Their story, in their words…
We arrived at Becontree station where we got the district line to victoria. We stopped off at victoria and got on the coach and began our long journey to Penrith rail station.
We stopped off at penrith then took 2 buses to arrive at Grasmere where we would begin our hike. We began walking up to Grasmere and met a very beautiful waterfall we decided to jump in. Everyone loved the waterfall even when it was cold. We also tasted the refreshing water the lakes offer, it was very clean and refreshing and we filled up our water bottles with them. After patching up some minor cuts we kept moving onto our first campsite and arrived there by night fall. Our campsite was Easedale Tarn and the views were incredibly beautiful. The lads had very high hopes and it acted as a morale booster. We got our gear off and set up the tents quickly then we began cooking food. We had bought a large cut of a sirloin steak at a local butchers before landing at Grasmere so we could enjoy some tasty meat for our first night. We packed up our things, washed the plates and cleared the area before setting our bags underneath the tents and heading to sleep. The weather that night wasn’t good unfortunately it had rained all night and my bag managed to end up on the outside of the tent, by morning it was absolutely soaking wet but I had to just deal with it and move on.
We woke up in the morning and it was still very scenic however it was very cold and still lightly raining so it demotivated us to begin moving. We stayed at the camp spot for a fairly long time at around the afternoon after having some breakfast we decided to keep moving up and scale the mountain ahead of us. The mountain was hard however we kept moving and successfully scaled it to get to the other side and successfully continue our route. The mountain side was dangerous there were jagged rocks everywhere just waiting for us to slip on one of them. However we moved calmly and efficiently always checking up on one another.
Day 2 was a very long day we hiked very long and traversed many mountains. As we kept moving we decided to take a detour to reach our camp site earlier with Luis leading the way. However it quickly turns a turn for the worst as we manage to get ourselves stuck up on a mountain with a 600 feet drop below down with many jagged rocks and dangerous cliffs. With daylight burning and time running out Luis had quickly dropped all his excess weight and went scouting for new potential routes which were much safer. There was good signal up on that mountain however so the lads did manage to save themselves out of boredom waiting for Luis to come back.
Luis traversed far and found new potential routes however there was only so much he could see forth so he decided to take a risk and go forward with it anyways. There was a very dangerous jump involved however with a very deep drop, one wrong step and you would have been sliding down a sharp muddy slope and hit the dead-end of some jagged rocks which could have left us seriously injured. Luis recognised this and instantly told the group that there is a very dangerous jump involved. When it came to the actual jump, Sib had asked if this was the dangerous part, Luis responded with No, theres a dangerous one up further. This relieved not only Sib but all the groups nerves after being reassured that it was not dangerous. They all made the jump safely then Luis had revealed that it was in-fact the dangerous part however he did not want anyone to be overcome with nerves and fears so he had tricked them so tension would be relieved.
We kept moving this time Curtis took the lead ahead compensating for Luis’s slight fatigue and we reached new unexplored lands which we scouted further. We ended up getting much further down the mountain safely and we used a technique of sliding. We were met with a steep slope down the mountain but we also realised that the land below was flat and clear of rocks so we safely slid down the mountain. Everyone slid down and unfortunately Jackson had lost his power bank in the process which put us in a bad position. After sliding down we walked further to a nearby waterfall and admired the view in front of us. It was captivating and it did not feel real, almost as if it was a reward for our hard work we did on that mountain. Weirdly enough the ground was soft and we suspected it was simply water logged.
After jumping on the ground heavily we noticed that it would shake entire areas of the ground and we had second thoughts about camping on it, however we took another risk and did it anyways and it worked out in the end. We ended up getting an early sleep with Sib and Jackson going out to traverse lands nearby in hopes of finding a local shop in a village. They left in the evening and arrived at midnight whilst everyone was still asleep. They awoke Curtis to help them set up the tent and he did then we all went to sleep.
On Day 3, we awoke at sun rise and the weather was much much nicer, we saw more sun and it was getting warmer, the soothing sound of the water flowing nearby paired with the sunshine made it euphoric. We woke up, brushed our teeth’s and had a makeshift bath in a pool of water nearby the waterfall and refreshed ourselves ready for the day ahead. We packed our bags and we cooked some breakfast. We met many locals on the way. This day was pretty hard we traversed a lot of distance and mountains and we also came across so many friendly locals it was very wholesome and warming, they all wished us very well and we told them about the charity we are supporting and some of them even donated!
After a long day of walking and hiking we came to our third camping spot and this tine it was a public one. There were many other campers and we camped there for the night. The weather was much better and we had nicer sleeps all throughout. This one went even deeper into the mountains. And we just kept powering through. Reaching our fourth campsite and this one was very much wild. Unfortunately there was a lack of flat terrain so we camped on an incline. The weather was incredibly brutal we woke up in the middle of the night and the second tent had effectively collapsed due to the wind and rain constantly battering it. Some group members got out in the middle of the night to help them put it up it was very dark and it was raining very heavily we thought our tent would collapse too at some point.
Our fourth day was the day we camp near our hostel so we kept moving near that hostel and found some land nearby and the views were unsurprisingly very breathtaking. We had very high hopes and morale that this bad weather would change and we would be reunited with civilisation again. We went forward with the original plan and just kept it how it was and we camped outside the hotel onto the next day where we finally checked in the evening, ate some food in the evening, woke up and left in the morning arriving at Penrith rail Station.
We had a long think of how our trip and experience has been and it has honestly been great and has brought so many of us as friends closer. We thank the Mark Evison Foundation so much for funding and helping us to do this wonderful experience. We have in return raised fundraising for the charity as a way to give back! 🙂
