Teenage Kicks in Cumbria

Entertaining teenagers is not for the fainthearted - especially if, like us, you don't have kids and therefore have no real "hands on" experience.  This week we looked after our nephews (aged 11 and 13 so one of them isn't technically a teenager but if you know any 11 year olds you'll know the teen years start early these days) and our remit for the three full days we had them was to a) keep them alive, b) keep them entertained and c) wear them out.  Well, challenge accepted - and if you have teenagers and aren't sure how to keep them entertained in Cumbria, here's what we did.

Day 1

AM - scare them silly at Go Ape in Grizedale.  Actually, scare everyone silly at Go Ape. Yes it's commercial but we did the High Ropes course and found it good value for money - our session began at 11am and we weren't done until 2:30pm.  There's a great variety of challenges and the blustering bravado beforehand was soon replaced with shrieks and "Yeah, I'm not scared, I'm just checking you're OK" moments.  The giant Tarzan Swing is properly scary but the whole event was brilliant fun for us all.

Insider tip:  Smother yourself in insect repellent before you start - there are quite a few midges in the woods and you're likely to get bitten as you queue for some of the activities.

PM - wear them out properly on mountain bikes.  Grizedale is great for cycling and there are loads of excellent tracks and trails with something to suit everyone from the novice who just wants a nice tootle around a forest to the hard core black runs for the experts. We hired bikes from Grizedale Mountain Bikes and they were really good value for money - they give you a map with plenty of routes to choose from and lots of support before you head off.

Insider tip:  If you're worried about keeping up with the kids hire an electric bike for yourselves - a little more money but worth it for flying up all the hills with ease!

Day 2

PM Kayaking - for some strange reason they didn't bounce out of bed the next day so we had an easy morning before heading to Ullswater for a spot of sea kayaking.  We've used Distant Horizons in the past and we love them - lovely folks who will totally cater to your individual requirements.  Our instructor, Rob, was superb and had plenty of ideas and activities for keeping the nephews engaged and entertained.  There were plenty of cries of "My arms are SO tired" but I just ignored them - is that what I'm supposed to do?

Insider tip:  If you can't see something on the Distant Horizons website that suits you do drop them a line or give them a call, there's a very good chance they can sort something that will be absolutely perfect for you.

Evening BBQ - although there are many superb places to eat out in Cumbria, surely there is nothing better than eating outdoors?  Food just tastes better outdoors, doesn't it?  All we took was a large disposable BBQ, a few burgers, sausages and buns and a sense of adventure (plus a couple of beers for the grown ups!)  Unfortunately we picked the only rainy evening in the middle of a month long dry spell, but we set up camp under a tree and enjoyed it anyway.  The boys skimmed stones and had rock throwing competitions while I tended to the burgers and sneakily supped the spare bottle of beer (Steve was driving anyway!)

Insider tip:  Check the weather forecast before you set off and do make sure you take everything away with you when you're done.  The boys had fun throwing cups of water over the BBQ, generating huge clouds of steam, so we could cool it and pack it,

Day 3

All day - hiking in the hills!  You can't entertain folks in Cumbria without taking them out in the hills now, can you?  As our nephews aren't used to the great outdoors and as it was another blazing hot day we veered away from the high peaks and instead headed up through the woods alongside Derwent Water to the top of Walla Crag.  The views from the top are spectacular and there are plenty of places to sit and enjoy your sarnies.  We headed down via Ashness Bridge where I put my feet up while the boys (and I'm including Steve in this) played silly devils in the stream.  As well as the hike we also spotted a stone fly exoskeleton, a wood wasp and assorted other butterflies and birds.

Insider tip:  It doesn't have to be big to be fun so don't feel you have to tackle the high peaks - plus there's pretty good mobile signal up there but it's always a good idea to download bird, flower and insect ID apps into your phone so you can put names to the things you spot along the way.

As we drove home for dinner the car was silent (apart from the sound of scorn being poured upon our choice of music!) - I'm still not sure if having kids around keeps you young or makes you feel really, really old, but either way it was excellent fun and I can't wait for them to come back up.



And, once you're done wearing them out, take a look at our bookshelf and pick yourself a nice book to read - they are FULL of fascinating facts and hidden corners to explore - plus a couple of them will direct you to the nearest pubs & distilleries.  Click here, or below, for a browse!

Click here to browse our books

30 Days Wild: Day 2 - Wacky Races in Grizedale

You know when you've been meaning to do something for ages and then finally get around to it?  Well a year or so ago we paid a visit to Go Ape in Grizedale Forest to make like Tarzan and whiz along their 7 enormous zipwires (you can see what happened here) - at the time we swore we'd be back to give the Segways a go and it only took us a year to get around to it.  (Which is pretty good for us, our vegetable patch has been in production for 2 years now and counting.)

Segways are unique contraptions that look like the sort of thing Harry Potter and Prof. Pat Pending* might have sketched on the back of a fag packet after one too many beers.  Or the sort of thing you might idly make out of Lego when all you can find is one of those bricks with 2 wheels in it and a pipe cleaner.  Either way they are strange and magical devices.

