A 13-hour long midweek holiday
5 good things (#3)
Okay so I do realise that we’re at risk of this just becoming a weather blog but, when the sun’s shining, how can you talk about anything else?!
I’m scrolling through the BBC Weather app and it’s showing wall-to-wall sunshine right through to the end of next week. And because this is the UK and a) this is exceedingly rare and b) we can never quite trust that it won’t vanish in an instance, I feel this frenzied need to make the most of every last second of it. Especially since the clocks went back last weekend and now it’s light until eight o’clock every night.
My brain is playing the same message on repeat: drop everything and go outside. The skies are blue today but they almost certainly won’t be in a fortnight. It’s not improbable that this will turn out to be the best weather stint of the year.
In a bid to make the most of the sunny spell and calm down my internal frenzy, on Wednesday we headed out on a little mid-week adventure and the first van night of the year. I met Isaac in a lay-by in Eskdale valley after we’d both finished work for the day (more pertinent for him as he actually has a proper job that sadly can’t be flexed according to weather conditions). After a quick change and shoving some warm layers and emergency snacks into a bag, we were on the trail by 5pm.
Isaac had suggested checking out Stanley Ghyll, a deep gorge with a series of waterfalls and a viewing platform - somewhere neither of us had been before. I imagine it might get pretty busy at the weekend but we didn’t see anybody else at all as we strolled the couple of miles there, through woods full of tall trees and past some friendly looking sheep. We sat on a log at the top of the falls and had cans of 0% Heineken before returning to our original track via open fell, completing a lollipop shaped loop in the end.
We were planning to spend the night on the high fell road but the wind really picked up towards the end of our walk. Not fancying being blown around all night, we decided to stay low instead. I’d picked up a picnic tea on my way over so we ate roast chicken, salad and a loaf of yellow-stickered bread while watching the sunset through the open van door. Hot chocolates and Minstrels for pudding, a few pages of our books and we were ready for an early night.
By half past six the next morning we’d made coffee and eaten porridge and we were on our way. Isaac cycled to work straight from our park-up and I went off to do a couple of hours of navigation practice. We were out for just over 13 hours in total and I honestly felt like I’d been on a little holiday.
Nights like Wednesday are exactly why I wanted to live in Cumbria, with the Lake District on my doorstep. I hated the thought of only ever living for the weekend or the next big trip, and there’s just something really amazing about being based in the place you used to go on holiday. I can do on a Wednesday night now what I used to have to book a week of annual leave and drive five hours for?! How lucky is that?
I’m still a bit all over the place at the moment while I wait to move into a new house. I’m mostly splitting my time between my parents’ in the Midlands and visits up to South Cumbria. The nomadic period has been fun and exciting in lots of ways but I can’t wait to be up here permanently again, to get all my stuff out of storage and to have more mini midweek holidays like this.
Even if the weather isn’t quite so good next time…
5 good things
My weekly roundup of things I’ve enjoyed/nice recommendations/positive news.