Blogs from Cumbria, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 3

A solid nights sleep, we woke with the birds again… and the trains… and the rain and wind! A wet, blustery morning turned into a wet and blustery day, as we began our day with breaky under the lodges’s camping shelter. To our surprise, of the 6 of us camping, only two of us remained; perhaps they are all planning to get to Kirkby today, but we have a planned stop halfway at Orton to make for two shorter days rather then another long one. Finally admitting the rain and wind were not looking likely to stop any time soon, we, rather expertly if I do say so myself, packed the soggy tent down without any of it flying away and headed out by 9am. Of course, who wouldn’t stop almost immediately after getting going, just ... read more

Waking to a clearer and drier day we were even more grateful for having had our rest day yesterday. After a good breakie and getting our left over cheese (from last nights cheese board) and some free bread we headed back out into the trail. At 14km and 600m it was a shortish one but involved 2hours of ascent straight out of Grasmere. Despite some huffing and puffing along the way, the climb actually went by pretty quickly, following country roads and gravel track up into the valley, (catching a sheep farmer and his dog actually hearding sheep with lots of different whistles and noises), then bendy rocky tracks, often with water running down them, the further up we went. This meant some stunning waterfalls though, and hidden tarns (‘lakes’) between the peaks as we made ... read more

After the first two days being relatively short to help us ease into the hike, today was a biggie at about 25km and over 600m elevation! We felt ready though and made sure we got up and ready early, with a quick banana and snack bar to get us going (after using the pub toilet when they unlocked their doors at 7:30). And just like that, we were off, with a nice stroll down to Ennerdale water whilst the sun already shone brightly. The path then thinned and became quite rocky as it ran alongside the water, with some scree walking and a little bit of rock climbing making it interesting, before settling again lakeside where we stopped for a cuppa and porridge…Cue gusts of wind, dark clouds and drizzly rain! But, as if someone was ... read more

When you’ve grown up thinking anything past Bristol counts as the North, spending over 9 hours, on 4 different trains, makes you realise just how much more North there actually is in England! Thankfully, the whole journey (Plymouth to Bristol, to Birmingham, to Carlisle, to St Bees) went smoothly to plan, with just the very last train teasing us with its inability to keep the engine running (blocked filter which was quickly sorted). It was a long journey which went surprisingly quickly, spent people watching, listening to music, learning Spanish, eating (grateful for the pre bought snacks and lunch we had as there was no other opportunity to get anything with no time or no facilities; Carlisle station, our longest stop of 1hour, at 5:30pm, had nothing to offer other then a closing bar), and watching ... read more

On 12th April myself and a friend set off to walk the Lake District section of the Coast to Coast Path. For six days we set off each morning, navigated our way along the path and as evening approached pitched our tents for the night. We covered about 70 miles and were very lucky with the weather, dull at times but only one short period of rain. After a relatively gentle first day, the second day started with a walk along Ennerdale Water. Shortly after scrambling down Robin Hood's Chair, the difficulty of which should be highlighed more, Brendan noticed a large bird over the lake ahead of us. Once I saw it in my binoculars I recognised it immediately as an osprey. Major excitment. We got great views of it for most of our walk ... read more