Day 11 - One way or another

If our adventure has had a mission statement that's it - one way or another we'll make it

work.  Before we set out, finding accomodation and liaising with the producers was a challenge. Since we've been on the road it's taken on a more literal meaning - we appear to have chosen the 12 wettest consecutive days of the year for our hike, so many of my carefully planned routes have had to be re-jigged on account of the weather.

It's not that I mind walking in the rain, it's more that the terraine underfoot in some areas could, at best, be described as "soupy". Our completion of the route should perhaps be comemorated with swimming certificates rather than hiking awards.

Not that the water is all bad - far from it - today we learned how the clever folks at The Lakes Distillery take all that lovely water an turn it in to whisky, gin and vodka. They'll be feeding the 5000 next.

Click here to visit Lakes Ditillery website

Their distillery is on the northern shores of Bassenthwaite and is a very different kettle of fish to many of the other tiny producers we've met - this is production on a big scale, but the majority of the processes are done on site so it's still a proper Lake District product.

Following the tour - which included several samples - we enjoyed a lovely lunch in the bistro before heading for the hills, or in today's case, hill.  Our short (5 mile) hike took us up through Setmurthy Plantation and down Watch Hill into Cockermouth.  While I stayed at the top of the hill taking a few photos Karen literally ran on ahead to try to beat the rain shower - she failed, but who doesn't enjoy a 20 minute jog down a boggy field with a pack on their back only to get caught in a massive downpour anyway? (Clue - Karen) 😀

Incoming storm

I enjoyed a lovely couple of hours exploring Cockermouth, though I am curious about this lane, especially as Jennings Brewery was at the other end of the street - I feel a spot of research coming on...

It's hard to believe our adventure is drawing to a close - we have had a lot of laughs and it's all flown by so fast.  Everyone wants to know how we've gotten along and I'm sure some folks are hoping we've had a huge fight, but we haven't. When we've disagreed we've talked it through and we're both so laid back that we can't be bothered to fight. Honestly, we'd be rubbish on a Channel 4 documentary!

Tomorrow we have a hike & a bus journey to our final destination, Whitehaven.  I have a HUGE soft spot for the town and can't wait to see what Karen makes of it. If she hates it maybe we'll have that falling out everyone has been waiting for... 😉


We are SO nearly there so please, before we finish, take a moment to "like" and "follow" all our sponsors - they really have helped to make a soggy trip enormous fun. Thank you! 😀