Our Trip to the Lake District
Back in November 2017, my boyfriend, Tom and I visited the Lake District. we went for three nights, and four days. It's always something we've both wanted to see. Everyone was telling us how beautiful the area is so we just had to go and check it out! It was one of the most poignant trips I've ever been on and the experience will honestly stay with me forever. Therefore I wanted to document the trip on here. It was just too beautiful not to share with you guys. I actually did a poll on Instagram and this post received a lot of interest from many people. So here we go, grab a coffee and a snack as this will be a long one! Whether you read it or not, I really hope you enjoy the photos at least. The place is simply stunning and I feel as if everyone should see what it looks like!
DAY ONE - Thursday 9th November 2017
I'm going to start with where we chose to stay. We saw the place on Air B&B actually and we really liked the look of it. It was modern, a lovely size for two people and it was in the perfect area for walking key routes on the map. It was in the middle of the countryside, with the nearest supermarket being a twenty minute drive away, ideal really considering we were in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't really advisable to go out at night however, only because the country roads were so narrow and obviously there aren't any street lights. So we didn't go out past about 4pm when it started getting dark.
What we did instead was basically a big shop in the local supermarket on the day we arrived. This way we would have no need at all to go back as we planned on being out walking all day. We'd bought bits for packed lunches and then planned our evening meals for the next three nights. So we had everything sorted, including a bowl of porridge each before starting the day, which commenced at roughly 7am.
Around this time of year, it got dark very quickly, so we had to make sure we were back at the car way before this as the last thing you want is to be lost in the country side in the dark, because it really is pitch black.
Anyway, back to the lodge. It was located on a running farm, with horses you could go and pet, dogs and also chickens were allowed to roam free which was cool. The house itself had rather a strange layout. The bedroom, ensuite and dressing room were all downstairs, together with a utility room where there was a washing machine, clean towels etc, you could also control the heating from this room. Then upstairs was an open plan kitchen and living space, with a door leading onto the outside balcony which was a great size for two people to sit out on.
The best thing was the bath tub which would distribute bubbles and it would change colour. There was also a television in the wall, so you could chill after a whole day of walking, with a glass of prosecco (which we got free with the stay, together with some biscuits) and watch EastEnders! Perfect!
The bed was also incredible, I think my boyfriend was happy as I couldn't touch him with my cold feet in the night, that and there was never a fight for the duvet! The bed was huge basically. I felt like I needed to shout so Tom could hear me from the other side of the bed!
DAY TWO - Friday 10th November 2017
So onto the walking, we dived straight in and decided to climb Wansfell Pike, it's 1597 ft in height, which equates to 486.9m. We planned our route on the map over breakfast that same morning. We walked past waterfalls and over rolling hills. The time of year meant all the leaves had either fallen off the trees or they had turned into beautiful amber shades.
The walk up there was amazing, the views were incredible and they got better the further we went up. We did have a spot of rain half way up Wansfell but it passed very quickly and by the time we reached the top, it was clear skies again. However it was incredibly windy and exceptionally cold! It was worth it though to see the views. You could see Windermere Lake very easily, it looked fake in all honesty. Almost as if I was looking at a green screen!
After this we climbed back down, which personally for me, is worse than climbing up it! But upon our descent, we witnessed some fighter jets flying extremely low through the huge hills, the sound was incredible, like nothing I had ever heard before. I can only really compare it to the sound of a Concorde, if any of you remember the sound of that? It was way too fast though, I didn't manage to get a photo, but you can imagine our excitement at seeing them!
We then walked through a small town and ended up walking through a garden centre to find some toilets. It wasn't at all far away from where we were parked though and by this time it was getting pretty dark. We'd walked upwards of 10km that day, which took us about five hours or so which isn't bad really!
We went back to the lodge then, we'd both had showers and things, which is, by the way, just as crazy as the bath. You could program water to come out of the walls and give you a massage. You could also electronically control the temperature of the water as well! So now we both want a shower and a bath exactly like the ones in that lodge!
Anyway, I diverge. We had a shower and cooked some dinner. I can't quite remember what it was we cooked. It might have been a stir fry actually! We always went to bed pretty early so we had enough energy for the next day!
