A short break in the Lakes

This time last week we were on our way to the Lake District for a four day break. We’d originally planned to use the time in London but decided it was better to save some money for the big trip than spend hundreds on London hotel prices.

Before last week it had been a long time since we’d slept in a tent and I was really excited to be staying a few minutes walk away from Ullswater again. We stayed at Park Foot, the same place we visited the last time back in 2012. We even set the tent up in the same spot.

I’m not sure why it took so long for us to go camping again; maybe because we can’t drive and I didn’t want to ask family to spend four hours dropping us off. Most of our breaks are usually centred around design events, which means sitting and listening to people talking about their passions all day followed by beer and networking. We were both a bit unsure what to expect, or even if we could handle time away together without something else going on. Turns out we needn’t have worried though because by the end we didn’t want to leave.

On the first night we got pretty terrible sleep, both feeling really cold in the night followed by early morning birdsong as the sun came up at 5am. The following day ended up being a lazy one too as we got used to just being away from everything and I even fell asleep mid-afternoon while Mark wandered around some fields getting sunburned.

The second day I felt a bit more ambitious and wanted to climb something big and just look down at the lake. We popped into the campsite shop to pick up a map (Mark wanted some sugar for the walk too) then headed up the closest hill we could get to. Having not done much walking since I went freelance the walk wasn’t exactly a breeze, especially not in dark skinny jeans on a sunny day, but we were glad to be out and making the most of it.

By Saturday there was a crossfit event going on in the campsite, so staying put wasn’t an option with the weekend we were hoping for. Instead we decide to make the most of the Ullswater Steamers stopping around the corner in Pooley Bridge and headed over to the other side of the lake. We made a stop at Aira Force, which was a different sort of challenge to the fell walk and beautiful in a completely different way.

There were only two boats to Aira Force per day and it seemed like a waste to wait around for the last one, so instead we walked along the Ullswater Way over to Glenridding. Our first camping trip together was back in 2010 during the early days of our relationship. Back then we spent most of the break challenging each other to successfully hit big rocks with small pebbles, or wandering around taking photos of all sorts. It was really nice to go back to Glenridding for that reason and seeing how much it’s changed since the floods in 2015.

Sunday was our last day, so we spent the morning tidying up the tent and getting it ready for the journey home in the evening. We didn’t have big plans for the day so we just walked to Pooley Bridge and walked up a small hill to eat our packed lunches. The atmosphere was kind of ruined by the crossfit event we could hear from over a mile away, but we tried to not let it get to us.

The whole break was great and I really didn’t want to leave, but we’re adults with responsibilities and had to head back home to get on with it. Roll on October when we’ll have seven months to play with!

All photographs taken with an Olypmus OM10 + Fujifilm Superior & Panoramas with an iPhone 6

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