The Lake District ↑ all posts

I was woken by the sound of a woodpecker busily drilling away at the tree above my tent. I wasn’t in a huge rush to get up as it had dropped below freezing overnight and my sleeping bag was pretty warm. The morning sun took the edge off the cold around 7am and after startling some sheep by doing starjumps in their field to warm up, I headed into Carlisle for some breakfast.

Another cyclist gave me some insider advice about the best route to the Lake District. I followed his route out past the racecourse and along flat country roads through fields of sheep and dairy cows until I joined the Coast to Coast cycle path at the edge of the Lakes. Cycling through Keswick and down to Ambleside takes you past rocky outcrops, through woods, past meres and tarns (but no lakes), and is beautiful if you can ignore the constant stream of cars passing you.

At Ambleside I turned right and headed up the valley to Elterwater where Scott Bentley and his family were staying in a holiday cottage. After a quick shower at the campsite I headed to the pub to meet them and their boisterous 20 month old dog Reuben. They very kindly invited me back to their cottage for dinner and they fed me very well. I was very sad to leave the warmth and cheerful atmosphere to walk back up the river path to my tent. As I left we joked that I’d look back on this evening fondly over the coming weeks as I lay shivering in my tent!