As the weather has changed from wet and wild to frosty and crisp, it has started to feel more festive here in the Dales this week. We have also enjoyed our first winter trip to the Lake District in the van this season where we had all the weathers! We are loving the winter nights in front of the fire, it is so much more enjoyable when we are not having to go to work and return home in the dark.
An early winter camping trip in the Lakes
Spotting a reasonable weather window, we decided we would head to the Lakes for a few days of hiking and bagging Wainrights. We set off on Monday evening to stay at one of our favourite park ups so that we could be on the hills early, a great strategy as Tuesday was glorious. We hiked up to Stickle Tarn and tackled 2 Wainrights, Tarn Crag and Blea Rig. The views were epic and the lake picturesque with the mountains reflecting on the glass like water. It felt so good to be back in the mountains, although I did struggle a little physically with my breathing after being poorly in the previous weeks.
The weather turned out to not be as great as the forecast and on Wednesday it chucked it down all day. Richard was desperate to tick of one quick Wainright that was a 1km hike each way and finally persuaded me with the promise of a pint after at 3pm to have a go. It meant a stomp up in the pouring rain and a race against the light on the way down but we made it back in one piece.
We based ourselves around the Langdales at the National Trust campsite for a couple of nights as it has great under floor heated shower facilities and a drying room for all our kit. A definite bonus when in a small VW campervan. The campsite is within walking distance of the Old Dungeon Ghyll pub which was very welcoming with its raging fires and local guitarists practising.
In our six years of vanlife we have never had the dreaded knock on the door to move on when wild camping. The same can not be said on campsites in the Lake District! Twice we have been woken up on a site in Keswick as the lake was at risk of flooding and on Thursday morning we were woken up at 8am by the warden on the campsite to tell us we needed to move due to high winds and the risk of falling trees!
Herdwick Sheep
I love them!
How happy are their pretty faces!
Mercy dash to Manchester
The one downside of the Langdales is its lack of mobile phone reception and this was a real issue when we got delayed messages from our daughter saying that she was in A and E and had been diagnosed with pneumonia.
We had to drive into Ambleside to be able to speak to her with any reliable signal. It is quite reassuring to know that even when they are fully grown adults, kids still want their parents around sometimes, so we abandoned our trip to spend some time with her. Fingers crossed, the antibiotics are working and she didn’t need to be admitted, but still a worry for someone so young to have come down with it.
It did however mean that we had an impromptu stay at mums house which was lovely and Luke cooked us all a fab dinner at his new house. We also got to spend some quality time with the cats – as we keep saying, every cloud has a silver lining.
The week our lives changed forever – 2 years on
2 years ago, on November 23rd, our lives changed for ever when we lost Richard’s younger brother Mark after a very short illness. It was especially heart breaking for us as it was only a few weeks after we lost Richard’s dad. It was the day we made our decision that we were going to early retire and live our lives to the max as you just don’t know what fate has instore for you. We miss them both so much and think about them every day. It is also what prompted us to make our decision to relocate to the Dales as it is closer to Richard’s mum so we could visit her more regularly whilst she was still living at home. Something we would have found really tricky to do had we still been working and living in Cheshire.
Glorious sunshine and frosty mornings in the Dales
This week has seen the first hard frost of the season in the Dales and it was really special waking up to a white blanket glistening across the valley, contrasted by a beautiful sunrise and blue skies. We went out for hike around our local hills in the sunshine , it was a lovely reminder of what an amazing place we live in. For the first time in a while we had clear views across to Pen Y Gent and Ingleborough and with the frost on the ground we didn’t sink ankle deep into the mud – an added bonus!
Mince pies and mulled wine
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! A cold frosty day surely goes well with mince pies and mulled wine! I have been trying out different short crust pastry recipes as we have all our family staying in the village for Christmas and we have made a huge batch of Delia Smiths mince meat. Todays batch were pretty impressive if I do say so myself. And definitely what was needed after a cold afternoon hiking.
It's officially the start of the Christmas season in Settle
Settle is such a picturesque little town, non more so than when it is lit up with twinkling Christmas lights. The lights switching on event in the town is very well supported by the community and there was such a lovely atmosphere. We were so impressed by the fireworks that lit up the sky in the crags above the town and the full moon even decided it would enhance the event by appearing. It is amazing how many people live in the area with many coming in from the surrounding villages. It was also great to see the local pubs so busy, Richard stuck to his no drinking in November challenge whilst I showed less restraint and sampled the mulled wine which was delicious.
The problems of drying washing with no central heating
With the much colder weather this week, has come the challenge of drying washing in a house with no central heating. We have also noticed more condensation on the windows especially in the mornings. On the advice of our next door neighbour, we have bought a dehumidifier with a laundry setting and were amazed that it pretty much dried a load of washing in 6 hours! It was also quite reassuring that the humidity levels in the house are reasonably low for an old building. Even so, we poured away over 1 litre of water from a 6 hour shift!
So another busy week has passed us by, we can’t believe we are into December next week. Hope you have all had a great week.
Jackie and Richard
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