Coloured Sheep and Squeezeboxes

Well wasn’t that a lovely sunny week! I spent most of it camping in the Lake District. My first outing in the van this year, I was getting so tired and stressed I needed to escape. I arrived in a van with the dog to a lovely campsite just outside Ambleside with no phone signal and no wifi, it was a bit like the 70’s but it was bliss. I should probably start by introducing my dog, as she follows me about as I walk around the country and she’d feel left out if she ever learns to read and use a computer. This is Harley, she’s a Schnoodle.

She spends most of her life eating and sleeping and running around like a lunatic. Although shes been camping with me before and we’ve done plenty of walking, this was her first taste of hills and fell walking. She seemed to enjoy it. I named her after Harley Quinn from Batman, because…well…I’m that kind of a nerd.

Anyway, introductions over, if you haven’t been to the Lake District you should. Its nice. All the pubs and cafes are dog friendly, or at least most of them are, so if you don’t like dogs you might be disappointed. Also I noticed nowhere said cat friendly, although if you take your cat hill walking you should probably re-evaluate your life choices. But the people you meet in Cumbria are all so friendly so I’m sure if you have a cat they wouldn’t mock you too much.

You don’t need me to tell you the views are incredible, but they are incredible. I’ve even provided you with a picture just to prove it. Imagine waking up to that every morning. You are looking at the hills surrounding Bow Fell, which is slightly out of shot on the right, but its a very pleasant walk which Harley and I attempted on day 3 of our trip. Remember to take water and food with you, the nearest Tesco is 30 miles away, and if you are taking a dog remember they need food and water too. I always take a couple of handfuls of dry dogfood so Harley doesn’t get hungry, and if the worst happens you could probably eat it yourself until the air sea rescue found you, although don’t blame me if it makes you ill, I don’t think we are supposed to eat kibble.

Halfway up Bow Fell you come across this little oasis, a perfect place to stop for a drink and a rest. No Starbucks though. Apparently the waterfall is usually bigger but when we arrived there had been a significantly low rainfall period and water was sadly lacking. Quite a few rivers were dried up too, but at least that meant I didn’t fall in.

So when you reach the top this is what you see. More hills. They call it the Lake District because it has some lakes, its like calling MacDonalds a chip shop because it sells chips. There are way more hills than lakes, but what you gonna do? Alfred Wainwright wrote seven books about 214 of the fells in the Lake District and since he published them in the early 60’s many more people have written books and developed walks around the Wainwrights. I’ve been up one of them so that’s a start.

Lots of these chaps about too. There’s me thinking you had to shear the sheep before you dyed to wool, who knew sheep came in different colours. We’ll be searching for a blue one next. Its amazing what you see on your travels around Britain. Talking of the locals, the humans not the sheep, we wandered into a pub after one walk only to be met by Musicians Corner. Literally a corner for musicians to come along and play music. Its all part of a music festival across the Lake District but it made a great evenings entertainment when you aren’t near enough to wifi for Netflix.

It may only be folk music but its all about the ambience right? I mean, when in Rome you got to listen to the man with the squeezebox. Friendly people too, really enjoyed my evening with the locals.

So that’s it for now, my next trip away involves walking 36 miles or so along the Jurassic Coast to raise money for MIND the mental health charity. If you feel like sponsoring me you should. Its worthwhile. I’ll tell you all about it in my next blog.

Until next time…

S 🙂