Tuesday 8 September 2026: A week of two halves

After a busy week and a busy weekend we had a lovely few days away at one of our favourite places. We’ve been to Dent in Cumbria, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, three times as a couple now, and we fully intend to go back again.

The weather wasn’t fantastic, but we didn’t mind that. We didn’t go away for the weather, we went away to have a break away from all the noise: the house move; the renovations; the wedding. All great things, but it does take it out of you.

We also didn’t care what the weather did as the campervan is weather tight now we’ve had the gaskets replaced on the cab doors. We weren’t sure about the drive-away awning, though. We’d not really used it beyond making sure it went up and came down again and this time we wanted to use it as living space with the idea of driving around in the van if we needed to.

Well, the main road out of Dent to Sedbergh (pronounced Sedd-Burra) was closed at some point along it for road works, and Sedbergh is where the closest shops are. It’s also the way the twice-weekly bus goes so it’s unlikely that was working. The other roads are very narrow and bendy, with limited vision in places and not many passing places. So we pretty much decided to set up camp on the site, and just stay there.

There’s a shop in the village of Dent that only used to be open for a few hours a day on a few days a week. Now it’s open all day, every day, apart from half-day closing on Wednesdays. So we were able to get everything we needed just a short 5-minute walk away.

It did rain. And it did forget to stop. But we did manage to get the awning up without getting too wet. And anyway, we had a full change of clothes in the van. It was lovely and relaxing listening to the rain on both the roof of the van and the roof of the tent. On the second night, though, the wind came. With a vengeance. And when we checked, it was going to be there until at least Friday.

The plan was to head home on Saturday, when the sun would be coming out as well as the wind and the rain dropping. But we did take the tent down again on the Thursday, before it blew away.

It was really nice wandering around the village, seeing the changes since we were last there, around 12 years ago. We did think the campsite was a bit pricey, charging extra for everything, even a daily charge for having a dog even though there isn’t a dog-exercise field there. And they had a lot of rules too. Don’t do this, don’t do that, and if you do the other we’ll ask you to leave.

The best thing going for it is the location, but it has the monopoly on that, for tourers at least in Dent.

I shared a few pictures on social media. Friends on Facebook and Instagram will have seen those. The poet took some too, and the one illustrating today’s post is one of the ones he took so you can see how we pretty much had the site to ourselves for a few days. The awning/tent was already down by this time.

But look at that sky! And look at that backdrop! Beautiful.

On Wednesday evening, the day before we took the awning down, the poet took ill. He’d had a UTI diagnosed a few weeks earlier and had already had to go back once for more antibiotics as the first lot didn’t shift it. Now he thought it was coming back again, or it hadn’t gone away.

By Thursday, when we did say we’d head home if he wanted to, he rallied and felt a lot better. So we stayed. But by around 7pm we were wondering if we’d done the right thing. With high winds forecast, more rain on the way, those winding, narrow roads, the sun setting at a few minutes to eight, and him not feeling great, we decided it was too risky to attempt the 2½-hour (at that time on a Thursday night) drive home. I’m not insured to drive the van, but I’m not sure how insured we would have been if he’d taken ill again on the way home.

So we stayed another night, and first thing Friday we decided to come home. Just in case. He was feeling rough again, but rallied again and felt more able to tackle the (by now) 3-hour drive home. When we got home, he went straight to bed for a couple of hours. Then he got up and we jiggled the cars and the van around on the drive, and then he asked me to call an ambulance. That’s how ill he was feeling.

When the ambulance came it was already dark and they were here for a good hour checking his vitals and asking him questions. At 9pm, having decided he definitely still had a UTI but also suspecting he was showing early signs of sepsis, they took him to hospital where he was eventually admitted with a severe kidney infection and suspected sepsis.

As soon as I was able to get hold of one of his sons, I was able to go and join him, dropping the dog off on the way. I got there well after midnight. The ambulance crew got him there by 9:15pm, but the hospital didn’t have a bed for him until 4pm the next day, and by Saturday night he was very poorly, very fed up, and very scared.

Fortunately, after pumping him full of three different lots of antibiotics intravenously, to fight the infection, and several more bags of liquid Paracetamol, to bring his temperature down (he went in with a temperature of 104.5℉, about 40℃), by Sunday morning they were ‘confident’ it was a ‘bug’ in the blood caused by the kidney infection. It could still lead to sepsis, but for now it was just a bug. And by Sunday evening he was more stable and feeling a lot more confident.

Son ＃1 had the dog again for a couple of hours on Saturday, and Son ＃2 took over dog duties on Sunday for a couple of hours. But by Sunday teatime, I was starting to come down with a heavy cold I’d been fighting since the poet was first sick with the UTI. Both sons stepped up to do the visiting on Monday, while I spent the day in bed. Daughter was still away on her honeymoon, so we hadn’t even told her yet. Of course, when she did find out, off her dad, she had a few stern words for him!

It’s Tuesday now and the poet has been discharged, armed with a load of antibiotics and Paracetamol to take orally for the next two weeks. He has to take it easy and REST, and must take the time off work. (Yeah, right…).

After a day of resting myself, I’m already feeling a lot better. We think my body fought it off for as long as the poet was poorly then as soon as he was looked after, I crashed. But all I needed was a good, full day in bed to rest and recuperate. The snot monster is in residence today, and I am tiring easily. But I’m having good long rests in between chores, and I’m looking forward to taking the dog to go and collect him after 6pm today.

We will be going back to Dent again, but we may book a holiday cottage next time. It’s so cut off from civilisation, a car really is essential if you’re not great walkers, or as young as you once were, and a cottage garden would give the dog a bit more freedom.

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