DAY THREE - Saturday 11th November 2017
It was here where I started to feel poorly. I was developing quite a bad cold, something I thought would past with a brisk countryside walk. But it didn't, in fact I felt worse as the day went on. But I powered through and made it out having eaten my porridge while Tom made up our packed lunches (which he actually did for me every single morning! What a gooden!). I took some paracetamol, a big bottle of water and got walking!
The route we took that day was a lot flatter. We wanted to climb Scafell Pike, being 3209ft in height which equates to 978m. However I was just too poorly. So we decided to save it for another time! However, the route we walked took us past Ullswater Lake, which is the most beautiful body of water I think I have ever seen. I've never been anywhere so peaceful and so quiet. It was postcard perfect! I just wanted to sit there for hours, looking out across the lake. The water was so clear you could see the sandy bed underneath. It was just breath taking.
After that we went in search of a slate mine. It's not really visible on the map, but we found it eventually and so did a lot of other people. There was a cave there as well, which once inside, you could see out at the sky above. The cave was huge, there was a large body of water in there as well. You had to be careful walking through the other tunnel though as you had to walk through this body of water, walk too far over though and you're in danger of fully submerging yourself in water. So we had to pay attention to the colour of the water. The darker it looked the deeper it was. So we both made it to the other side completely dry, phew!
We then walked out of the cave and walked up to the top of it. If you looked over the edge you could see the great mass that was there which allowed you see the sky from inside of the cave (if that made any sense?). There was also a lot of left over slate up there and the view from where we were was amazing. We actually sat on a little stone bench and ate our lunch looking out at the landscape in front of us.
Throughout our whole trip we had a small Robin follow us. It probably wasn't the same one, but it was always brave enough to come super close up to us. I couldn't help but snap some photos as you hardly seen Robins in the city, let alone that close up. There was something emotional about it, I couldn't quite put my finger on it though, literally ;)
We crossed over the cutest little bridge you ever did see and then up the left side of a steep hill. There was a lake at the bottom of that hill, it was still beautiful in it's surroundings, but nowhere near as big as the others we had seen. We then carried on walking along a flat route. We thought we'd take it easy as I wasn't feeling so well!
Eventually we ended up walking through a small country home, complete with a dog and some roaming, moody chickens. One of them actually chased us which was quite funny but the dog wasn't at all bothered. I thought he was quite cute actually. The chicken in the photo was actually the one that was chasing us though, so now you can have a little chuckle to yourself!
We then had to descend very quickly down a path which was full of loose bits of rock and it was very steep, so we were almost forced to walk fast down there. We'd ended up around the back of a tiny village. In fact it was the same village we had parked around the corner from. There was a small country pub there as well so we stopped for a well deserved drink.
We then drove back and while I was in the shower Tom made Chilli Con Carne for me. Only it was super duper spicy, he made it in an attempt to clear my nose and help my cold. It did help actually. For the rest of the night I could breathe pretty normally! We were so tired that we both fell asleep at around 10pm, which for us is pretty damn early.
DAY FOUR - Sunday 12th November 2017
This was the day we had to go home. Sadly our trip had come to an end. We packed up our things that morning and headed home. But on the way back we thought we'd stop at Hadrian's Wall. It's a National Trust site, complete with Roman ruins as well. If that part of history interests you then I definitely recommend a trip there. You buy your ticket in the visitor centre and then take a walk up to the ruins, the wall and also a very small museum! You can walk the length of Hadrian's wall, which was slightly underwhelming as it looks like any other wall in the country side really, but it was interesting learning about the history of the place and of the wall of course!
However, I was very poorly. My cold had worsened a lot over night, so we couldn't walk a lot of the wall really. It was so cold and very windy up there and when you have a scarf over your mouth and a very blocked nose, it makes it very hard to breathe, as you can imagine. We stayed as long as I could bare before walking back to the visitor centre and then the car park.
It took us a few hours to get back, but it was so worth it! We both slept very well when we got home though.
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It was a wonderful, relaxing, quite romantic time away. It was a chance for us to forget about out phones, the internet and just technology in general. It also gave us a chance to just forget about things going off with our work etc. It was nice for us to have some time completely alone and how more isolated could you get eh? We want to go back again soon when we aren't so busy! I'll obviously keep you posted on that one!
Let me know if you've been yourself and tell me which routes you walked! See you next week guys!
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