.

A panoramic showing the top end of the site, just above one of the dog walks.
(Owen & Yvonne's van is just along to the right of the large tree)

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