For the two nights of the Lakes Explorer we camped in pretty spartan campsites.
We arrived in Haverigg, south west Lakes after dark on Friday night, so pitching our manual roof tent for the first time was challenging, especially with our fellow off roaders watching on.
We were a group of 12 with some cheats staying in hotels nearby and others with pimped up glossy black vehicles like a Putin security detail with light bars like a football stadium front and back had roof tents which rose up at the touch of a button.
Paul who leads One Life Adventure gave us a hand with the roof tent and advice, including to undo straps before trying to unfold it, and as we hadn’t parked on flat ground, not to sleep with our heads sloping downwards or we’d wake up with a cracking headache.
Once up the roof tent was cosy and comfortable with a built in mattress and plenty of straps across to hang our lights. It was a really gusty night and the tent flapped and zip heads clanked together, so didn’t get too much sleep. Paul advised cutting off zip heads & replacing with cord ties, though he warned there are surprisingly many zips.
Saturday morning, after a quick shower in the toilet block and a briefing from Paul we were lent a CB radio (our fellow off roaders all had them) and set off for an exciting day driving through unsuitable tracks.
We stopped for lunch and a chance to use the Swiss Army to chop chorizo from the back of the van. Just as I was saying what a great sharp knife we had I took a large chunk out of my thumb. Blood on the tracks. Learnt that uncut thumbs are pretty useful when you’re driving & camping.
We drove on through ridiculously steep, narrow and loose boulder-ridden tracks. One of Paul’s many pieces of advice was, to use the American term “put the rubber to the rock”, counter intuitively to drive with your tyres up over boulders. He also told us that the terrain in the Lake District tracks is far more ‘technical’ than what we’d find on African roads.
We got to campsite #2 near Keswick at 5pm, so got to set up the roof tent in the light and had a much better night’s sleep without the clanking zip chorus. In the morning we rose refreshed ready for another day of pitching & rolling over boulders to find that we’d left the drivers seat window open all night. We had a lot to learn, but that was what this trial trip was all about.
Key lessons learnt:
- Pitch your roof tent on flat ground
- Zips can keep you up all night
- Don’t mistake your thumb for a chorizo
- Put your rubber to the rock
- Don’t leave your window open on a rainy night in Keswick
Due South 