Easter Holidays - Week 1

Group selfie

Monday - it was sunny but cold and windy again.  I couldn't bear being outside and getting cold again so we decided to head to Kendal for lunch and then the cinema to see Missing Link which was a film I hadn't heard of but really enjoyed - very British humour about an explorer that goes looking for 'the missing link' finds him, becomes friends, takes him to his kin in the Himalayas, but he isn't accepted, but they end up life long mates helping each other along.  Have to watch it to understand it - but was a fun children's film to watch - Tom enjoyed it too.

Tuesday - the wind had stopped blowing - yay!  We had arranged a day with Matthew so we went round to pick him up and then went to Stacksteads for some swimming.  Forgot to take my underwater camera which is a shame!  We were there for 2 hours, the kids managed over an hour in the pool by themselves, so snappy came out and they had loads of fun whilst I did some lengths.  Then back to Ingleton, lunch at Inglesport and then we went to the park which was good, until Tom leaped off a piece of apparatus and face planted on the floor - blood in the mouth, nose, chest etc etc.  That was the end of that, so we came home and they played zoo and lego until I took Matt home.

Lucy, very tall Mae and Tom

Wednesday - Tom and I headed to Warrington for the day.  Warrington is half way between Telford and here, so the perfect place to meet up.  Warrington isn't a well known tourist hot spot, but I managed to find a good looking park on-line and we decided to meet there.  It was a glorious day - blue skies and sunny by the end of the day we were all in T-shirts and looking a big rosy!  We met up with Rachel, Mae and Lucy.  We hadn't seen each other for 3 years - but it didn't seem to matter, the kids got on instantly and Lucy is now big enough to join in with most games which is great.  There was a huge adventure park so the kids played there whilst Rachel and I chatted - we had quite a bit to catch up on.  After a while we had a picnic lunch together and then explored the free children's zoo which had lots of randy male Peacocks strutting their stuff, a couple of donkeys and lots of red squirrels, oh and some Herdwick sheep.

Welcome strawberry ice cream half way round

Then a quick change at the car to rid ourselves of some clothes and get scooters out for the kids.  They then whizzed around whilst Rachel and I explored the formal gardens.  It was a very pleasant park and only cost us £3 parking for the whole day - a bargain, shame we had to drive right through Warrington to get to it.  Tom, unfortunately wasn't at his best today - he spent a good hour in a sulk, never got to the bottom of why - not great behaviour and I was disappointed but hey - that's kids for you.  When we parted, Mae said she hoped it wouldn't be so long before we met up again - so I'm guessing they had a good time.  It was lovely to see them all again.

Thursday - Matt had finished his WOSAs so was free of work - yay.  We split into two today - I'm in training for the 3 peaks and was needing to do 2 peaks this week, so we made a picnic for each of us and then Matt and Tom dropped me off at Ribblehead so I could climb Whernside and Ingleborough finishing up at Ingleton and they headed off to the Howgills.  It was another gorgeous day - although very very hazy.  Got up to 19 degrees I believe which was good.  It was MEGA windy on top of Whernside - so much so that I struggled to walk in a straight line!  Anyway, I managed it: 14 miles, 3330ft of ascent in 5.5 hours.  Got tired legs tonight.

Testing the depth

Over to Matt:

Struggling up to the summit

Yes, Tom and I took ourselves off for a 6 mile hike through the Howgill Fells. I'd been meaning to explore this area for ages, so it was nice to finally get round to it. The first half of the walk was a climb up an ever narrowing valley/gully along a stream. The path was very narrow and indistinct, but Tom seemed to love the challenge. If anything, he made it up the gully more easily than I did - a proper little mountain goat. We stopped for lunch at the bottom of a waterfall called The Spout, with me eating while trying to work out how on earth I was going to drag Tom up it. We somehow made it, and once we got to the top of the valley, the landscape opened up into open moorland, which was tough going on very boggy and grassy terrain.

Tom's enthusiasm was starting to seriously wane once we reached the summit, but (luckily) once we got there, we were rewarded with views down to the M6 (Eddie Stobart trucks!) and the West Coast Main Line (Virgin Trains!), meaning that the journey back down to the car was a pleasant one, despite some seriously strong winds (I had to hold on to Tom to stop him blowing off the mountain) and very limited visibility thanks to some thick haze.

Pendolino in the Lune Valley

For "only" 6 miles, it was extremely tiring, and my legs ached the following day, but the views were lovely, and I was very impressed with Tom's stamina. We were worried that he's lost some fitness since he stopped swimming lessons, but it didn't show today.