What a fantastic weekend we’ve had! I don’t know about you but the Lakes this weekend has been an absolute dream… white frost, blue skies, golden hills, what more can you ask for? And it’s on our doorstep. So grateful for days like these. Honestly, if I could do this full time.. I so would! Yesterday we set off to Buttermere, slightly later than planned and arrived at around 4pm. It was just getting dark but we did get to see Buttermere and Crummock water in all its glory before making our way up the mountain. As we reached a quarter up, it was pretty much pitch black. We had two really good head torches and a hand held torch but next time we definitely need to consider taking another two spare head torches, just in case. Without them, we would have been totally lost and would have probably ended up getting in to a sticky situation, so it’s always worth carrying one in your bag if you are out on the mountains this winter. Anyway, we could see the glow from the first bothay we were hoping to find but then all of a sudden it had disappeared.. looking back now at our route on Josh’s Suunto watch, it shows up walking right past it! That’s how hidden it must’ve been! We reached the top and I knew where we were from past walks, so we headed towards the second bothay that we knew we could find. It was rammed full of other crazy people, I’d say around 12 people all sat round the stove, eating and drinking. I didn’t really want to stay in there with all those people so we decided to set up camp back down the mountain, overlooking Buttermere. We knew that we had picked a good spot because we could see a couple of the lights shining up from the village below. It took us a while to figure out the tent but that actually made us warm, considering it was probably -3 to -6 degrees at this point. We cooked some tea and snuggled down for the evening, tucked ourselves in and finally both fell asleep.
The following morning we woke up to a frosty white tent, our noses cold and there was condensation around the face hole of our sleeping bags. I struggled to get out of bed because I knew it meant getting cold again, although zipping open the tent to that view of Buttermere well and truly helped me hop out of my warm sleeping bag. Josh made me a tea and himself a coffee, which we sipped as we watched the sun creep over the mountain tops. For breakfast, porridge and maple syrup which filled my stomach and warmed me up. We began packing up and realised time had gotten the better of us, as we saw my Mum, Dad and Brother Alex striding up the mountain side to meet us, ready for a day of walking in the December sunshine. I’ve decided to split it in to two posts instead of having my gazillion photos all in one post, so here’s the first lot! I’ll share the photos from the walk later in the week. Speak soon, L.
