October 10 – 13 from Scotland to Wales

With great memories of touring Scotland and Ireland in a campervan in 2018 still semi-fresh in our minds, our plans for this trip in the UK were to follow suit and meander through Wales and Cornwall.  It turned out to be vastly different to that rather idyllic 2018 trip for a whole range of reasons - roads, a crummy van, too many people in most places, few places to park  – so I will spare you those grizzling details and tell you about the highlights. 

The Alauna Aura depicts a little of the history & development of Maryport

Maryport

Lakes District - a few shots taken from the moving van 

I was keen to see the Lakes District which we reached via the delightful little port of Maryport. Maryport was largely uninhabited until the arrival of the Romans around 70 AD and the town was later established ~122AD as a command and supply base for defending the western extremity of Hadrian’s wall. Then it was on to the Lakes District - it was very disappointing.  What we saw was lovely but I thought it would be relatively quiet - it was off-season right? Hah! The villages were wall-to-wall people and the traffic almost bumper to bumper - but we weren't there to see or wander the villages, cute as they may have been (from a moving vehicle). Maybe an exaggeration but the traffic made it difficult to find a spot to enjoy the scenery - that's if you could find a place to pull off the road.  The visit was capped off by not being able to park the van anywhere overnight. It was either in a 'cow paddock' or a layby. All the caravan parks in the district were onsite only. 

Being us, we were very anxious to escape tourist-ville milieu so I searched my maps and found a spot which looked remote - the Isle of Walney, a wee island off the west coast of England in the Irish Sea at the southern tip of the Furness Peninsula (Cumbria). We were away from it all in a sense! A delightful place with a caravan park where we spent a few lazy days soaking up the tranquillity, space and the views - and they had a bar and restaurant on site! And just 1km or so down the road was the South Walney Nature Reserve where we spent many hours exploring of course.   

Away from it all on the Isle of Walney 

Isle of Walney - red arrow us, black arrow Piel Island

There were Grey Seal pups just hatched on the beach so we kept well away but we walked over dunes and around wee lagoons, popping into bird hides. All along the way were flowers and berries, ferns and bushes. My directions might be a bit off but to the west, 14km out in the Irish Sea, we could see a huge wind farm (~90 turbines) and further out a couple of gas rigs (but thankfully they were lost in the sea mist). 

Further along this beach was the nursery for the seal pups - we kept well away

Taking a side loop to check out a bird hide

There were few track markers so we just walked and hoped for the best

At last, a blue post

The blue post signified that we were on the blue loop through the reserve (there were 3 loops of varying length) - at times we had no idea where we were as there were no paths and the posts were few and far between. Not to worry, it was a true breath of fresh air.

I ate my fill of blackberries

And to the east is Piel Island, a tiny speck of land, home to Piel ‘Castle’ built by the monks of Furness Abbey in C14 but the history dates back much earlier. The tiny island is not accessible by land (except on foot at extreme low tide) but we got as close as we could via a man-made spit to tiny Rao Island. And then? .... that was it. During ‘the season’ and at odd times, they run a ferry across because 10 people live there - plus there’s a pub so people visit! 

Piel Castle across the tidal flats - great setting for a movie!

Piel Island viewed from Rao Island on a very wet day! The torrents came moments after this pic

Piel Island at first light on our last day on Walney Island - I went to pick blackberries for breakfast

We were a little reluctant to leave our Walney hideaway but we wanted to reach Wales so off we went looping back north then east then south to Lancashire and then further southwards.

Sadly heading off the island