Day One - Aira Force

Day One - Friday 4th June, 2021

Today marks the first day of holiday and hence the first day of our challenge!

We set off at around 10am and made really good time, until we got stuck in standstill traffic just outside Penrith. It’s been a very long time since we’ve been in actual standstill traffic - everyone was getting out of their cars, which did mean we got to see some dogs being taken for the toilet though! After a while, we got moving again and headed for Booths in Penrith because they have a freshly squeezed orange juice machine that is possibly one of my favourite things in the world.

We munched on some lunch and then drove towards Aira Force! They’d set up a one way system for the walks to help with COVID restrictions, but it felt quite busy. We followed the route up towards Aira Force, which is the main waterfall on the trail. You could hear it a way off, and it was beautiful. Unfortunately the lower viewing platforms and bridges were shut, but we still got a fabulous view.

We headed further up into the trail and the further we went, the quieter it got. There were so many people paddling in the streams - it was beautiful! We eventually found a quiet place to stop and have a sit down at the bottom of a waterfall. I had a teeny paddle and really need to learn to cope with cold water - hahah!

We followed the trail all the way to the top and back round and down - it was all so very pretty! We got the first ice creams of our holiday (cookies and cream for Dan and raspberry ripple for me) and sat down on the side of Ullswater lake. It was beautiful (and there were some gorgeous dogs there too)!

Today’s walk wasn’t a long one but it was a little warm up! We covered 5.1km, and a marathon is about 42km.

It was then time to head to our holiday cottage. We stopped in Cockermouth briefly to pick up some food and then drove on to Dearham, which is where we’re staying! Our cottage is on the side on a farmhouse and is on a dairy farm, so there are cows galore, a few farm cats and apparently a dog called Bailey who we haven’t met yet. We were greeted by the lovely owner who had prepared some afternoon tea for us, which was a lovely surprise!

We spent the evening snuggling up with Clover, one of the cats, eating dinner sat outside and planning what we’d like to do across the week.

Day one has been lovely and we’re super excited for the rest of the week!

Lots of love,

Katherine