A day of drama..

Day 8! We woke up to a drizzly Monday morning in the Lake District, but it wasn’t going to get us down as we had a day full of adventures planned, but the day had something else lined up for us!

We took the dog for a walk round the site, which allowed him to stretch his legs ready to join us on one of our adventures today! Back at the van, we finalised some bits and pieces, filled up with fresh water and off we went!

The view was gorgeous despite the drizzly start, and whilst the road to the venue was tough in places (never going down “B” roads again!) we were too excited to let it get us down!

The scrape

Well, our day was about to be flipped upside down before we had even started! Michael has been a superb driver throughout, navigating little tracks, insane bends, blind bends the lot – it’s easy to forget, as a passenger, that we are in a 7metre long, 2.5metre wide motorhome when he is driving it with ease!

We had just arrived at the Graythwaite Estate, Michael had gone as wide as he possibly could have done to make the turn, but there just wasn’t enough room – we scraped the side of Marvin, took off the fresh water valve (again), lost our entire fresh water contents and the waste water valve underneath. The noise was horrendous and I immediately went into panic mode.

We got to the car park and assessed the damage that had been done. Whilst it wasn’t pretty, the damage and cracks had all been caused to the plastic fascia; lol we duck taped it together (to try and stop any further damage) and then Michael got to work coming up with a solution to replace the two valves that had smashed.

After Michael had found a fix, we spoke to the hire company about the situation and our options – they’ve been fantastic and told us not to come home (which we were very close to doing!), carry on with our honeymoon and try to enjoy it.

We took out excess cover of £1000, meaning no matter what happens that will be the most we will have to pay out. Not great, but the damage had been done and we had to pick ourselves up and carry on with the days plans.

4×4 off-roading

The first activity was 4×4 off roading in a Land Rover Defender! Michael has been so desperate to do this for as long as I have known him, and I have tried to book this experience for him for years, so we were both so excited that it was finally happening!

After a quick drive round to the start, Michael jumped in the drivers seat and Bentley jumped into the boot – I’m not sure which one was more excited!

Michael bloody smashed it doing this off road course, we didn’t wheel spin, we didn’t lose control, we didn’t crash (too soon?). The instructor was great and talked Michael through it the whole time, and dare I say Michael was a natural – I keep reminding him that a) we can’t afford a defender (we have excess to pay!) and b) we live in a town with some minor potholes!

It was a brilliant activity, I loved being passenger and it was awesome that Bentley could join us!

Kayaking on Windermere

Our second activity of the day was kayaking on Lake Windermere – this was the one I was really looking forward to! After kayaking with some friends a month or so ago, I had caught the bug! So to do it again, in such a scenic place, I was buzzing!

We had booked a double kayak, but when we rocked up, the instructor said we could swap to single ones if we preferred, as he had no other bookings for today, so we did! We wrapped up, thinking it was going to a bit chilly as the clouds were rolling back in, got into our life jackets and hopped in our kayaks and we were off.

We were expecting the lake to be busy with ferries, sail boats, small boats, other kayakers, paddle boarders and more but it was eerily quiet and eerily still. We had the kayaks for an hour and spent that paddling down towards the north end of the lake.

It was so picturesque, with the autumnal colours in the trees trying to push themselves through, with the mountains on the horizon, simply perfect!

We were expecting to the find the lake cold and windy, but it was the complete opposite – still and warm! I put my hand in the lake, just to see how cold it was, but to my surprise it just wasn’t at all!

The instructor said it has spent the summer warning up, and they have had such lovely weather all summer that it is normally at its hottest in August/September!

It was just the experience we needed, so tranquil, so peaceful – we literally had the lake to ourselves bar a few ferries and it was a break from the adrenaline and emotion filled adventure that we had experienced so far!

Both activities were booked with Graythwaite Adventures, we had the same instructor for both experiences and they were awesome! Highly recommend, and again, they offer a whole host of experiences in offer for you to try!

A well-earned dinner

When we were back on dry land, our destination was The Old Posting House in Cockermouth. We took the dog for a wander round the local village before heading off for dinner!

The Old Posting House was another “off-grid” Britstop with no electric, water etc, but it did mean that we would get a good hearty dinner – which was perhaps needed more than we realised following the up and down day we had had!

I ordered the mussels for started and a special of beef bourguignon for mains, whilst Michael ordered a meat tapas for starter and a pan fried chicken for main, we also tried half a pint of the local lager; Keswick Gold and were both super impressed!

The food was insane! I must have had about 40 mussels on the starter, all but 1 of which opened – which is unheard of! The portion sizes were immense and neither of us could finish our mains – eyes were much bigger than bellies!

We rolled back to the van for an early night and hopes of a better day tomorrow! Stick around as we head to Scotland ✌🏼