I saw in my arrival to a new decade by circumnavigating Ennerdale Water in the company of my husband and my dog. The oldest boy had offered to babysit the other two free of charge in honour of it being such a special day, so John and I took this offer and stretched it as far as we could, and managed about 12 hours away from home.
We'd already decided that over the course of the Easter weekend, the Saturday would be the best day for a walk due to a) the weather being predicted to be nice, and b) there being no church celebration to attend that day. Once that was decided upon, I sat on the BBC weather website comparing the forecast for various lakes. It seemed the further west the better, and so Ennerdale Water won out. Hence we were out for such a long time: Ennerdale is about 2 and a quarter hours away from us. Not that the journey felt that long at all; we had beautiful scenery to gaze at, and C.S.Lewis' 'The Last Battle' on audiobook to keep us further entertained.
We arrived at the car park at 10am, and were one of a handful there.
Anything we'd read prior to arrival suggested that this was going to be a really very quiet day, with barely a soul to be met. I have come to the conclusion that the people who write the internet have not been to Ennerdale on a sunny Easter Saturday. Certainly the morning was quiet enough, but as we got to the western end of the lake, random groups of people started appearing to enjoy a day by the water. How rude. They obviously hadn't got the memo that with it being such a significant birthday, I was in charge (this is definitely true because my youngest boy told me so. I'm not sure who he thinks is usually in charge, but we'll let that one slide); and therefore they were not supposed to get in the way of me with my new birthday present:
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| John had bought me a Canon Powershot G7X as my birthday present. Yes I did just have to look that up on the box. |
So we started out at the eastern end, and stopped to take some pictures of the beautiful view. Usko was keen to assert his ownership of Ennerdale Water, and did a wee up the leg of a bench. It was a bench bearing the inscription: "Ian Forsyth and Prince: Lake District Search and Rescue Dogs Association". I like to think it's what Prince would have wanted.
We did the trickier side of the lake first. Mr. Ordnance Survey had given us no indication that it would be tricky: the dotted line of the path has no extra marks to show that you have to Slide Down Some Nearly Vertical Rock Faces. But hey ho.
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| Rucksack to left of picture for scale. John came down the drop on the right, then realised there was a slightly less sheer route on the left. So he scrambled up a bit (to where the rucksack is) and told me to pass the doggy on the left hand side. I did so and then scrambled down to join them both. Apologies (only mild ones though) if you now have Musical Youth stuck in your head. |
I think I'll let the photos show you the journey for a while
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| First view of Ennerdale Water was over the weir |
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| I promise I didn't do this walk on my knees... |
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| Dog on a rock |
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| Dodgy Man hanging about by a gate again. Angling for a kiss. (See what I did there?!) |
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I'd said to John that on my birthday walk, I really wanted to see a blue sky reflected in a lake.
And I got to :-)
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| Where we had a little smackerel of something for our elevenses... |
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| ...and enjoyed this view whilst we did so. |
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| John's favourite gnarly tree |
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| A favourite nesting spot, it would seem |
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| Imaginative Title Award goes to.... |
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| The end of the lake; from which point onwards People regularly appeared. |
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| View as we ate our sarnies |
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| Managed to snap this sunbathing Peacock. Not brilliant I know, but still pleased with myself for achieving it! |
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| Back to the weir again. |
We arrived back at the car park to find it full to over-flowing, and some skilled negotiation was required to exit safely. Although never warm enough to wear less than a jumper, John and I both managed to get ourselves slightly sun-kissed noses and cheeks. Or, to put it less glamourously, inverted panda eyes from our shades.
And although I jest about the other people appearing in my view, I can only imagine that the more tourist-favoured places on the Lakes will have been absolutely heaving. So I'm glad that Ennerdale was quiet and serene for the most part: it was a day of mixed emotions due to being my first birthday without a card from either parent :-( But I spent the evening in the company of my menfolk, with a movie to watch and cards and presents to open; deciding to make sure that my life does begin at 40 :-D
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