California Club Meet Eskdale Meet April 2016

[motacyclist]

A great weekend and many thanks to Peter T4WFA for planning, organising and making sure everything went smoothly. Also thanks to everyone for their company, it was really friendly and great to put faces to the forum names! And we met lots of dogs too

I left the sat nav to plan the route and it took us via Wrynose and Hardknott Passes. By the time I realised where it was taking us it was too late, so we made the most of it. Here is our Cali at the start of the Wrynose ...


A few more photos, here is Gill Force, River Esk, near the site. Lovely green tint to the water.


It was, of course, Dubfest, not just Calis - here is an alternative take on a VW camper


Peter had come prepared and gave us all our ID cards!


Something for everyone (and 50% off the train fare with the site voucher )


Cheap fuel in Ravenglass (couldn't find the diesel pump though )

 

[Dottie]

And it's a thanks from me and Dottie too!

It was our first meet of such a size and the Cali crowd were all very welcoming. Dottie did well too...I usually look for quiet sites and camp in the corner, but she didn't bark...other than at 6.30am this morning when the wee boy across the field went to the loo then decided he would shout for his dog to join him....a chorus of dogs awoke....!

Thanks Alison for help taking down my popup shelter (first time in season and I'd forgotten to You Tube the technique in advance)....luckily there was wifi and not many left when we got the iPad out in the middle of the field .....success!

All in all we had a really lovely weekend with great company, excellent food (tried the steak pie in all pubs!)....and sunshine!

Next stop is the Glen Nevis bank holiday weekend meet...looking forward to seeing our newfound Cali friends again.

Thanks again T4WFA....and Dottie sends best wishes to Rosie!
Great photos Ewan!

 

[Bobbybus]

I would like to add my thanks to Pete for organising the event. Me, my wife Tina and Pippadog had a great time. The weather, excellent site and atmosphere were very convivial!
It was good to talk to fellow Cali owners. We were tucked away around a corner for the meal at the Boot Inn so didn't get to speak to as many people as we would have liked to; I don't think they expected so many of us and we're unable to put us all together.
Regards to all.

 

[motacyclist]

A few more photos. This was on Saturday when things were in full swing


Right to left - us, the Storma63, Bumble, T4WFA, Spud .....



"Our" room in the Boot Inn only about half of us could fit here! Sadly, all the glasses are empty


This was Sunday afternoon, only a few left - AlisonF is leftmost, then Dottie in the white, us on the far side of the wall and T4WFA's blue Exclusive. Oh - and pjm-84's white Cali just to the left of that

 

[2into1]

We were tucked away around a corner for the meal at the Boot Inn so didn't get to speak to as many people as we would have liked to; I don't think they expected so many of us and we're unable to put us all together.
Regards to all.

Thanks everyone for your thanks. I'm very happy everyone enjoyed the meet on this lovely site (which when the sun shines is Cali heaven.
Rdh1's post is quite important. Actually organising the meet was very easy, the only stresses were the weather (out of my control) and getting a clear list of who was coming. This was more complex because bookings had to be made with the site, which I tried to tie up with the rsvps on the event page. Some who'd rsvp'd didn't come, others who didn't know about that page did.
As a result, we went from 16 booked for dinner (and expecting a few drop outs) to 22, when the pub was already bombed out for the evening. So please do help your meet's organiser with getting the numbers clear.

Fingers crossed I'll be free to do the same event next year and hopefully we'll get as lovely a crowd as we did this year, and get equally lucky with the weather!

I'm still here. Totally clear skies and a lovely forecast for tomorrow.

 

[motacyclist]

I'm still here. Totally clear skies and a lovely forecast for tomorrow.

Do you want some dog food parcels sending up?

 

[pjm-84]

I wish I was still there. We have a real soft spot for Eskdale and are back in the summer for a week. Had a good chat with Martyn before we left and he was in good spirits even after the "grass incident".

Whilst I said I wouldn't we did go back over the pass after stopping for breakfast at the Woolpack Inn (Interesting on wet roads, particularly the steep section ).

Nice to put faces to names and apologies for not being able to join the evening meal, (hence our constant dishwashing).

Thanks Peter for organising the weekend.

 

[Spud]

Just like to add our thanks to Peter and Rosie for organising the meet. A beautiful site excellent facilities, fantastic company. Dottie made lots of friends too including another dottie! Incredible to find out we were parked next to another cali from our hometown. Great idea to put names in vans, might suggest everyone does their own one for the next meet in Lower Lode, hope thats ok Peter? We decided to come home over Hardnott and Wrynose on monday, Sandra drove and well we made it but, we had the wheels spinning and Sandra was just a little scared!! Worth it though, bring on next year!
thanks again
Martin, Sandra and Dottie

 

[knightons]

Just like to add our thanks to Peter and Rosie for organising the meet. A beautiful site excellent facilities, fantastic company. Dottie made lots of friends too including another dottie! Incredible to find out we were parked next to another cali from our hometown. Great idea to put names in vans, might suggest everyone does their own one for the next meet in Lower Lode, hope thats ok Peter? We decided to come home over Hardnott and Wrynose on monday, Sandra drove and well we made it but, we had the wheels spinning and Sandra was just a little scared!! Worth it though, bring on next year!
thanks again
Martin, Sandra and Dottie

Martin, just couldn't resist...

 

[Dottie]

Snap! I had the same idea but my tipple was from the other end of the country!
A quiet moment on Sunday afternoon when the field had become eerily empty!
For some reason I found the need to photograph my new purchases for the van....pink for me & green for Dottie! They're great...Sistema...great twist and sip mechanism!

 

[John Dearing]

Thanks to Peter for organising a brilliant meeting at the impressive site in Boot. A really enjoyable first meeting for us - chatting with lots of new people (including Martin and Sandra from the same town!), looking over which awning to buy (thanks to all who gave their opinion), sampling the three pubs, and getting in some great walking......already looking forward to meeting up again later in the year.

 

[Bumble]

Many thanks to T4WFA for a lovely weekend, we really enjoyed meeting fellow campers and their dogs. The site was perfect for exploring the area, and 3 pubs within easy walking distance! Hopefully we will see some of you again at future meets.

 

[AlisonF]

I'd forgotten I'd taken this as a moment later Grom (on lead) tried to drag me off the bank as he went wading into the water pulling the lead from my hand and taking it in with him... Fortunately someone with long arms was able to retrieve the retriever...

 

[2into1]

Just picking up this old thread...
This site at Eskdale is now owned by the National Trust and they are holding a 'Dubfest' again in 3 weeks time.
I've booked on (just with the site). I'm not planning on making this a Cali Club meet (as we did 4 years ago) but if any of you are going, we could have a beer together. As usual they are not hot on social media, this is the best link I can find (Facebook) https://facebook.com/events/s/dubfest-2020/887819975021275/?ti=as
There appears to be places left, but the hook ups seem to have gone.