Second Expedition

Actually, I don't think yesterday's walk qualifies as an expedition if it's only 8 miles and you don't need a sherpa to carry your bags, but it felt like a long way to me...

This time we drove just up the road from our hotel and walked round Great Langdale and Little Langdale, taking in Blea Tarn and Little Langdale Tarn on the way. We realised that we'd forgotten to bring the camera but decided not to go back and get it - which was a mistake as there were some beautiful shots to be had of the Langdale Pikes and Blea Tarn. It was raining, though, so no pictures we could have taken would have been as good as these ones: there's a great shot of the Langdale Pikes here and a 360 degree panoramic view of Blea Tarn here.

We took the walk more slowly than Rob would have liked, but we still finished in the time the guide book said it would take (4 hours, plus a stop for a lunch of Grasmere gingerbread). Most of the way round it was drizzling a little bit, but around miles 6 and 7 it really poured down, to the extent that our waterproof shorts were not living up to their name and were buckling under the pressure to stay dry. Fortunately the rain stopped and the sun came out for the last mile so we were able to dry off a bit before getting back to the car. Again, my foot started aching towards the end and I was glad to finish, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We went back to our hotel in time for a muscle-easing wrap (him) and a facial (me), then packed up ready to leave early this morning to go back home.

The journey back wasn't too bad at all, bearing in mind it had taken us 5 hours to get to Manchester last week and the Lakes are another hour or so further north. It took us just over 5 hours to get home including a half-hour stop, and we arrived back at exactly 15:00 - so plenty of time for me to do three loads of washing before bedtime ;). Because I took a week's holiday in May to go to Turkey, Rob has more holiday left to take this year than I do, so he's taking this next week off as well while I go back to work.