Moooooo

Bad sleep last night.  3rd night in a row.  Meh.

Drove up to Bassenthwaite this morning - figured it was going to be a drizzly sort of day, in the special way that the Lake District likes to greet me.  However, upon arriving at my friend's caravan, consuming a cup of tea and catching up on some gossip (i.e. reassuring him that after my meltdown of a couple of weeks ago, that actually I am ok and not mentally unhinged) the sun came out to play.

"We'll go for a nice walk, a mooch.  About 4km, cafe half way, then wander up into Dodd Wood and see the Ospreys."

Excellent I thought.

After a mile of walking it became apparent that my Siberian standard down Mountain Equipment jacket was far too effective at keeping body heat in.  Then came two miles of boggy walking.  Then another 2 miles before the magical cafe appeared.

It seems my friend suffers from a concept that we call "Hebdon time" whereby every estimate of time / distance to be travelled is actually only half of the reality!  4km my arse...I think you'll find 5 miles is double that!

Not complaining at all - it was lovely to chat, wander about, see the new lambs, admire the breathtaking scenery of the Lakes and to chat with my friend's lovely daughter who is funny and intelligent and made of sterner stuff than most children of her age (no complaining about the walking at all).

Cream tea and a bottle of Victorian lemonade to put me on, then we wandered up to the low level viewing point of the Ospreys who are back in residence.  Saw the nest through telescope.  Pretty cool.

Wandered back down and waited for a scheduled bus that never came.

An RAF jet of some sort flew down the valley as we waited.

We gave up on the bus.

Guess what?  

Taking a completely different route back, somehow we managed to make a 3 mile direct route into another 5 miles of walking.

You see that look of forlorn exhaustion on the Mummy Cow's face....yep!

Thank you Paul and Pip - it has been an absolutely lovely afternoon and it was lovely to see you both.  I am only kidding about the forlorn exhaustion - 10 miles of walking more than covered the cream tea and negated the need for the gym :-)