Westmorland Dales – 200 contacts and a temperature delta of 20 degrees

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Westmorland Dales

The Westmorland Dales are a largely unknown part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. they are located within the park’s north western boundaries and in between an area roughly bounded Appleby, Kirkby Stephen, the famous Howgill Fells, Tebay and Shap. We stayed on the Crake Trees Manor campsite in Crosby Ravensworth.

For what it’s worth, I favour the real county of Westmorland to Cumberland. I feel that it’s more hardy, the buildings are sturdy and strong, the stone used in buildings more appealing. It’s largely unspoilt and unaffected by tourists. However, you’re missing an amazing area of the country by concentrating your visits to the nearby Yorkshire Dales and Lake District.

No awning this time

We booked the campsite on Pitchup which said no awnings were allowed. This was a shame because once on-site we found out that awnings were allowed and it was the fault of the booking website that we were misinformed. However, the weather deemed the awning largely unnecessary as daytime temperatures rarely dipped below 22 degrees. This was a massive difference (delta) to the feels-like temperatures endured at Shell Island the week before – 4 degrees. On the Sunday and Monday those temperatures were firmly in the upper twenties, exceeding a 20 degree difference. There was a breeze throughout much of the weekend which was most welcome, though it did mean that you didn’t realise how sun burned you were getting as Ali will test to.

Saturday – a trip up Teesdale to Alston

On the Saturday, the cooler day of the four, we set our sights on completing a favourite tour of ours. Nip over to Appleby, then down to Brough and over the top of the fells to Middleton-in-Teesdale. From there we had up the gorgeous Teasdale Valley to Alston. This valley is amazing and if we saw more than half a dozen cars on it we’d be surprised – unbridled beauty. At the head of the valley are were three major northern rivers start and run down their appropriately named valleys; the Tees that runs down to Middlesborough (Teesdale), the Wear that runs down to Sunderland (Wearsdale) and the South Tyne, soon to become the Tyne and runs down to Newcastle (South Tyneside Valley). From Alston, it was back to the campsite dropping down off the Pennines and being afforded the most amazing view north up the broad Eden Valley to Carlisle and Scotland.

Whilst in Alston, the highest market town in England, we enjoyed lunch in one of our favourite, and highly recommended, eateries; Cobbles Cafe. There’s a small outdoor shop, Hi Pennine, in Alston that we always visit too – they’ve usually got some bargains and is always worth a look. This time, Ali bought a new pair of boots for light walking.

Finally it was on to the South Tynedale Railway, also based in Alston. This isn’t an out-and-out heritage railway, even though it does run heritage steam trains. Amongst its fleet are modern, even futurist when you compare it to the national rail network, battery operated locomotives. We’ve done this trip many times and only ever travelled behind the electric units, but this time I was pleased to be on a steam hauled train. The 5 mile long line Slaggyford runs down the valley created by South Tyne river and takes about thirty five minutes. At the end there is a stop for watering at the other end and a chance for a cuppa in the newly refurbished catering carriage in the sidings.

Having enjoyed a great day we travelled back down through the really picturesque small villages of the Westmorland Dales to our base camp and, after tea, got some operating done on the radio. Using the familiar set up of Xiegu G90 and monband Ampro antennas, no true DX was worked, though there was one contact into the Middle East. As with the trip to Shell Island, there is no hookup power available at this campsite, so the power source was a 200w solar panel and a hand portable 300WHr EcoFlow power station.

Ecoflow earth loops?

One thing I have noticed when powering the radio and laptop from the same EcoFlow power station is an amount of wideband interference is received – probably the result of an earth loop. I get around this by using the van’s on-board 600WHr power station to charge the laptop when required, switching the solar panel between the two to keep them both topped up.

Hot, hot, hot in Westmorland

We do have 3D printed air vents for the sliding door windows. These keep the interior supplied with fresh air during the night when all the doors are closed. On recent trips, we have used just one vent as two would have made the interior temperature too cool for comfortable sleeping. They were designed to prevent water ingress in heavy rain and do prove very effective. Unfortunately, we should have used both events on the Saturday evening as it did become a bit warm overnight.

