Their story, in their words…
Before we even arrived at the campsite we faced our first challenge, our coach was delayed by an hour! As we got off we attempted to run to Manchester train station whilst carrying our rucksacks and tent but as we arrived our train left the platform without us. This setback wasn’t going to faze us so we persevered with our journey and despite many of our trains being cancelled we arrived at the campsite at 9pm (only 4 hours later than expected). We then put up the tent together and cooked dinner before going to sleep.
Our first day of walking took us along lake Windermere, passing through Wray Castle and the Claife Viewing Station which were both very impressive historic buildings. We returned to Low Wray Campsite and went for a swim in Lake Windermere, very cold but refreshing! The next day was a bit tougher as we walked a longer distance towards Skelwith and Colwith Force, but we enjoyed the scenic views and sunny weather and went for another swim in the lake when we arrived back at the campsite. On our last day of walking, sadly we didn’t make it to Scafell Pike due to tired legs and the buses running only every two hours, so we decided to walk into Ambleside and walk up Wansfell pike instead (over half the height of Scafell) as we still wanted to challenge ourselves with a climb. After a steep ascent of 487m which at some points was quite difficult in the hot weather, we reached the top where we ate lunch and admired the views of Ambleside and Lake Windermere. We also saw two fighter jets regularly flying next to Wansfell pike and around the mountains.
After this trip in the Lake District we have become closer and also more confident in travelling and camping independently and have been able to think quickly on our feet when things didn’t go as planned. If we could do anything different we would have planned to walk Scafell pike earlier on so that we weren’t as tired. We all had a great time camping, hiking and swimming in the Lake District and want to thank the Mark Evison foundation for making it possible
