We’ve dreamt of converting a van into a camper for years, and finally we took the plunge, and went for it. Here’s our first adventure in our DIY van conversion.
Day 1 – Whinlatter Forest, Lake District
We headed to the Lake District admiring the giant hills and mountains on the drive through. We stopped at Whinlatter Forest, managed by Forestry England, it was a brilliant placed to stop. It’s in the near west of the Lake District, close to Braithwaite, Keswick.
There were lots of walks, bike trails along with plenty of amenities including a visitor centre, a cafe, toilets, GoApe, a bike shop, and most importantly wildlife and beautiful scenery.
They had plenty of walking trails for me and springer spaniel, Indy to explore while my partner rode the bike trails. At the visitor centre, they recommended their newest trail called, the ‘Wow Trail’. Apparently it’s an abbreviation of ‘Wonders of Whinlatter’.
Despite being a beautiful sunny day the trail was empty (just how I like it). There was a set of wooden arches in the early stage of the trail, engraves with, “Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything.” – Albert Einstein.
The walk was beautiful, filled with endless trees, wildlife and scenic viewpoints. There was also a wooden hide for viewing red squirrels and an area with permanent wooden loungers for forest bathing. I’d highly recommend Whinlatter. The Wow Trail was about 4.5 miles and quite easy going.
We headed to our campsite, Near Howe. A fantastic site, they have a dedicated field for camper vans, along with all the facilities you’d need, like sink, toilet, shower, washing machines and an entire wall of games and DVDs to borrow during your stay.
The view from our pitch was stunning, you could see through the valley of lush green fields and across towering mountains including Blencathra.
We cooked fajitas out the back of the van and settled in for our first night sleeping in the van.
Day 2 – Coledale Horseshoe, Lake District
We aimed to hike the Coledale Horseshoe today. I hadn’t really comprehended what a task it was going to be. The weather report for the day wasn’t great, we were expecting some rain, so we took waterproofs and hoped for the best.
We parked the van in the Braithwaite primary school carpark, they offer parking all day for £5 in their honesty box. We packed food, water and a dog bowl for Indy, then off we went. The first part of the hike was all uphill.
We had to scale Grisdale Pike first. Going up is not my strength, but with alot of patience, we got there eventually. When we got to the peak, the clouds surrounded us, we were about 3,000ft above sea level after all, we were in the heavens. It was at that point I’d realised, maybe I’d bitten off more than I could chew.
We persevered on, navigating loose rock, boggy ground and steep pathways. We stopped by a quaint waterfall for some lunch, not a single soul around.
The next big peak we faced was Crag Hill, going up was quite straight forward, but coming down was intense. It was narrow with sheer drops either side. I’m not usually concerned by heights, but coming down Crag Hill felt sketchy. We took our time and made our way down. Thankfully we were rewarded with 360 degree spectacular views. The rest of the hike was tame in comparison.
My favourite section was a zigzagging path between Sail and Scar Crags.
By the time we got back to the van, we’d walked just under 10 miles, with an elevation gain of 3,450ft.
We headed back to Near Howe campsite, had some pasta with garlic bread from the back of the van, showered and went to bed. We were cream crackered.
Day 3 – Pitlochry and Loch Uaine, Scotland
We drove North from The Lakes to Scotland and stopped north of Perth in a pretty town called Pitlochry for a break. We’d found an independent cafe called Escape Route that fed and watered us. After a mooch around the town’s shops, we jumped back in the van heading north for Glenmore.
We arrived at Glenmore Campsite Aviemore, parked up on our pitch in the forest and put up the awning for the first time. It’s an outstanding campsite, with brilliant facilities, including two large shower, toilet, washing blocks. It’s the largest campsite we’ve ever stayed at, but it didn’t feel huge, it felt homely. It was also a stones throw away from Loch Morlich and it’s beautiful beach.
Once we were set up, we went for an evening walk to Loch Uaine from the campsite via the Ryvoan Trail.
