Why I love Keswick and a failed weekend in the van…

Views from the Blencathra Centre, home of Mountain Heritage Trust

My research means that I have been up to Keswick to visit the Mountain Heritage Trust archive on a few occasions. I have stayed in YHA Keswick twice and the opportunity to get to know Keswick a little bit. I would highly recommend YHA Keswick as a place to stay. The ground level was flooded a few years ago, so it has been completely revamped. Not only does it have a nice communal kitchen, but a well-stocked bar and I hear that the pizza is pretty good too. You would have found me there this week aggressively tapping away at my laptop, trying to meet my deadline for Friday (which I did meet). Another great thing is that if you get a room facing out to the River - you can watch all the cute dogs in the park.

Views from YHA Keswick loo

Keswick is situated on the north end of Derwentwater, a beautiful Lake. On Friday morning I was determined to get some sunlight so I set my alarm early and walked over to the lake shore before a day at the archive.

Keswick as a town has lots going on, especially during tourist season, but I have been smart (or is it anti-social?) and stayed off season when the tourists are sensibly at home in the warm, not walking up great hills in the winter weather. As well as having a dreamy range of outdoor and climbing shops, Keswick has some lovely cafes and restaurants. There are two great places that I have tried and would like to recommend, Merienda and Fellpack.

I had an amazing brunch at Merienda, a bright, busy, cosy little café. I enjoyed a second coffee and time to read my book (Gwen Moffat, 'Space Below my Feet', 10/10 would recommend).  

                                                

Fellpack is open in the evenings on weekdays and for brunch at the weekends. The downstairs sort of bar area is really cosy and the staff are super friendly, I was by myself and had some great chats with them. The upstairs area is more of a traditional restaurant set up but still full of character. I had a plate of nachos that can only really be described as mega. I didn’t manage to finish it. I will definitely be back though because the menu makes you want to order everything all at once.

Fellpack 

Keswick is a great place to set up base camp for adventures out in the Lakes. This weekend, Ant and I decided that we would attempt our first winter stay in the van. We were fully aware that January probably won’t have the best camping weather, but when you’re in a van, you’re much cosier than in a tent. However, the weather was bad. We booked a campsite in Buttermere because that was one of the only ones open (because January). There are two ways of driving to Keswick, we did both of them. Because I was already in the Lakes, Ant headed over in the car after work on Friday evening and I from Keswick after my huge plate of nachos. One road is higher up, one is lower down. On the way there I went along the higher up road and wow, it was high and as a result the wind was very strong and the rain very heavy. It was fine, I have faith in my driving skills but not at all easy driving in those conditions. On arriving at the campsite (which was obviously empty because nobody camps in January) – I struggled to locate the toilet block but there were public toilets just down the road that you had to pay for so not a big deal. I spent a good half an hour sat in the van, in the dark, waiting to see car headlights. Voila! Ant arrived amidst the gale force winds and ridiculous downpour. We shut ourselves in for the night, which was cosy goals I have to say.

In the night we kept getting woken up by what felt like a higher force trying to topple the van over, the wind was absolutely battering us, but we were warm so that was fine. In the morning, the weather had not improved, there was no chance of doing a walk without getting soaked to the skin and the campsite facilities block was locked (and no staff around – because nobody camps in January -who would be that silly?). Never mind, we ventured back to Keswick along the lower, equally steep and somewhat treacherous road, had some cake and accepted that we would have to return home. Annoyingly, I had already paid for the campsite in advance but via email the owner has kindly said that we can return at another date and our payment can roll over. Moral of the story? Don’t be too organised when you’re trying to be adventurer van lifers. We could have just winged it, parked up and camped somewhere (for free) but I was trying to be too clever booking a campsite and it backfired. If you are off on an adventure, make it a proper adventure!

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