Chester and Lake District

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On Monday we drove from Chester to the Lake District which was about a 3 hour drive. We set up camp with Maureen, Alex and David. After one or two or three beers we had a reasonably early night in preparation for our mountain walking the next day.

Tuesday morning we set off around 11am to climb Catbell and Maiden Moor. They were both sharp but short climbs and windy as hell when we got to the top. We left Maureen and David and climbed the steepest of the 2 - Maiden moor. Once we got to the top we had a few piccies (see insert) and had some nice cheap home made sanga’s and coffee in our awesome thermas!

The way down was something else again - imagine snowboarding style but jumping sideways into rocks to steady yourself so you don’t slide down to your death (well maybe slightly exaggerated, but wouldn’t be pretty anyway). By the time we got to the bottom we were pretty knackered and it was time for a rest at the campsite and then fish and chips in Keswick’s town centre.

Wednesday was pretty much a rest day, just a nice easy walk around the beautiful “lake” (there’s actually only 1 lake in the Lake District - yes thats right and all the rest aren’t actually lakes - BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW THAT!) We then settled in for a nice afternoon bbq, relaxing for a big 7 hour drive back to London on Thursday.

Thursday we left at 10am hoping to get to London by 4.30pm with plenty of time for the Counting Crows concert. Unfortunately for us we ran out of diesel! Yep day 5 and we’re already stuck on the side of the road. So....our little GPS tells us there is a service station 1.4km away over the hills in a nearby town. So we trudge off through the sloppy fields with sheep shit everywhere and hundreds of sheep looking they’re going to run at us at any minute, down the muddy track and into the town. We find a friendly local who informs us both service stations are actually closed now. Swearing and cursing under our breath we trudge back to the car - wondering if we are going to make it back to London. Then as if by magic the lovely Maureen calls as they’ve seen our car on the side of the road. All we can say is thank god for Maureen and Alex, otherwise we would’ve been stuck a hell of a lot longer. So after getting a little diesel to get us to the next station we were off again, and we’ll let you know if we make the concert in the next blog.

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Photos

The family in Chester town centre
Vince's Great Uncle David and Great Aunt Maureen.

Comments

[laura]

trust you to already run out of diesel!! glad to hear your having a great time..