The Lakes

Another bank holiday weekend, another short trip out of the city…

This time Russ and I planned a few days up in the north of England, in the Lake District, pretty close to Scotland. All week previous I worked extra hours to make up for the time I would take off on Friday for us to drive up there. I don’t get paid for public holidays!!

So Friday we set off just after lunch, from Russ’ work in Richmond. I always get the job of navigator as I can’t drive over here yet. So there I am, road map on lap, telling Russ the way. We left early because I knew the bank holiday traffic would be pretty bad. What should have been a 5hr drive, according to the AA Journey Planner online, in reality took us about 7 ½ hrs because of the ridiculous traffic! We even took a toll road part of the way to cut our time…

We arrived at the campsite we had planned to stay at – Low Wray, right beside Lake Windermere. They work on a first-in-first-served basis. We were too late. A bloody big scout group had taken over the majority of the site… Not impressed!! So they gave us a list of other campsites in the area, and we settled at one, Baysbrown Farm, at the foot of the Langdale Mountains.

We weren’t as prepared as we thought we were as the cold weather set in and we realised we hadn’t brought nearly enough wintry clothes. But we managed to survive under several layers of clothes and blankets.

Saturday was the fine day – the day we knew we could fit plenty of outdoor adventures into before the weather was meant to turn sour. Russ was adamant he would climb the highest peak in England – Scarfell Pike. But after chatting with a hiking store worker, we realised we hadn’t the time to fit in the 8+ hour climb. So we settled on the next best thing to our disposal, the mountain dominating over our campsite from a distance, the Great Langdales.

I had to be talked into the climb, which looked a bit like too much hard work when I really just wanted to chill out beside a lake for the day. But once I got started I got right into it. I’m quite competitive, and my motivation largely came from the need to pass people in front and not let anyone pass me. We made it halfway up, where we found a huge lake, not visible from the ground, where we fed some strange fish that fought over pieces of bread just as ducks do. But this wasn’t enough, I’d come this far and wanted to go higher. So we set off to the top – the highest peak, Harrison Stickle, at 736m. The views from the top were amazing!! Beautiful mountains, green hills, and stunning lakes and rivers. We could even see the sea from the top.

We woke up bright and early again the next morning. It gets light there very early. At 4am we were wide awake with light filtering through our tent. But today was a bit poor in the weather department. Wind and rain, though the only rain we got was far from our campsite, on the other side of the mountains, where we took a boat cruise along the Ullswater lake. Again the scenery was breathtaking. I couldn’t think of anywhere I’d rather be than there! It reminded me a little of New Zealand.

The remainder of our time was spent exploring other little walks and the local villages. It was much busier than we had imagined it would be. Everyone had the same idea it seems. We didn’t leave without eating the famous Kendal Mint Cake, though. That’s what got us up the mountain… Sir Edmund Hillary ate it when he climbed Mt. Everest.
We’ll be going back in the next few months no doubt, to conquer the great Scarfell Pike! Click here to see the rest of my photos of the trip.