LAKE DISTRICT - NOVEMBER 2018
FRIDAY 9th
NOVEMBER 2018
So this year was a special year; Mrs F’s Mum & Dad both
turn 60 just 2 weeks apart from each other. They are no longer married so this
would mean two separate celebrations for each occasion. For Mrs F’s Mum we went
on a family holiday to Turkey and had a big surprise party and for Mrs F’s Dad
we arranged a surprise weekend away to the Lake District. We got together with
Mrs F’s Brother, Jay & his wife, Tanya to look at cottages and decided on a
really lovely spacious country cottage by Brothers Water in Hartsop. We drove
up towards Blackburn to first surprise Mrs F’s dad, Tony, with our visit and
then announce we are going away for the weekend. On the Friday the weekend
before his actual birthday, we drove up in separate cars – us two in our car
and Jay, Tanya and the three very excited girls, Eloise, Erin & Evie in
their car. We were hoping to arrive around 4-5pm but as the traffic was so bad,
we didn’t get there until 6pm.
Mrs F told her Dad she had ordered something for him that
was due to arrive around 5pm that he himself had to sign for, to ensure he was
around for when we turned up. But as we were running late she had to call him
to say she received notification saying the parcel was running late! His
partner, Meryl, was also texting me to say he was asking about ordering Chinese
and wanting to make up a curry sauce to go with it so she was running out of
ideas in how to put him off…the whole thing was very covert!
We went a different way on the motorway to Jay & Tanya,
so we arranged to meet them in the KFC car park just at the end of Tony’s road.
It was absolutely chucking it down so not only did we have to be discrete but
quite with our running to the house! We parked up a little further down the
street from his house and Meryl had left the backdoor unlocked for us to pile
in. He was upstairs watching a film in his room so we texted Meryl to say we
were all in the kitchen. She then came down to give us the all clear to head
into the living room where we waited with anticipation for Tony to walk in the
room and see us all standing there. Meryl rang the doorbell to make it look as
though his parcel had turned up and told him it was in the front room – he
opened the door and we all shouted ‘Surprise!!’ The look on his face was
priceless and was completely overwhelmed with us being there. Then came the second
surprise, to tell him he needed to pack a bag as we were all heading ‘up north’
for the weekend. Meryl had already been secretly packing things to make it a
quick exit for the Lakes.
Tony & Meryl came with us in our car so we didn’t need
to take three cars and we made another 2 hour journey in the torrential rain
towards the lakes. Jay called Mrs F to say he was already at the cottage, but
we were still 30 minutes away! At this point he asked if I had given him the
correct post code for his satnav, but it turned out that satnav sent him over
the Kirkstone Pass in the pitch black and pouring rain with the three girls in
the back praying and Tanya nearly crying! We had told them about the notorious
Kirkstone Pass when we booked the cottage, so they were aware of how dangerous
the road was. So when Tanya looked on the map and saw they were on that road,
she said she felt sick, but Jay however was loving the experience and didn’t
slow down very much…apparently!
Jay & Tanya first tried to get into the wrong cottage
and said it was a little nerve-wracking going around the back of a dark cottage
with a swinging gate, not knowing where they were. But eventually they found
the right one as we also did. Mrs F had arranged a Tesco shop to be delivered
as usual and had to call them to say we were going to arrive late as we were
heading up from London and the roads were really bad. The driver was really
lovely and helpful who waited for us for quite some time and even helped bring
the bags in. Shopping all unpacked, we had the chance to explore the cottage,
which was one of the best cottages we’ve stayed in for size and character.
There were four bedrooms, one of which had three beds like from Goldilocks,
which was perfect for the three girls. Jay and Tanya had the room next door
which had a four poster bed and cot (not that they needed the cot) in the other
corridor, Tony & Meryl has their room with two single beds and we had our
room at the end of the house, which had a double and single bed. Downstairs had
a big living room with enough seating for everyone and another little sitting
room off of that. The kitchen was huge with table and chair enough for everyone
with a downstairs shower, separate toilet and utility room. The only slight
downside was the AGA oven, so we couldn’t control the temperature on the hob
and the oven worked on the same system as the central heating, so when it came
to cooking breakfast for all of us, it was certainly a challenge.
