Idyllic setting: Skelwith Fold Caravan Park in Ambleside, Cumbria.

Self-confessed indoor girl Sarah Cassells finds a way to make camping bearable with a luxury caravan... wilderness with a 
walk-in wardrobe.

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I’m an indoor girl. When it comes to holidays I like flushing toilets, proper beds and electricity. It’s a source of mockery among my friends who spend weekends at campsites across the UK and Europe extolling the virtues of the great outdoors.

Feeling we’re missing out, my husband and I compromise our curiosity about the natural world and love of comfortable surroundings with three nights in a luxury caravan at Skelwith Fold Caravan Park.

Unfamiliar with what to expect – particularly as ‘luxury caravan’ sounds suspiciously oxymoronic – we drive up the M6 to the picturesque Lake District with duvet and pillows in the back. We even stop at Kendal, a town 20 minutes from the park, to get basic groceries – just in case.

The dense woodland that leads into Skelwith Fold fuels our spirit for adventure. Arriving in a swirl of leaves beneath a moody evening sky my husband says, optimistically “I think there could be bears here.”

There aren’t. But the 130-acre park is as popular with red deer, red squirrels and all sorts of Farthing Wood wildlife as it is with the thousands of holidaymakers and holiday-homeowners who visit each year. A large part of its appeal is its environmentally-sympathetic, low-carbon approach – botanist and environmental campaigner David Bellamy has gone as far as to describe it as a wildlife wonderland. But probably what attracted us most was its five-star quality rating.

The accommodation at Skelwith Fold challenges any preconceptions about static caravans. Our two-bed unit is an executive apartment in a caravan costume. Deceptively spacious, the interior is all mod-cons and home comforts. There is even a walk-in wardrobe in the master bedroom... that’s a walk-in wardrobe with its own light.

And the park shop at reception makes us feel foolish for bringing supplies. It’s filled with sensibly-priced local ice-cream and sausages and utilities for every necessity – including an extensive Cadbury’s selection.

We have the deepest night’s sleep – a combination of travelling, fresh Cumbrian air and forest stillness. Although there are 300 privately-owned caravans and 150 touring pitches on site, each one has been carefully positioned in its own enclave to minimise neighbour disturbance.

The next morning we decide to walk the 1.5 miles into Ambleside. The park reception sells 14 walking pamphlets with routes broken down according to distance, terrain and refreshment opportunities. Each one costs just £1 with all proceeds going to the Great North Air Ambulance, which seems like a pretty low-cost investment for any overly-ambitious walker prone to getting stranded or injured on, and subsequently rescued from, the side of a hill.

We choose Walk 12 that takes in some of Ambleside’s waterfalls. The leaflet advises bringing an Ordinance Survey map, compass, whistle and binoculars. We have none and when the first instruction points north through the park, we head through the labyrinth of pine and broadleaf trees on gut instinct. It’s all wildly-romantic glades and fluttering birdlife, but evidently not north, so we turn round and shortly pick up the clues that lead us on the correct path for Ambleside.

We eat lunch at Apple Pie, one of the town’s numerous cafés, and then follow signs to Waterfalls and Wansfell Pike where we join a steady train of walkers and deliriously-excited dogs beside the thunderous waterfall. Then on our way back we catch a film at Zefirrelli’s, Ambleside’s cool retro-style cinema.

The next day surly rain clouds rest on top of the hills surrounding the park but they clear by the time we finish a lazy breakfast. We head first to Lake Windermere and then take the undulating roads and hairpin bends to smaller Coniston Water.

Cumbria is one of those counties where nature has dominated civilisation. Densely populated by craggy hills, woodland and enormous Limousin cows, every turn on the road seems to have been determined by the position of elderly trees or the course of an ancient stream.

But Coniston Water is worth the twisty journey for a trip on the steam yacht Gondola or the Coniston launch, which are as regular as buses and an ideal platform from which to appreciate the renowned landscape.

Driving back through the park that afternoon, we spot two red deer grazing beside one of the caravans. They allow us to creep right beside them to take photos before springing off into the trees.

“There are red deer beside the caravans!” we exclaim to the receptionist while buying eggs. “Oh yes,” she says unsurprised. “They’re often wandering about.”

For indoor types like us, Skelwith Fold offers an ideal way to reconnect with nature. There’s the beauty and serenity of the great outdoors with all the comforts and convenience of modern life. Or, put simply, wilderness with a walk-in wardrobe.