Black Bull Inn Kirkby Stephen

After making arrangements by text last night my friend Steve (from Crewe this time - I know a lot of Steve's) caught a train to Penrith with his family to arrive around 8am to collect my car. Joanna brought me back to Appleby and that little task was sorted. Typical of me to be finishing off such a large task at the last minute but it all got sorted and that's the main thing.

It is now the time to be assembling my stuff into ...

Well after a good nights sleep, well I did but Martyn woke up complaining bitterly that he was kept awake by another form of wind from Leigh? we woke up to.. yes you guessed it, RAIN! but with the added benefit of of strong winds with gusts up to gale force strength..nice!

Once everyone had checked out of the Motel we set off for Glasgow on the scenic route via Otterburn & Haywick, stopping for breakfast at the very friendly Percy Arms in Otterburn ...

... the night. Morag and Ruby who live next door came round to say safe flight and have a good time and they'd got me 3 stones that have different meanings. One to keep me safe, one to bring me luck and one for love, so pls keep your fingers and toes crossed I find it lol!!! 3 girl friends popped round with bubbly and mags which always come in handy and then my cuz Becca popped round for a last good luck hug.
Not ...

Ingnoring most advice we did head off for our anniversary weekend to the Lake District. Cumbria had just experience record rainfall of 400+ mm of rain in 24 hours and amny parts of the area were severly flooded. We had a great run up on the M6 on Friday afternoon and settled into Elim House. In the moring we went down to see the lake which was now creeping ...

... together now ready for when I pack later on this week. It's a bit strange as I don't feel like I'm going anywhere yet but I'm sure come this time next week I'll be thinking different! I've now got everything set out on our spare bed ready to pack in my bag, my last "to do "list is writen, I did a few bits of washing of things I want to take and I've still ...

... back to Hawkshead.

We had planned to stop in Ambleside on the way home to see the Roman ruin "Galava", which unfortunately turned out to be a muddy field with some ridges in. Most disappointing, and it started to rain again as we walked back to the car, leading to a damp drive home. On a positive note, we did get home in a record four hours, just in time for Eartha to watch Dr Who.

... churning streams and modified our route. The back road to Little Langdale took us around in a circle. It circumvented Little Langdale Tarn. The entire route wouldn't be more than 2-3 miles, but in our present state, that was quite far enough. The road was flooded in places - easily calf deep. Eartha avoided the worst of it, by walking along the top of a dry stone wall (dry? Ha!) while I made a foolhardy dash for it through the flood. Needless to say I got even ...

... grids and past a lethal looking ford. The potholes were serious puddles. I'm sure my right headlamp dipped underwater as we drove through one of them.

Finally we arrived and dragged our bedding in as fast as we could before it succumbed to the wet onslaught. Vince was sitting infront of the open fire, doing a cross-word. The rest of the ridiculously hardy BMC had walked to the pub (20 minutes ...

... sit around and then go out at night. Me:Sounds like a plan. [protracted pause] Karim: Or we could walk 16 miles up and down big ******* hills. Me: Yeah, that sounds better. Let's do that. But it was routine by now. We were going to walk every day. We were going to finish. And we hoped to God that at the end of it we would have some kind of feeling of achievement, and not just months of reconstructive foot surgery ahead of us...

Lake District was the northernmost area we visited. That's probably why the Lake District is one of the best attractions of U.K. John told me the story of Beatrix Potter, the author of Peter Rabbit.
Actually, I don't remember which lake I visited, because John took me there. I still remember I took a boat to the opposite ...