Monnnnnths ago we spoke about climbing up Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England, located up in the Lakes District and finally we’ve done it … well sort of. Since its such a long drive up to the Lakes District we decided to make a long weekend of it with Friday and Sunday our driving days and Saturday our climbing day.

Our first challenge was navigating our way up to the Lakes District. To be fair all Sandra and I had to do was sit in Sir Jules’ Ka, now named christened George, for five hours as Sir Jules sped his way up the motorway. Me sitting in a moving car is like a baby being rocked in its crib – the motion soon had me nodding off. Both Sandra and Sir Jules claim that I slept most of the way up to the Lakes District but I’m adamant that I remember at least half the journey! Well, maybe. We made a couple of stops at service points along the way where Einstein indulged in a bit of “ball” play in the Lucozade glass cage. I don’t quite know why she couldn’t understand why we weren’t in there as well. 🙂

Before we knew it, though I’m sure Sir Jules certainly could feel it, we were within the bounds of the Lakes district.

Can I just say that the Lakes district is beautiful. Indescribably beautiful and so peaceful.

Our next challenge was finding a town big enough to have a supermarket. We headed to Kendal and to our surprise found ourselves stuck in traffic! What the? For I’m sure nearly an hour we crawled our way into the city centre. Even today I can’t figure out where the traffic came from. So anyway, we soon stockpiled George with our all food and drinks for the weekend – I think we had enough food to feed an army but as we had no idea what kind of stores, if any, would be around our campsite we had to be prepared.

Finally, we headed off to our campsite. Boy what a drive through some very narrow and twisting roads. Luckily we arrived at the campsite with enough day light to spare for Jules to set up his tent and Sandra to set up ours! Yes I would have been more hindrance than help if I’d had anything to do with our tent. The only tent I’ve ever help set up went down at the first sight of rain! The ground didn’t make it very easy to keep the tent pegs in the ground as just below the surface was a lot of stone so I think the two of them did a good job. After that it was all about setting up our disposable BBQ and eating our marshmallows and burgers and sausages. There is nothing like enjoying a BBQ in the fresh country/mountain air!

Saturday dawned grey and wet. The rain was light so after a breakfast of wet bacon (still really tasty by the way) we were still convinced that getting to the top of Scalfell Pike was on the cards. It was a bit worrying that when we got to the carpark George was the only car in there but it was still relatively early and it was raining a little bit so maybe a few of the climbers decided to start a little later hoping for the weather to clear up. Not too long after starting up the walk we first ran into a bunch of cows and then into our first climber coming down. He had encouraging news that the Pike was still climbable though just as he said that the rain seemed to get just a bit harder and the wind blowing just a little stronger.

The walk up the mountain was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be and I found it really hard to catch my breath. I think it was the constant upwards walking without any real break (in the sense of the path flattening or even going down slightly.) Sir Jules and Einstein had a lot of patience though waiting for me to recover every few minutes. The views along the walk were AMAZING and I really did appreciate being out in the fresh air – even if it was wet and windy. As time passed more and more walkers were coming up the mountain. It was great how everyone was so friendly stopping to speak most of the time. The higher we climbed the worse the weather really got. At one stage we had to cross this stream which was so high that we had to actually walk through water – Sir Jules did try and climb over the rocks but that ended very unfortunately. Luckily he didn’t hurt himself. We made it nearly to the top and by then we were soaked (nothing we wore was waterproof despite the fact it was supposed to be – except perhaps for Einstein’s shoes!) and the wind was just whipping around like crazy so we made a decision to come down the mountain. Walking back down was much easier physically on me though it presented its own dangers with the slippery rocks and the wind threatening to literally blow me off the mountain. My poncho was almost like having my own little hang-glider. It was actually very scary at times.

After four and a half hours of walking up and down we made it back safe and sound to George. Thank goodness for heating because by then we were freezing and for me to say that you have to know it was really cold! Despite it all I’m glad we made the attempt even though we didn’t quite make it to the top – something to aim for next time I guess! We ended the day with a bit of a kip (okay … well quite a long kip) and then a nice meal at the pub accompanied by some Jenga, Dominoes and a wierd drinking game where Einstein made Sir Jules and I act out these animals. Yea – exactly. Things you do in pubs.

Sunday dawned dry if not sunny so at least this made it a little easier to pack away the tents. We’d decided before heading back to London to grab some brunch at Ambleside and check out Lake Windemere which is the largest (natural) lake in England. The drive there was just a little on the HAIRY side I think its fair to say. In addition to the fact we were running low on petrol and the roads were wet and slippery we had to go up and over a very scary pass where only Sir Jules’ driving skills and George’s big heart got us through. At one stage when some random sheep jumped in front of us Sir Jules had to slam the brakes on and we very nearly ended up going backwards down a very steep hill. Despite some very nervous moments, as I wasn’t driving, I got to admire the scenery which, as with the rest of the district, was simply gorgeous. A nice greasy English breakfast at Ambleside, scrambling around for a petrol station, a quick drive by Lake Windemere and our Lakes District was nearly over. Just the long drive back to London to negotiate. You can see from the pic to the right just how much the weekend took out of all of us .. 🙂

Overall I had a great time this weekend. Cheers to Sir Jules for driving and providing general guidance on the area and cheers to Einstein for sharing her tent with me and finding our campsite for us. Can’t wait to return and give Scalfell Pike another go … maybe when the weather is a little better perhaps.