More Unfinished Business

We've just had a holiday down at Center Parcs in Cumbria, and it was a lot of good fun. There will be photos and possibly blog entries about the rest of the week, but I'm just going to cover Wednesday here.

Wednesday was hill-walking day when Vikki, Amy, Daviator, and I escaped from Center Parcs to climb Helvellyn. The weather looked a bit iffy, but we were hopeful it would improve as the morning wore on. It took an extra 30 minutes to reach Glenridding thanks to an overturned van on the road, and then we had a false start thanks to Dave missing his pocket with his wallet!

Once we got going, the walk wasn't too bad and the rain came and went as the wind blew the clouds around - we kept thinking it was about to get better. By the time we reached the hole in the wall and got a good view of striding edge, I realised my legs were completely soaked and weren't going to dry out (I'd lent Vikki my waterproof trousers in the mistaken belief that as soon as the weather changed, my trousers would dry quickly), Vikki and Amy were indicating that they weren't having much fun, it was apparent that the wind and rain weren't going to let up in a hurry, and Helvellyn itself was still blanketed by low cloud. All in all, it seemed like the best idea would be to head directly for the pub and leave the hill for another day.

The beer was fine and the sticky toffee pudding was not bad either, but I do feel slightly annoyed that I have to add Helvellyn to my list of unfinished hills where it now sits with Ben Lawyers, Ben Ledi, and Mt Keen. I'll be back for these fellows at some point, I'm sure.

On a slightly different note, I picked up two leaflet from the tourist information office in Glenridding - "Beer by Bus" and "Real Ale by Rail". I'm now trying to figure out how I can combine a bit of camping and walking with pub crawls by public transport.