After we’d had a quick look around, we had to head straight
out again because we had a table booked in The Red Lion pub in Patterdale,
which we were also late for and they stopped serving food at 9pm and we arrived
literally at 8:45! But the chef was good enough to cook us all that we ordered
and it was all really lovely food in a cosy country pub with an open fire. It
would have been nice to have more time that night, but we made the most of what
time we had...
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| Finally Arrived at The Red Lion Pub |
SATURDAY 10th NOVEMBER
The next
morning was like Christmas; everyone was so excited running around different
rooms looking at various views of the beauty that surrounded us that we could
now see in the daylight. The girls were the most excited as they had never seen
anything like it before. We promised them a good mountain climb so today, we
were heading up Hallin Fell. They really wanted to climb Catbells being Star
Wars fans and Catbells was where The
Force awakens was filmed. However Catbells was sadly a little too far to
drive to, so we thought Hallin Fell would be a great starter for them. But first
there were presents to open and breakfast to be had. We put all of his presents
out on the table and put banners & balloons up ready for when Tony came
downstairs as a surprise. We all sat and watched him open his presents, which
he was really overwhelmed to receive. We think he thought the trip to the Lakes
was his present, so was really touched to see we’d also brought presents along
for him to open.
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| Setting Up The Balloons, Banner & Presents |
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| Suprise!! |
Presents all opened, Mrs F and Jay took the lead on making
everyone a full English with all the works, a hefty pot of tea plus cereal
which was really lovely to have everyone around the table. Breakfast all
gobbled up and dishwasher loaded, we all got ready to head out. Eloise and
Tanya both wore spare pairs of Mrs F’s trekking trousers, Erin had one of her
hats and Evie had one of her buffs to look the part for their first mountain
climb :-)
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| View of Brothers Water From Our Room |
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| Muggles & Buggles Enjoying The View |
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| View From The Kitchen |
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| Breakfast Time! |
Mr F knows the Lakes like the back of his hand as we’ve been
coming at least three times a year for the six and half years and completed our
final Wainwright in June that year (see 2018, August entry) so he took the lead
driving to the start of our climb on a beautiful scenic route around Ullswater,
which was also really lovely for everyone to see. We pulled over by the popular
lay-by for the viewing point where we all got out, had a bit of a wonder up the
bank and took some really lovely photos before continuing on.
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| Our Little Stop By The Viewing Point |
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| Love This Photo ❤️ |
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| Venturing Up The Bank Along a Little Stream |
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| Tanya Displaying Herself in Size 8 Trekking Trousers! 😃 |
As we approached
the free car park by St Peter’s Church, we had a short include that mimicked a
small part of the Kirkstone Pass, but not by far as scary! We reached the car
park and was all excited to get going, especially the girls. We had three
walking poles and there was a spare one in the cottage that Tanya found in the
utility room, so Mrs F spent the first couple of minutes sizing them up against
Eloise, Tony & Meryl and Erin & Evie shared the spare one. All set and
ready to go, we had a group photo at the bottom just in time before the camera
moved! We said a prayer at the start as we always do and off we went!
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| Getting ready To Go From The Church |
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| Views From Ground Level |
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| Jay Having a Quick Warm Up |
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| Group Photo Before Setting Off |
It was an exciting moment to all set off together as our
first family climb. Eloise sadly now has osteoporosis as a result of her recent
treatment for Leukaemia, so we were mindful of how it might be difficult for
her. To the amazement of us all, with walking poles at hand, all three girls
took off at speed, leading the way with excitable smiles and took great delight
in making their way to the grand summit cairn of their first Wainwright. Meryl
was quite nervous at the thought of falling over due to a bad fall she had a
few years back that resulted in her breaking her shoulder, so Jay & Tanya
stayed with her a little further behind to make sure she was ok. Mr F went far
up ahead with Erin & Evie and Mrs F stayed somewhere in the middle with
Eloise and her Dad, making sure everyone was ok and enjoying it. Admittedly,
Hallin Fell isn’t an arduous trek, but for someone who has never done anything
like that before it’s quite a steep incline from the start, so there were a few
stops for breath and Mrs F ending up being the carry horse having her dad’s and
Eloise’s coat on her rucksack from them working up a sweat!
