Spirit Trail Day 4 - Under starter's orders

Let's face it, any day that starts with gin for breakfast is going to be a good day.  You can blame me for this one.  Last night (in the Uplands Hotel) we were told about a magic gin which changed colour when you added tonic but it wasn't until this morning that I thought "we should really get a video of that".  Click on the photo to watch the video.

Magic gin in FAB Cumbria Crystal glass

After that it was all downhill - literally - we headed down into Cartmel to meet Peter at Unsworth's Brewery.  He told us all about the fascinating story of how they came to be there and loads of secrets about how to make beer - in fact I feel.a new venture coming on!

A legendary brew in every sense. http://www.unsworthsyard.co.uk/

Hops growing in Unsworth's Yard

Special beer for L'enclume

Adjacent to Unsworth's Yard is Hot Wines - also owned by the Unsworth family & home to a superb selection of wines & spirits from around the world. They buy direct from the importers so always have things you won't find anywhere else.  Of course when they offered us a gin we knew it would have been very rude to refuse...

As if 2 gins & a few beer tastings weren't enough, next we headed off to meet the utterly lovely Judith Wren, the creator of Kin Toffee Vodka. We enjoyed a riotous lunch in the Royal Oak (best tomato soup on the planet!) as Judith told us all about how Kin Vodka came to be.  She still creates the toffee flavour by hand at home and it's perfectly balnced with the vodka - dangerously moreish!

LOTS of laughs & FAB vodka!
 https://kinvodka.co.uk/

After all that excitement we still had an 8 mile walk over to Bowland Bridge. Fortunately the weather perked up & Karen got very excited by the blue skies!

To be fair the views over to Whitbarrow Scar were superb & we thoroughly enjoyed the yomp.  We're not racing through & there are plenty of pauses for catching our breath - we're also scoffing plenty of blackberries from the hedgerows & making the most of our Hydro Flasks. Today we filled them at 9am and the coffee was still piping hot at 4pm - plus the colours are brilliant!

Utterly fabulous Hydro Flasks

Just as we arrived at our hotel (the Hare & Hounds) a cyclist passed by & shouted to ask if we were the Spirit Hikers - how cool is that? We don't know who you are but if you're reading this we want you to know that you made 2 tired hikers very happy indeed!

PLEASE take a moment to check out our supporters - I'll post proper links once I'm home. Please find them & give them a follow on social media - thank you. 😀