Bongo Fury

Apologies, this was posted by new member evebennett and I replied, then deleted my reply as it didn't register as a new reply, but it deleted the whole thread

"Having lived in Oz for the last 40 years, we're now having to do some research planning our UK trip in our newly ordered Bongo this year . After visiting friends in Shropshire, the plan is to spend about 3 and half wks doing the Lake District and part of Scotland. This should be roughly mid to late June until mid to late July (hopefully mid season out of school hols). We're considering joining C&CC. We'd prefer not to prebook and have a bit of flexibility - any advice/info on campsites, booking in advance etc would be much appreciated. In the LD would we be better off basing ourselves in one place or maybe two or is it a good idea to move from place to place daily?? We'd like to see as much as poss and do some short walks."

Welcome to Bongo-land

Here’s a bit of research I did for someone else with some pointers for where to stay in the Lakes, best I reckon is Hill of Oaks Lodge & Caravan Park which is on the east side of Windermere about halfway between Newby Bridge and Bowness-on-Windermere. A relaxed site with all hardstanding pitches, piers onto the water and a beach where you can have a Barbie. We’ve been there in May the last three years, some photos in the links below to show you what to expect....

Hill of Oaks 2009

Hill of Oaks 2010

Hill of Oaks 2011

In February we went to Sykeside Camping Park which has a pub & restaurant on site, it’s to the north of the Kirkstone Pass in Patterdale and near to Brothers Water. We arranged this months in advance with the specific purpose of having snow, alas there was none but we went back a week later and it was whiteout!!

Sykeside version 1

Sykeside version 2

There’s some great sights by the side of Wast Water & Scafell Pike where there is a campsite but we didn’t try it. Definitely best views of Scafell Pike from there although you can get good views from the Hardknott Roman Fort as well, halfway across the Hardknott Pass.

First camping trip we did in the Bongo was at The Quiet Site by Ullswater, this also has a pub onsite. We used it as a base to try out our transmission under warranty on the Wrynose and Hardknott passes


The Quiet Site





A nice NT site is Low Wray campsite on the NW of Windermere but they are really only equipped for tents but they will take campervans except you have to park in a bit of a layby. There is a cracking beach on the side of the lake which you can’t camp at, but we moved there in the very early morning (while Hannah was still asleep in the roof) to get some pics!!


Low Wray campsite





While you’re in the Lakes you should go to the only ‘lake’ in the Lake District....


Bassenthwaite Lake

And in Ambleside you should go to the famous Bridge House which most people drive straight past without noticing....


As far as Scotland is concerned, take a look at these threads from our last three years adventures....

Scotland 2009

Scotland 2010

Scotland 2011

Have fun and post some pics up from wherever you end up

Many thanks for all your suggestions and replying so quickly - certainly some food for thought there and the photos are lovely. Due to commitments that we'll have when we first arrive back in UK, we won't be able to book campsites until very close to arrival - will this be too risky in late June? Do you know how essential it is to book at all? I've heard the lake District gets very busy in the summer.

If you're going before mid-July then I would have thought you'd be ok at most sites, there are a lot of campsites in the Lakes. Weekends might be a bit of a push but I would recommend getting the details for lots of sites in advance, then you can ring forward to check rather than wasting hours circling aimlessly around looking for a site with space.

It also depends what kind of site you're looking for and whether you're planning to be there several days or just move on after one night.

When you get to Scotland, if you're self-contained there's plenty of places to camp for free

One thing I would add about C&CS and we have stayed at a few. They are excellent sites with very friendly helpful owners/workers. I find that members book them up very early on in the year or the year before and if the wind changes often cancel last minute. This is a good thing for us as we may decide on a Friday where we wish to go Saturday. I would suggest it would take some forward planning if you plan on doing a few weeks tour.

My thoughts
Jo

We have only twice not found a camping site at short notice, and ended up using somewhere else but it is certainly getting busier! Its well worth joining the Wild camp forum and loading the POI's into your GPS see http://www.wildcamping.co.uk/ its not free to download the POI's but they are updated and its quite surprising the number around. Last year we tended to note good looking ones during our travels each day and then head back in a circle towards the best ones if we hadn't got anywhere planned before hand.