Ghyll Scrambling and other Jolly Japes

 With #WowOnWednesday

Dear friends. We're back from a fabulous week in the Lake District in the north of England. Not only did we have wonderful weather but we tried a couple of new activities. In addition to the usual fell walking we went ghyll scrambling. 

Clad in wetsuit, jacket, flotation vest and helmet, you make your way down a ghyll (or waterfall), in this case Stoneycroft ghyll, diving and jumping into pools, scrambling down rocks and getting fully immersed in the process. Below: John with Jay from Keswick Adventures who was our guide.

Jay assured us his oldest client had been 84, so we were spring chickens. It was great fun. We were both wearing Go Pro's so check out John's short video of our adventure. 

 Next time we're going to book Canyoning, which is ghyll scrambling on stereoids, involving wearing a  a harness.  I'm also willing to try bungee jumping and kayaking. But I may take a rain check on "via ferrata." which you can do at Honister Slate Mine. I'm not good with heights.

We also spent half a day on ebikes. Poor John is very keen to make a cyclist out of me, but I've been too traumatised by London traffic.  Here I am before we started. John was tinkering with the bikes before we started. He's a very keen cyclist and has a ebike along with various others, so the first thing he does with a new bike is change the position of the handlebars and saddle.

The first hill we did was a HUGE one, but the bike was in turbo mode and shot off.  I quite enjoyed that, but I didn't like the steep descent and was braking (with brakes squealing) the whole time.  We managed to get to the hotel in time for the procession taking the Queen's coffin to Westminster Hall for the lying in state.

We did a couple of strenuous walks, both favourites which we've done a few times. Neither of us seemed to be at full power, energy-wise, which was strange;  we didn't have Covid. But it meant we had a less active time than we normally have in the Lakes.  Here's one of the spectacular views we enjoyed during our lunch stop.

On the last day, we went to the garden and grounds of Mirehouse near Keswick and spent a long time exploring the bee garden and woodland and lakeside walks, plus popping into this tiny church in the grounds. I'd love to go to a service there.

This picture shows me in the heather maze, with the backdrop of three fells we walked earlier in the week. 

Apart from my hiking clothes, I packed a capsule wardrobe of Kettlewell separates in my spring colours, which work beautifully together.  I tried a couple of full length selfies in the room but they weren't great, so here's a brief look at what I wore, along with the rose gold boots and teal brogues I took. For bottoms I had brown and dark green jeggings from M&S, which appear to have sold out already.  I took a few necklaces to jazz up the outfits. Dinners in our hotel are less formal than they used to be, but you still like to make an effort.

And the dinners! Well, fabulous. Here's a small selection.  

We're booking our next visit for April as it's always lovely in spring with the lambs, pheasants and azaleas. 

Have you / would you try ghyll scrambling or via ferrata? 

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