Lakes Orienteering

We’ve spent the last week in the Lake District attending the Lakes 5 days orienteering event. This event usually comprises 5 orienteering races, but only comprised 4 this year because of a cancellation thanks to the Lake District weather! Richard and I have been doing far too much distance rather than orienteering recently, so our efforts were not particularly noteworthy, however a good time was had by all. During the event we were based in Coniston at the social club. It was a great location and the presence of wifi made life easy, especially because we were trying to replace my poorly car 🙁

Orienteering events usually last for between 60 and 90 minutes (for us) and therefore compared to our usual activities, the activity levels were quite low. On the rest day (Wednesday) we therefore decided to head into the mountains. From Coniston we walked up to Goat’s Water, up the Old Man, over to Swirl How, up Wetherlam and then back via Coniston Fell. Tony and Catherine came along too and cheered me up by telling the stories of their numerous past car crashes!

During the week we mostly ate out (which was great, especially the company at the Badger Bar!), but on a few days we attempted cuisine a la camping …. the most successful of which was the Cartmel sticky toffee pudding cooked on the BBQ!

We returned home on Saturday to find a car for me ….. and bought Polly…

Nearing the end of the week, my legs were bouncing off the walls due to relative lack of activity, so I talked Richard into a trip north, firstly to see my Grandad and then for a run around Matlock. We parked at Holloway and ran up the eastern side of Matlock Bath taking in Riber Castle. We dropped down and then climbed back up to Tansley before crossing the River Derwent in Matlock. We then ran up the opposite valley side and circled Matlock Bath, eventually dropping down to Bonsall and then to Cromford. I talked Richard into stopping at the Mill for a cream tea and then we continued along the canal back in the direction of the car. It turned out that the beam engine at the Leawood Pumping Station was in steam so we detoured to take a look (Richard had never seen one in steam before!) and then ran back to the car.