Tag: wild swimming

Kidsty Pike and High Street – Sunday 25th August

A bank holiday weekend and good weather and August – seems too good to be true. So we set out on a walk with Lou & Evan around part of the Haweswater valley.

The day couldn’t start off any more beautiful with these reflections as we drove along the lake to Mardale Head.

Looking up at our route on the skyline through these beautiful flowers

It’s a steep ascent so plenty of stopping time to take in the views of Haweswater below and take on board plenty of water in the sweltering heat of the day.

Finally getting towards the top, we stop for our picnic – everyone is hungry!

Evie has been released from the pack for a while by this point. She steadily makes her way uphill and reaches Kidsty Pike summit on her own two legs.

Enjoying tromping along the tops – why take the path when the other bits are more exciting!

It’s time to get back in the pack for Evie so we can pick up some speed – starting to feel it, plus we have another uphill push!

Reaching High Street and Evie is asleep, but Evan is enjoying the view!

We randomly bump into a friend Chris on our way down the Rigg as he is making his way up.

Looking down on one of my favourite tarns – the teardrop that is Blea Tarn.

Even the sheep is enjoying the view today!

After a dicey descent from the top of the Rigg, we finally get to Blean Tarn for a swim…. so refreshing. Even Evan and Evie enjoy padding in the deliciously cold waters today.

Finally back down – it’s been a long descent. We head to Askham swimming pool. Evie and Evan have done fantastically well today – the walk took much longer than anticipated, so time for some well deserved pool fun and an ice-cream!

Seat Sandal – 24/08/19

The weather has faired up, it’s the weekend, Claire and Oliver are around, so what else to do but hit the fells…. for an adventure.

Every walk is now becoming a mini adventure, as the minis want to walk!

We meet at Dunmail Raise and set off up the footpath towards Grizedale Tarn.

Released from the packs and off they set…. The bracken is super high to begin with but the path soon opens out.

For the first time ever Evie and Oliver positively wanting to hold hands whilst walking.

In truth I think Evie initially thought that between Oliver and Claire she would get a 1-2-3…. wheeeee, but she soon realised that was not to be the case!

Claire is the chosen one for helping at this point!

We make slow progress but it doesn’t matter. Today is a gorgeous day and we have nothing to rush for.

It’s also a truely gorgeous setting and the stream that you follow up is beautiful as it falls down the hillside drop after drop.

After a little pack time and a lot of whining noises, we stop for a picnic in the hope that this solves some of the problems for the minis who can walk but not yet verbalise.

Packed up again and ready to go, we continue up the last bit, a short but steep section….

Evie ‘singing ‘ and Oliver sleeping we make the summit.And what a grand summit it is- may not be the tallest but the views are spectacular.Lots of rock climbing to be had…

And more rock climbing….

….eventually we manage to get Evie back into the pack once more to descend the slightly dodgy path back to Grizedale Tarn.

Evie and Oliver have a blast – paddling and throwing stones don’t lose their amusement value in an hour. And it allows me a swim in this most beautiful of settings.

Finally though it is time to have one last picnic before we all get dressed, pack the bags and descend. Evie’s turn for a sleep …..

What an amazing day of adventure and fun for us all – one to be remembered .

Swimming on a cool & windy autumn day

Summer has definitely cleared of, but the desire to continue swimming in the Lakes hasn’t!

However the days of just going to the lake have gone as now I need to follow in the steps of my friends and organise my swims around my baby. So today this meant going with someone happy to look after Evie whilst I swam, and then swap!

You would think this happy little bundle wouldn’t mind me going for a dip, especially when she had Josie as a doting babysitter!

However, hopefully just a ‘stage’, but apparently she cried for most of the time I swam….

Back to shore and a very quick change (it’s got cold) before consoling an upset Evie whilst trying to warm up.

But once she realised I was back to stay it was all smiles again! We all squeezed in to the much needed pop up wind shelter (I think I need one of these in my life) for a picnic

And it was laughs and giggles once more

Then sadly time for home, what a lovely way to spend a day, getting stupidly cold and catching up with friends!

Tarn Crag and Sergeant Man – 11/06/18

Meeting up with my Swim-Run pal Alex just outside of Grasmere, we decided to go for a Walk-Swim seeing as currently I’m not running, certainly not with Evie and a rucksack! The first part of the day was a repeat on one of our training runs three summers ago.

We set off up to Easedale Tarn at a considerably slower pace than in previous years. But the Tarn itself just as beautiful as we took it in turns to have a swim and look after Evie. It was such a hot day that we didn’t need to worry about being cold after the swims.

Continued upwards to Codale Tarn for a spot of lunch and another swim, also gorgeous. From here we considered our options and decided to go up to Tarn Crag, as it was the least likely summit to get to again without considerable effort.

Cracking views from here, we decided to keep onwards and do a circle over Sergeant Man as we had plenty of day left. It took a bit longer to traverse over the rough ground than expected and up to Sergeant Man.

However we finally made it. At this point I could happily have kept going except we had a time to get back for.

What we / I hadn’t anticipated was the time it would take me to get down with this load on!

The terrain was tough in sections, some really rocky sections to get down.

Then Evie needed feeding and changing…..

But we finally made it – an epic 7 hour fell day!