The loch is beautiful and peaceful, we had the whole place to ourselves. The walk there was quite flat and easy, while the circular walk back took us up through the ancient pine and birch forest above. The views were remarkable and the trees had such character. You could see out across to the Cairngorm Mountain range.
Day 4 – Loch Morlich, Scotland
It was an overcast soggy day, so we walked to beach cafe on Loch Morlich for a mocha. Then explored the nearby Pine Martin shop and onto the Glenmore visitor centre. We had some lunch in the van as it was raining and when it cleared up we had a good long walk around Loch Morlich and explored some of the fire roads that linked to the walk.
Day 5 – Tarland and Burn O’Vat, Scotland
We drove east into Tarland for breakfast at Tarland Tearooms. Sadly dogs aren’t allowed in, but the lady working there made us feel so welcome, we ate outside so Indy could be with us. It was delicious!
Then I dropped my partner off at Tarland Bike Park and Indy and I went onto to Muir of Finnet National Nature Reserve to see Burn O’Vat. A huge granite cauldron formed by glaciers 20,000 years ago.
On our way back to Glenmore campsite, we stopped off at Boat of Garten for a delicious takeaway pizza at Andersons Woodfired Pizza. We scoffed the pizzas in the van parked up at Abernethy National Nature Reserve Car Park, just outside Boat of Garten and walked it off from the car park.
Day 6 – Rothiemurchus, Scotland
We ventured to Loch an Eileen, Rothiemurchus, an island castle ruin set in a beautiful loch, surrounded by untouched forest.
After leaving the loch we visited the Rothiemurchus Farm Shop back on the old logging road. The shop was full of thoughtful gifts and sustainably sourced food. We filled up on nibbles to keep us going.
We took a drive up to the Cairngorm Mountain, sadly alot of things were closed, so we took in the views over Loch Morlich for a while.
Day 7 – Faskally Wood to New Lanark, Scotland
We needed to go south of the Cairngorms to a campsite near Hadrian’s wall, so decided to stop off at two placed along the way to break up the journey. Firstly we stopped off at Faskally Wood with views over Loch Dunmore. It’s part of the Perthshire Big Tree Country, and I’ve become somewhat fascinated by trees in recent months, so this was brilliant.
We carried on our way driving south, and stopped off to visit the Falls of Clyde, a river with picturesque waterfalls south east of Glasgow. When we got there, we discovered it was right next to an UNESCO World Heritage Site called New Lanark. So we wandered through the immaculate historic buildings in awe.
Apparently it was an 18th century mill village that focused on looking after its workers and set a precedent for industries for many years to come.
We followed the path from New Lanark along the river, along a boardwalk, passed Bonnington Hydroelectric Power Station and up to view the stunning Corra Linn waterfall.
We eventually made it to our campsite for the evening next to Hadrian’s Wall, and made bacon butties for tea.
Day 8 – Hadrian’s Wall to the North Pennines
Our campsite host had informed us there was a very famous and beautiful sycamore tree that featured in the film Robin Hood: Prince of theives, and that if wanted to see it before anyone else, that we’d better get up early. So we got to the carpark just a few minute drive from the campsite at around 8am, and were the only people in there.
We hiked along Hadrian’s wall to Sycamore Gap, and it was stunning. We were the only people there and the sun was already beating down. As we started making our way back to the carpark we were met by an avalanche of walkers.
It was time for breakfast, so we stopped at The Sill, Northumberland. They had a fantastic cafe, carefully put together shop and insightful exhibition too.
After breakfast we got back on the road, as we needed to make our way south, back to Shropshire. So we dropped through into the North Pennines AONB and decided to break the journey up at Moor House Upper Teesdale National Nature Reserve.
We walked from Cow Green car park along the Widdybank Fell to a large dam and saw Cauldron Snout. It was a great stop off on a hot sunny day. We saw wildlife and panoramic views of the pennines.
Final thoughts
All in all, we had a great time exploring in our campervan. For me, my highlights of the trip were climbing Grisdale Pike, I just didn’t think I was going to get there, but we made it. I loved the camping element and exploring new campsites and also seeing all the incredible ancient trees.
Thank you for reading,
Ashley