Snapshots from the Lake District

I've always wanted to explore the Lake District, I've spent 20 years living in the UK and yet had never ventured inside England's largest National Park. But when I imagined myself by the Lakes, I had this image of me strolling through the countryside; so at ease, carefree and relaxed. What I didn't have in mind was a huge rucksack weighing a quarter of my body weight on my back causing bruises to appear at the contact points;my hips and shoulders and blisters forming on my tired, aching feet. It was not a pretty sight I tell you. In fact, I'm not entirely sure how I got through my silver expeditions completely unscathed, perhaps it was that I was in a group of girls where the walking pace was considerably slower; I remember so because I was right at the front and able to keep up!

So the expedition, we walked about 85km over 4 days. It may not seem like a lot but on that terrain, in those miserable conditions and waking up at 5.30am to the prospect of putting on wet, muddy trousers, damp walking boots and without the luxury of a shower the night before was really a challenge. Plus knowing you had an 11 and a half hour hike ahead before you get back into the comfort of a sleeping bag and hot dinner was not at all uplifting on our spirits.

On the very first day, bounding down those steep hills I'd already injured my knee. This was to be my exit strategy, each step uphill and downhill put pressure on my knee to the point where I was thinking 'We're almost at a road/able to get signal/back at a campsite, now would be a good time to just drop out.' But I didn't. Instead I focused on getting back to campsite, to a nice hot dinner of rice and beanbeast, dropping my backpack and lying in my snug, warm sleeping bag to alleviate all the tensions and aches of the day and restore our energy for the next day.

On the 2nd day, we climbed up Helvelyn (if you google image it you can see some nice views of it). Except it wasn't at all like that. We climbed so high, the mist was so thick we could barely see past 10m ahead, the wind was so strong I almost got blown off the cliff (it was even more energy draining just to walk in it without getting knocked about) and the rain was being thrown directly at us. Our waterproofs were soaked through and through. Plus, we missed the path so we had to walk 1k down this steep stoney path not finding the path were supposed to take off it and had to walk back up again. We couldn't even stop because we were all soaked and probably would catch hypothermia. That was the longest day...11 hours of walking starting at the crack of dawn. By the time we got to the campsite we were so exhausted and we still had to set up our tents and cook our dinner.


The weather was pretty miserable throughout, what’s more is that most of the day we were only eating cereal bars, plus tuna and pitta bread for lunch so I quickly lost my appetite. I think I must have burned at least 4000 calories a day since we only had pasta and sauce for dinner or rice and bean feast and a slice of that heavenly ginger cake.

We did actually get the luxury of a shower on two nights out of 6!! Though it wasn't a particularly pleasant experience; cobwebs basically covered the ceiling above while spiders dangerously dangled in front threatening to fall on you in mid-shower. I had to be very careful where I stood and my neck craned upwards whilst my eyes were locked on the spiders' every move. Needless to say, I'm not a huge fan of spiders particularly when they are crawling about in my shower.
On the last night we stayed at a mountain bothy- Mosedale cottage. It is basically like an abandoned house that trekkers can use to wild camp. We had to walk in the bogs, mud and sheep shit to get there as it was really in the middle of nowhere. We found a wooden board attached to the wall which all 6 of us slept on in a row. It was rock solid and cold and I couldn't even roll over since my hips were so sore. The view from the steamed up windows were a little creepy and I tried not to catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye with the mad axe-bearing farmer with his face pressed up against the glass straight from a horror story one of the guys had so nicely concocted up for us.

On the last day, the sun came out. Typical. It was absolutely beautiful. We were all in high spirits at being so close to the finishline and the views were simply stunning. It made every minute walking through the awful misty, windy, rainy, cold weather high up in clouds worth it. It had really been a challenge; not only physically demanding but also a test of strength of character but the feeling of accomplishment at the end of it all makes it one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever come across.