The Lake District

Last weekend (Fri, 30 Oct to Sun 1 Nov) we drove to the Lake District in Northern England.

We had prior warning that there would be heavy rain on the Sunday but felt it was still worth visiting - Mim had said we had to go there!

Leaving Friday evening Mase drove most of the way in rain until just before the border into England, where he felt tired (due to some very late nights) and so we swapped. I was actually quite amused to think that I'd be the one driving him to Gretna Green (even though we weren't eloping) and then on into England. I didn't enjoy driving to be honest - passing trucks in the rain and having the windscreen mist over with their spray is not something I find relaxing when you're going 70 miles an hour...but I did it without incident.

Finding the hotel at Clifton Hill involved another test of our map reading/directional compatability - we failed on the compatability side of things - but managed to get there in the end...

Anyway we checked in, got kids to bed and as we were all sharing a room, decided we'd hit the sack too. Unfortunately (for the first time in all our travels) we had an awful bed - banana shaped, springs pressing into our bodies as we lay there - most uncomfortable.

Mase didn't seem to have much trouble going to sleep (as usual) but I lay there tossing and turning for ages. Eventually I decided to sleep on the floor and use the spare pillows as a mattress and some extra rugs and see if that would help induce sleep - with some success.

Next morning we were 'pleasantly' awoken by the sound of Matthews heavy footsteps heading for the bathroom at 6.30am (he seems unable to tiptoe - not matter how many times we tell him). Breakfast wasn't until 8.30am, so we had a couple of hours to kill and keeping the children quiet in our room wasn't an option.

So we went for a walk through the small village and then out along a quiet road where the kids baa'd to the sheep in the field and screamed and yelled at the top of their lungs. Anyway they wore off some energy and we headed back for brekkie.

Our morning was taken up with driving to Grizedale Visitor Centre where we were to hire mountain bikes to tour the local area and hopefully see some of the Lake District up close....it was a nice drive through the middle of the Lakes, past Lake Windermere but the day was rainy and overcast and I think our photos reflect this - a little more sunlight would have made some spectacular views. One thing we noticed being in England was the different houses (photos above) made of stone, whereas in Scotland it's granite or slate.

Fortunately the rain stopped as we got out of the car and we went to hire our bikes - with the two younger children assuring us they'd be able to ride the distance and didn't need to go on a tandem just in case! We had to sign a document outlining the dangers and risks in riding and accepting responsibility for any injury - scary!!

We headed off up into the mountains following one of the bike trails (rated average in terms of difficulty) - within a few minutes my heart and legs were working hard and Jo and Matt were struggling. The trail was wide but muddy, wet and had lots of loose stones. We were quickly spattered with mud on our pants and up our backs.

The trail took us slowly up through some of the mountains with a few viewing points to see the panorama below (not the best we've seen - but nice). On reflection though we didn't actually see as much of the area as we'd thought we might on the bikes - I think that was because when we rode up hill we focused on getting to the top and helping the kids as it got harder and then when we got to the top we had to concentrate on getting down safely (at varying degrees of speed).

As you can imagine, Mason and Sam were the speed demons, Jo and Matt were not too far behind and I brought up the rear. Honestly some parts of the trail coming down were really scary - you'd be going so fast and if you weren't braking enough you'd slide in the muddy sections on the corners or skid on the loose stones - there was one section where I thought I'd lost control but managed to hold on...you know the stomach in mouth feeling - well that was then.

But I think Mase may have come a lot closer to stacking than I did by the sounds of it - he and Sam were so far ahead I couldn't see what went on but Mase and Sam told me he was going too fast when approaching a tight corner and with the backpack stuffed with about 2.5 litres of water, some apples and kids rain jackets he had extra weight to add to his own. He had to put his foot out and lean right over to prevent a stack down the side of the mountain - I hate to think what we'd have done if he'd injured himself!

If it wasn't for the downhill sections I think Jo and Matt would have given up very early on but they managed to keep going at a really good speed for more than 2 hours - so they did very well!

By the end of the ride our faces were splattered with mud, our bottoms had brown, muddy stripes from the wheel flicking up mud and our shirts were also pretty filthy! Mase had no change of pants - so he ended up washing his jeans in the toilet and walking around with his jacket over his pants so you couldn't see the wet patch - we must have looked a sight wandering through the Grizedale Visitors Centre. When we got back to the car the rest of us changed and we headed off for a drive through the Windermere area and then north to Penrith (if you know the area). This is a photo of Bowness on Windermere - note the tudor style house.

