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The top of Scafell pike
You wounldn't think it was the middle of May!Spent a week at a camp site near Silloth (on the Solway Firth) - the land that time really did forget. No tourist attractions here, just a small town stuck in the 50’s. Wide cobbled streets, friendly people, a very relaxed way of life - it’s quaint charm certainly worked on us. Having said that we were quite surprised to find a working port and spent a happy few hours watching an enormous ship go into the harbour (this really was threading a camel through the eye of a needle). The beach itself was wide and deserted - backed by sand dunes - with a view of Scotland and many wind turbines - this was a feature of this side of the Lakes - in two and a half weeks the wind never stopped! The sunsets were great though. The previous weeks had been spent climbing big hills and exploring, we found it hard to switch off, but once the place worked it’s magic it was great to relax and just enjoy the scenery for what it was - wild and natural. We learnt to let the places we visit set the tone of the holiday and not to try and
Silloth beach on the Solway Firth
Crossing the dunes with Scotland in the background make the place conform to our expectations.
We moved to another fantastic site near Cockermouth, even better sunsets and still the very strong winds - note to self - avoid places with wind turbines! We were shocked at the devastation the November floods had caused to both this area and Workington, many shops and houses in Cockermouth were still closed due to the damage and we had problems getting around as often bridges shown on the map had been washed away. This wasn’t so much a problem if we were in the car but on the bikes it was often a long detour. How the locals had coped with their lives being suddenly turned upside down we don’t know. While at this site we did manage to cycle to Crummock Water and Loweswater, both beautiful and natural, we preferred these to the touristy areas of Windermere. We also climbed Scafell Pike (978m) in the worst possible weather conditions. There was thick fog and the top was covered in snow (this proved useful as we could not see the cairns due to the fog and only found the way by following footsteps in the snow). We both felt an enormous
sense of achievement, although have no idea what the view was like as we couldn’t even see each other! Every so often people would emerge out of the fog and as we talked to them we discovered that most of them were completely bonkers as they were going on to climb Ben Nevis the following day followed by Snowden the next (a sort of slow 3 peak challenge, they should all be completed in a period of 24 hours). If any of them are reading this - WELL DONE.
Come on you lot get yourselves up to the Lakes - it is truly spectacular.
Ps the beer we made at Arnside is lovelllllllllllllllly.
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