Blog Post
Walking in the lakes

BOOT CAMP !

Hi readers !

I must tell you about my short break in the Lake District last week – Borrowdale to be precise.

We have a group of friends that we have a skiing holiday with each year.  I have been thinking about friends and how they belong in different boxes, ie friends from work, family friends, tennis friends, girlfriends, baking friends, neighbours etc etc – the list goes on.

Anyway, we planned a short break with our skiing friends and this break was from Monday to Thursday this last week.  We planned to go walking.

I have to say, and I am being perfectly honest here, being the youngest in the group I considered myself the most fit and really thought the walking would entail an hour or maybe two at the most and the rest of the time we would be trudging from coffee shop to coffee shop and gift shop to gift shop and at the same time I would be feeling a little bored and wishing I was back in my garden or kitchen doing something useful.  How wrong was I !!!

We arrived Monday late afternoon to a warm welcome from Gary at the Hazelbank Hotel (which I would highly recommend by the way), shown to our room then after unpacking a few bits went down into the lounge for a chilled glass of prossecco.   So far so good.  We then enjoyed an absolutely delicious meal followed by a catch up and a laugh over a few drinks.  Our plan for the next morning I was told was to meet at 10.30am ready for a warm up walk.

Any regular readers to my blog posts will know I have this tendency to buy cheap goods, only to regret it later.  This was another occasion. 

I decided as the weather has been very wet it might be useful to invest in a pair of gaiters.  These protective covers clip onto the top of the walking boot, have a strap under the instep and then fix up the front of the leg and are secured above the calf, under the knee.  They protect the trousers and also prevent water and mud coming over the boot. When I researched this piece of kit I discovered the prices ranged from a ridiculous £100 a pair to a sensible £9.99. 

Thoroughly delighted with my £9.99 purchase I then realised when I came to wear them for the first time on Monday that they failed to fix to the top of my boot, the strap designed to secure under the instep snapped and the only secure part was that at the top of the calf under the knee.  After no time at all I had these fairly useless pieces of kit flapping around my ankles being neither use or ornament !  When will I learn ?

Anyway, back to the warm up walk.  There is walking and then there is fell walking and I had not considered the terrain we were to experience.  I love walking but this was at another level.  That said – it was brilliant.  The weather was kind to us and I was able to appreciate how overwhelming the scenery of our country really is.  The warm up walk was six hours long !  I had underestimated the stamina of my friends and we did laugh about the marathon conditions and how my expectations and judgements had been completely blown out of the water !

The second day was even longer – seven hours !  exhausting but absolutely marvellous and by the way my skiing friends are all fitter than me.

I am writing this blog post on Saturday night. We have 15 for a bar b q tomorrow and the sun has promised to shine all day.   My recipe this time is one that has been requested following postings on social media.  These little raspberry ripple cakes are topped with a low sugar mousseline cream.  The cream is tricky so if you want to just make the cakes, which are very easy, top them off with a swirl of fresh cream and a fresh raspberry.

https://www.nancybirtwhistle.co.uk/recipes/chocolate-cream-mousseline-topped-raspberry-ripple-cakes