The Lake District

For the pictures click here.

The Lake District (or LakeS District to some) was one of those places we wanted to get to before leaving, and we just squeezed it in the weekend. But the Lakes weren't the only water we saw during the weekend....

'Events' started on Friday with a typical summer day in England this year. If you haven't seen the news reports - that entailed a monsoon-like storm hitting London and some of the heaviest rain seen hitting parts of the rest of the country. The rain in London itself only lasted around an hour, but it was extremely heavy and caused chaos to our travel plans. Planning to meet Si & Kel at 4pm to pick up the hire car and head off, none of use could get anywhere on the tubes/trains and our plans to beat the rush over traffic were ruined. Interesting, though the rain brought near shut-down to the transport network for the rest of the day, Lords was able to restart the cricket test within an hour of the rain stopping - maybe we need to start giving the maintenance contracts to ground keepers.

But we finally got away, but it was slow going. Our destination was Ludlow in Shropshire, which was a half point to stay the night to break up the drive to the Lake District. We had originally planned to get up there by 8pm for dinner, but we didn't end up getting there until midnight! We did stop off for dinner along the way, but after that the drive became very 'interesting'. Once we reached the edge of Shropshire and got off the motorway, we were now entering the edge of the area that had been the worst hit by the weather. We didn't now it at the time, but just south in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, people were getting trapped in houses and on the roads (hundreds spent the night in their cars on the M5). But we also had our own 'fun'. On the smaller roads towards Ludlow, we met plenty of dips in the road where the water was getting pretty high. And a couple of times we went through some water we probably shouldn't have - you really shouldn't have the water coming over your lights! And getting on to 11pm, there was quite a bit of dismay when the road into Ludlow was closed. But I'm not a map-nerd for nothing and I managed to find us an alternative route into Ludlow. Though that wasn't the end of it, as all but one of roads into the centre of Ludlow was closed, and we had to drive around the town looking for a way in. Obviously we were somewhat relieved to finally make it to our B&B - it was tiring stuff.

The next day we went for a wander around the attractive town of Ludlow, stocking up on some of the good food the town is renown for - not that we needed it after the big B&B breakfast. Also during our wanderings we also got a feel for how bad the rain had been the day before. Even though it was not even one of the worse areas hit, the river running around the centre of Ludlow had broken it banks and the sight of this put our drive the night before in some context. Si and I also made an interesting trip for a midday pint at The Church Inn in the middle of the town. The young guy behind the bar had not even finished pulling the first pint when, identifying as New Zealanders, gladly told us about his part in the 'Daryl Tuffey incident' back in Christchurch a couple years ago. For those of you not up with the play on this one - article. Our lad must have been Paddy Curtis - hardly something you think you would be telling strangers 1 minute after meeting them. In fact, he looked a bit worried when I started taking notes - though I let him know these were beer notes, and I wasn't from the Press. This was soon to be followed by some old punter accosting us about how lots of houses in NZ use corrugated iron, and he was looking to write a book about it - yes, exciting stuff. Incredibly though, we were saved when another old punter from across the bar shouted "did you say corrugated iron?", and next thing you now they are deep in conversation and the history and facts of this 'exciting' topic. I'm guessing I'm not going to here that shouted across a bar again....

We eventually set off for the Lake District through some more flood waters, but also thankfully towards some better weather. In fact, I think the Lake District must have got the pick of the weather across the country that weekend, so we did quite well. After stopping off at Coniston to bring up the RateBeer 1000, we carried on to Ambleside, where we were staying for the next two nights, and meeting up with Andy and Yasmin who had come down from Scotland. We had a superb dinner out, with prospect of standing on top of England the next day....

Scafell Pike is the highest peak in England and what I was hoping to walk the next day. Not only would it be a cool thing to have done, it would also be good practice for the climbing in store for Anna and I in South America. Fortunately, the weather was playing game, and though it was overcast, rain didn't look like a problem. Half the fun ended up in getting there though, as the drive we took to get to the bottom of the climb took a couple of entertaining narrow passes, with plenty of switchbacks and passing bays. Parking the cars, we set off with trusty A4 sheet map in hand and notes on the route to take. Not that it was really necessary, as there were sufficient other walkers around to know what we were on the right track. The climb was pretty steep and tricky - and required a few breaks. And probably a good thing, it was quite cloudy so we couldn't quite work out how far we had to go. But eventually the four of us made it to the top - Si, Andy, Anna and myself (Kel and Yasmin deciding two-thirds up that the pub at the start of the climb was a better prospect - and who can blame them). Reaching the top, we couldn't see a thing, so we sat down and had a bite to eat. But just as we were about the head back down the clouds started to lift and we were afforded some great views over the whole Lake District (and even a view across to the Isle of Man) - it certainly made the climb worth it. Getting down ended up being a lot trickier than getting up, and by the time we were at the bottom we all had very sore legs and very thirsty mouths. Fortunately, we could satisfy both the need for rest and beer at the brewpub (The Wasdale Head Inn) at the bottom (and in the middle of nowhere really). Driving back, we stopped off for some very good steaks at another brewpub in the middle of nowhere and managed just a couple of pints at a pub back in Ambleside before we all had to hit the sack.
The next morning, we had our last B&B Full English Breakfast (which might be just as well!) and said our farewells to Andy and Yasmin - it was awesome catching up with them before we leave - before taking a scenic walk around a mountain Tarn and then starting the long journey home. However, we decided to make one last stop off along the way for dinner at The Falkland Arms pub near Oxford (see the pub watch entry). Getting home late, we had certainly managed to fit plenty in to the weekend - incidents, food, and beer!