Just over an about hour later, we all made it to the top of
Hallin Fell. A few were puffing a bit, but it was an amazing feeling making it
to the top together, seeing how happy everyone was and enjoying our hard earned
fantastic views of Ullswater. It was such a momentous and joyous occasion for so many reasons. For my Dad to celebrate his 60
th birthday by climbing his first mountain after having gone through such a big operation for Thyroid cancer just two years ago was inspiring. To watch Eloise enjoy climbing her first mountain after having gone through everything she did was a blessing to see and be part of. She has overcome and conquered so much and now, she has conquered her first Wainwright of hopefully many more to come…what a fantastic memory to make together. We were shortly joined by a couple who kindly took a photo of us all together, which was a really lovely moment...
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| Setting Off.. |
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| Eloise Loving It.. |
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| Tony Trying To Love It! |
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| Jay & Tanya Back With Meryl |
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| Really Love This Photo Of Mrs F & Eloise |
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| Tony Taking a Well Earned Rest |
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| Lovely Little Photo of Eloise & Her Grandad |
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| Erin & Evie Really Loving It! |
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| Evie Getting Up Ahead On a High Point |
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| Nearly There! |
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| We Made It!!! |
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| Our Well Earned Views |
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| This Is Such a Special Photo |
Mr F said it was an
easier route going back a different way as it wasn’t so steep and as the ground
was wet, we didn’t want to risk anyone falling. So we headed off on a route
that had a rocky path to navigate down, which admittedly was quite tough. Mrs
F’s Dad took a little tumble but laughed it off and Meryl was really quite
nervous, so Jay kindly held her hand for support and stability until we were
out of the rocky patch and on level grassland. Tanya was a little fearful for
the girls slipping but they all made it down fine and was once again up ahead
with Uncle Gal. The path down once out of the rocky route was much better in
terms of the steepness. We all stopped briefly to admire a bird of prey
hovering over us and the girls and their Grandad ducked behind a rock and were
pretending to shoot us with the walking poles as we came down! There was
another little mound that the girls also wanted to climb, so we went up there
with them and got a nice photo of the five of us.
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| Looking Back At Our Dodgy Route Down! |
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| Tony & The Girls Made It To Ground Level First... |
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| ...And Quite Pleased About It! |
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| Accompanied By Sheep On Our Way Down |
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| Our Group Photo On The Little Mound |
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| Grandad & The Girls Shooting Us With The Walking Poles! |
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| Nearly Down... |
We were eventually back at the car and everyone was on a
buzz from their achievement. Meryl admitted that she would never have done that
if it wasn’t part of the plan but so glad she did because it helped her to
overcome her fear of falling over :-) We then went in to Pooley Bridge which
was on the way back to the cottage for a big lunch. The plan was to have an
early dinner now and have snacks and nibbles later that came in the Tesco
shopping. We walked around the small village looking at various places to eat
and decided on the Pooley Bridge Inn pub, mainly for the reasonable price. We
didn’t think we were all going to be sat together but we managed to put a
couple of tables together. Everyone’s food was ok except for Eloise and Mrs F,
who both had the lasagne but really wasn’t nice at all sadly. Tanya asked for
Eloise’s to be changed whereas Mrs F soldered on. After lunch, we went to the
little shop just a couple doors along called Treetops where Mrs F bought honeycomb and the others bought ice
cream…in the rain! Tanya said it doesn’t matter where she is or what the
weather is like, when she’s on holiday, she eats ice cream! :-) We then went to
the gin shop just over the road where you can sample various flavours of gin and
the girls sat and stroked two huskie dogs and another really small one, but
can’t remember what breed…it was much smaller than the two huskies anyway!
We piled back in the cars and headed for the cottage, where
we quickly got the open fire going ready to bunker down for the evening. Once
we had all showered and got comfortably in our PJ’s, the girls wanted to play
hide & seek with it being such a big cottage, so we all played! It was
actually really good fun and Mr F won both games; considering he’s the biggest
person us all of us that is quite impressive. He hid behind the curtains in the
little sitting room and then under Tony’s bed, which he had to lift up to get
under, so we would never have guessed he was under there!
Then the girls put on a little show for Grandad which
apparently they had been practicing for weeks! It was a lovely little Pirates of the Caribbean themed show
with swords and references to the films, which was really good and funny in
places :-)
That night was like Christmas night; we got loads of nibbles
out on the dining table, including the nice big cheese board with various
cheeses and chutneys Mrs F’s Dad got as part of all his birthday presents,
along with a big bag of walnuts to go with it, so he was in his element. We sat
and played games and nibbled on our munchies all evening, just having loads of
fun and laughs, it was such a really good day had by all and one that will go
down as one of the most memorable days for all of us.