We stopped at Bowness on Windermere - it was absolutely packed with people - it was a small town, but had a busy shopping and cafe strip near the shores of Lake Windermere. Matt is standing near the white swans and the geese that migrate in the 'v' formation (can't remember their name). It's also the location of the Beatrix Potter Museum - we took photos but didn't go in. The next photo is a landscape photo of the Lake Windermere and the busy tourist boating area.

As the daylight hours are now 7am to 5pmish , by 4.30pm it was getting dark and we headed back to our hotel.

We had dinner at The George & Dragon on Saturday, 31 October - reason I put the date in is because it's Halloween and over here that's a big thing. So as we ate our meal we saw many kids come in all dressed up for the event. The shops have been full of Halloween stuff and peoples' houses are decorated with jack o' lanterns and other gear, the traditional pumpkins for carving have been selling in the shops and they have demonstrations in the shopping centres showing how to carve them....

Just one thing to say about our meal - I tried Partridge for my main meal - it was fine. Slightly stronger flavour than chicken, little bit darker, not much flesh on the wings but tasted delicious on a parsnip and celeriac mash...so that was my new food experience for the day.

Sunday we had organised to meet with the South Lakes Ecclesia and it was about a 1/2 hr drive from our hotel. So we drove through the centre of the Lake District to get there, which was the scenic tour route. It was raining very heavily and we could see paddocks flooding and rivers getting very high.

This photo was taken in the middle of a village - the river was a raging torrent of water running right beside houses! On the way to the meeting we saw one house with the water very close its foundations - on the way home we saw the same house with the water lapping against the side of the house!

We got to the meeting and were welcomed by the bre/sis there and enjoyed the fellowship with them. The brother who led the exhort spoke about how God works in our lives and how we need to try and work with him. He looked at Christ - who is the perfect example of someone working for God and God working through Him.
The Ecclesia always stay for lunch at the hired hall they use and we were invited to eat with them and have a chat, which we did. The children enjoyed playing soccer with two older teenagers who were there that were very friendly and had a great time. This photo was taken before the meeting began.

In the afternoon we drove back along a different road - through one of the mountain passes (as in photo) and we got some gorgeous photos of the valley and mountains in the area - so my rating of the Lakes District lifted quite a lot due to that.

There was also a lot of partial road flooding through the area and the kids had a great time looking out for large puddles and egging Mason to drive fast through them and groaning when we were stuck behind some smaller, more cautious cars. Here's a photo of some of the rolling green hills of England...

We had planned to see Hadrian's Wall in the afternoon but we didn't really leave the meeting early enough to get there in the daylight (as we found out later). By the time we arrived at the wall it was about 5pm and dark and raining hard and so we had a quick look around, took a photo or two to prove we'd been there and left to begin the drive back to Aberdeen.

Our drive back was going well and we were making good time until we were about 3/4 of an hour away from Aberdeen. We could see an enormously long line of red brake lights ahead and the traffic edging forward ever so slowly. We crawled along like this for around about an hour until finally (after making various prediction as to the cause) we saw the motorway was completely flooded over three lanes - so deep that all the vehicles (small cars to large trucks) had to go single file through the shallowest area.

As we entered the flood the car in front of us chugged along with the water level above it's exhaust pipe. We could see a few cars ahead which had driven thru the water but obviously conked out when they exited and were parked on the side of the motorway where it was not so deep (as pictured)...the kids were all asleep at this point and while we considered waking them, decided not to.
Anyway, on we went, a little more cautiously after that experience. There were some more areas that were partially flooded ahead but none as bad as the previous one. However at one point we had a bus that was in a hurry on our tail and a truck beside us and suddenly we came to this huge puddle in our lane - Mase couldn't brake hard for fear of the bus and so he ploughed thru and the water hit the windscreen in such a burst that we couldn't see for a few seconds and the noise woke Sam and Matt who were very impressed with the show!!

Fortunately Mase was able to keep steering straight with no visibility and we drove on with the bus right on our tail. As you can tell we obviously arrived home safely (again) and we thank God for His care for us (again).

So now the countdown is on - it's less than 6 weeks till we return God willing and the time is going to fly! Until then - God bless and keep you all.