The weather improved massively on the Sunday; blue skies and hot temperatures. In the morning I went for a walk into the village. It’s a gorgeous little location in a valley. There’s a idillic stream running through the middle, a church and a community owned pub; the Butchers Arms. Most of the buildings are typical historic Westmorland. Sadly, there is no shop in the village, but Shap is only three and a half miles away – but a bit far for a quick walk.

Back at the campsite, Ali was well into knitting a baby jacket for a friend whilst enjoying the sun – we hadn’t seen any of it to-date during May. I jumped on the radio and started working FT8 stations around the world. DX included the US, Kenya, Asiatic Russia, and Thailand.

Gorgeous campsite for us – no driving

Spending a day solely on a campsite and not going anywhere is a bit different for us – something of a novelty. But such was the combination of the location and weather, we actually thoroughly enjoyed it. Interspersed with a bit of cooking by myself, something else of a rarity, we retired around 22:00 having really got the best out of the day.

Having spent the whole day on the campsite on the Sunday, we thought Bank Holiday Monday was a day to let the marauding crowds have it to themselves. So much had we enjoyed the previous leisurely day on the campsite, we decided to repeat it on the Monday too. We were self sufficient with food and the views remained as good as ever in the even more intense heat. Having gotten sun burned the day before, Ali sought a little more shelter around the van as she continued with her baby jacket. This left me the morning to chase some more contacts on FT8.

Following lunch, I decided to go for another walk down into the village. This time, I took a detour up on to the Orton Fells, about three miles distant. The difference in vegetation from the lush valley beneath me was start. The moorland heath stretched as far as the eye could see towards Mallerstang. The view north, up the Eden Valley towards Carlise and Scotland, was awe-inspiring. To the east where the Pennines and the air traffic control atop Great Dub Fell shone out like a beacon. It was good to be back up on top of the world with amazing views in all directions – I’ve not been up aloft like this since Ali broke her ankle two years ago.

Australia calling

A fabulous walk ended up at the pub in the village for a quick half and a carry out for tea. After our meal, again cooked by the on-site former chef, it was back to the radio. The best DX was VK5PO and his seriously impressive amateur radio station in Australia. After the two hundredth contact was made it was time to retire for the night. That was two days we’d stayed on a campsite and not driven anywhere.

Nearly sat on the Westmorland cat

We arose bright and early on the Tuesday, our departure day. With nothing much to pack up we were ready to depart mid morning after a leisurely breakfast and a chat with the farmer and his wife. We’d had a few good chats with them during the weekend and they’d been really very friendly and eager to converse with their visitors. Whilst having breakfast, the farm cat made an appearance. Like the farmer and his wife, he was very social and communicative too. He hung around for a while and, having made breakfast I went to sit down on my seat and fortunately glanced at it first – I was about to sit on the cat who had made himself quite comfortable. It was a shame to have move him, but needs must I’m afraid.

The trip home was down the Lakes from Keswick to Coniston. In Keswick, a couple more stickers were obtained for the van along with a new bum-bag for Ali. Okay, I picked up a large walkers hip bag too for the rest of my exploits for the year. With a genuine Cornish Pasty secured from the Cornish Pasty shop (where else?), we headed down to Dunmail Rise and stopped to devour them looking down over Grasmere.

Air show and the Black Bull

The stop in Ambleside rewarded us with our own little airshow – who needs the Mac Loop. F35s, Eurofighters and Hawks all performed for us low over the town.

Coniston involved a short walk to the lake and Bluebird Cafe for a drink, followed by a meal outside the Black Bull Inn. I’ve never tried it before, but the FreeBird low alcohol beer wasn’t that bad.

And that was the end of our short trip north. We’d had a great time and are looking forward to our next trip.

Map & Logbook

Equipment used: Xiegu G90 with GZF-1 Desktop stand with cooling fan, DigiRig Mobile, Ampro single-band antennas, 14″ Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 Core i7 with 16GB, EcoFlow RIVER 2 power station.
Software used: HAMRS Pro logbook, WSJT-X 3.0.1 64-bit data modes software, BktTimeSync, Microsoft Windows 11.