SUNDAY 11th NOVEMBER
The next day
we woke up feeling quite sad that our trip had come to an end far too soon. We
planned to spend the morning going to Aira Force but when we woke up it was
raining :-( So we made a continental breakfast of ham, cheese, croissants,
grapes and cereals before packing everything up and loading the cars. Thankfully,
the rain eased off so we decided to go to Aira Force after all as most of the
walk is under the cover of the trees.
We said our
goodbye’s to the cottage and sadly pulled away, Mr F leading the way to Aira
Force. We managed to get parked up and by the time we got there, it stopped
raining completely, so was really quite blessed with the weather for the time
of year we were there on both days. We walked through, passing the big ‘Avatar
tree’ as we like to call it. The girls were fascinated by the tree trunks that
had coins pushed into them over the years that had eventually become part of
the tree. So they each had a 10p coin and pushed them into the little slots
available :-) We then stopped a few times along the way to climb the banks and
look at little hiding places naturally carved out in the trees…just having lots
of outdoor fun. We came across a small waterfall that Mr F tried to tell the girls was the big waterfall we were walking to, but they seemed quite unimpressed and not sure whether to believe him or not. Sure enough, he was pulling their legs as just around the corner over the bridge, was Aira Force. Mrs F’s Dad walked up the stairs by the side of the falls only to see a step had 1958 carved into it, which was the year he was born :-) After admiring the falls from ground level and taking a few photos, we walked back towards the steep steps leading up towards the top of the falls where we could lean over (with caution) and see the water gushing out. Jay has always been quite cared f heights, so it was a challenge for him to lean over to see and wasn’t too keen on the girls being lifted up to see either!
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| Walking Across The Bridge To The Other Side |
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| The Girls Coins In The Tree Trunk |
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| Erin Showing Where Her Coin Is |
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| Two Shiny New Coins Belonging to Eloise & Evie |
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| Climbing & Playing Up On The Banks |
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| Mrs F Hiding (Attempting To! In The Tree |
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| Can You Spot Jay?? |
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| Girlie Photo |
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| Finally At Aira Force |
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| Family Photo |
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| Tony & Meryl |
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| Girls With Grandad & Granny Meryl |
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| The Plague On The Bridge By The Waterfall |
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| The Engraved Stepping Stone |
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| Views Looking Over From The Top |
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| Group Family Photo |
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| Looking Down From Up Where The Engraved Step Is |
We headed
back the same way and stopped at a bridge to play Pooh Sticks, apparently Mr F
won! Then we decided to all walked over a stream using the rocks available in
the water as safe passage stepping stones. Meryl also gave it a go which was
really good for her as she had gained more confidence. Jay was having fun
filming the water coming down the stream from the streams height at the top
with his new swishing phone. Once we were back at the car park, we headed to
the little café for hot drinks and scones, whilst the girls had ice poles!
There were some balancing beams made from the trees in a little playing area
just outside where we sat where the girls were playing and Evie sadly slipped
and hurt herself, which we all saw coming as the beams were wet from the rain.
After a few hugs and an ice pack from the ladies who run the café, she was
fine. It was getting on for 1pm and we still had to drop Tony & Meryl back
to Blackburn before making our own way home back to London. We said our
farewells at the car park and made our separate ways home. Evie cried when she
was in the car because she had such a lovely time and didn’t want to leave :-(
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| Pooh Sticks At The Ready! |
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| Go!! |
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| Ice Creams, Cream Teas & Hot Chocolates At The cafe |
We dropped
Tony & Meryl back home along with the many, many, many presents and made
our way home, feeling both happy and sad. Happy to have had such a lovely
weekend; our first family mountain climb that we only ever imagined happening
before, a beautiful cottage with lots of fun and memories going on and finishing with a lovely little walk to Aira
Force. It was a great way to surprise Mrs F’s Dad which worked our really well,
even when we were late arriving, we were still able to have a really lovely
meal in a cosy little country pub and made the most of a short but fully
fun-packed weekend. It was one of the best cottages and locations we’ve stayed
in and one of the best memories we’ve made together as a family. We really can’t
wait to go back hopefully in the summer of next year and conquer Catbells with
the girls now they have their own trekking clothes, complete with buffs and
poles bought for them by us for Christmas. Eloise also has her very own
trekking boots bought for her for her birthday :-)
Praise God
for an amazing weekend, for family, His provision, His love for us and our love
for each other…
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