Autumnal October.

Ben Venue.

Picked Diane up from work on the Sunday afternoon and sped off to The Trossachs, stopping at Cobeland camping in the forest site for two nights. The site was almost empty during the time we were there, a pity as the area was very pretty with the autumn colours and mists. I spent the day climbing Ben Venue, It started out as what looked like the prettiest of walks, but due to forestry work it turned into a mucky muddy dangerous mess, detours adding a couple of extra miles and hours on to a very tedious walk. I finally got to the top of Ben Venue, in cloud so no view. Had to resort to a back up plan, came off the mountain via Bealach nam Bo where Liam Neesam used to run his rustled cattle, sorry that should read Rod Roy, that was the best move to make, took about 4 1/2 hours up and 2 hours down.

Rested my legs on the journey down to the Lake District for two night there, turned up at the Caravan Club site only to find I hadnt booked, it was at the Caravan and Camping Club site just down at Troutbeck Head where we were to be. This turned out great, a little closer to the fells and other walks, I didnt need to move the van which is always a bonus. I think I prefer this site to the other, we have been to both, and I'm sure we will go back, when we cant get into the Keswick site.

The following day I climbed Blencathera,  a better day out even if the cloud was low again giving nothing much in the way of views. I had been hoping to go up via Sharp edge but I couldn't find my way on, not had much luck in the scrambling side of things, after a look around, visibility about 25 yards, I gave up and took the easy path to the top, but all in all not a bad day.

Van at Troutbeck head, background Blencathra.

Again after a couple of nights we left to see the kids on Teesside. We took the young ones to Whitewater campsite on the river Tees, just for the night, which they seemed to enjoy, especially watching Despicable Me. I took a walk over Carlton Bank, easy going and a nice wind down from the other walks.
The van performed well no trouble from it, feel a little more confident about it. The arial worked well and we thought a bit more about doing up the inside, what we might do here and there. I did give it new wheel trims before this trip.