After putting the fear of god into us during the safety briefing the Go Ape guys let us loose on their training track.  If you've never tried a Segway before it's a little unnerving at first but they honestly could not be simpler to ride - you move your weight to the balls of your feet to go forwards and shift it to your heels to go slow and stop; turning is done by a little leaning and the use of the handlebars.  So long as you have the ability to stand upright & weigh over 7 stone (I was hurt they didn't check my weight...they could have at least pretended...) there is no reason at all you couldn't use one.

Gorgeous views over Grizedale Forest

Fully embracing our #30DaysWild challenge we listened hard as we whizzed through the forest and picked out willow warblers and blackbirds singing in the nearby trees and spotted a number of swifts darting around the woodland edges.  We also noticed a buzzard away in the distance which led me to my new wildlife fact of the day (ta daaa): the collective noun for a group of buzzards is a "wake" (and if you don't want to waste most of your afternoon looking up other strange and unusual collective nouns, don't click here.)

The road is looooong, with maaaaany a winding turn...

The great thing about this Segway experience is that it really makes the most of the fantastic woodlands and amazing views along the way.  We weren't blessed with the best of weather and the views out across the forest were still spectacular.

I wonder why we didn't spot any red deer..? #stealthmode

I will give you a couple of words of warning though.  Firstly wear something warm as you'll essentially be standing still for an hour- that little bit of tilting doesn't exactly get the blood pumping.  And secondly, if you video yourselves, be prepared for disappointment - I swear we were going SO much faster than this video suggests (or maybe it just feels faster when you're clutching a thin metal stick attached to a Lego brick powered by magic).

The local cows were stunned by our break neck speed and mastery of the Segways...

As we made our way back down the hillside we got wild again and screeched to a halt (slowed to a gentle stop) to check out a waterfall which was in fine fettle following the torrential overnight rain.

Once safely back at base we were issued with our shiny certificates and headed off for a well earned hot chocolate and a bacon roll where we debated how long it would take us to come back and try out the Tree Top Adventure.  My money is on a year at least - who knows, we might even have some home grown vegetables by then.  Well, maybe...

(And if you want to follow in our sedate wheel tracks - or go a little speedier & show us how it's done you can book now at goape.co.uk/forest-segway  or call 0845 643 9236. #ShareAdventure) 

* For those too young to know who Prof. Pat Pending is...

2014 A Year of Adventures - Part 2

One of the reasons I love doing these end of year round ups is because I forget quite how much stuff we did - the big things stay in my mind, but a lot of the other stuff slips between the cracks.  We're lucky to have been able to do so much stuff in the first 6 months of the year - the second half was a little but quieter, but only a little bit...

July

July started with us swinging through the trees in Grizedale Forest with those lovely folks from Go Ape.  A lot of zipwires and a lot of Tarzan impressions...

The rest of July was then taken up with rehearsals for my role in the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony.  At the time I couldn't say a lot about what we were rehearsing, but I could say a lot about Glasgow - a spectacular city that we took the time to explore and fall in love with.  The utterly tragic news from just before Christmas really affected me but the folks of that fair city are truly amazing and I know they'll pull together to get through it all.  These are just a few photos which bring back some very happy memories - if you haven't already been, make 2015 the year you visit.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum

George Square

Wellington

Glasgow University

Carpet factory modelled on the Doges Palace

Footpath of album covers

Being an "athlete" at the final dress rehearsals for openning ceremony

August

After all that rehearsing came the performance - I will never forget being out on the field with all of the athletes and a packed Hampden Park.  It truly was a "once in a lifetime" experience and I loved every single second of it.

"Music festival" in full swing.

The end of the party - my new friends & a few athletes

Nabbed me a couple of gold medallists.

After all that excitement it was back to normality and a few lovely long walks around Lancashire to get my breath back.  The berries were already turning giving me the perfect excuse for a spot of jam and gin making.

Exploring Calder Vale

Anyone else see the toothy grin?

Sloes...

Damsons

Leck Beck

September

September started with the Vintage Fair in Morecambe - glorious weather and a fly past from Lancaster Bombers.

From there it was a swift trip down to London to see the moving display of poppies at the Tower before meeting Newton Falkner at an event for Gandy's flip flops - all recorded for history with one of the worst photos of me ever taken.

If you're not sure who he is click the pic for his video.

Then it was off to Yorkshire for a week of walking. The evening we arrived the weather was clear - then the fog moved in and refused to move out again for the entire week...

Last view before the fog rolled in.

Super close up of Scarborough Castle

Sheriff Hutton

Sheriff Hutton church - where Richard III's son
is buried.

And after such a long and dry (if everso slightly foggy in places) summer we just had time to pop to Haweswater Reservoir to take a peek at the old village of Mardale Green - flooded when they created the reservoir it appears every now and again when the water levels dropped.  Some of the newspapers at the time described it as an "Atlantis" - not quite, but it was eerie wandering along the long submerged streets and sitting on the ruins of an old farmhouse for lunch.

Oh - an there was Shap Abbey on the way home.

October

The big news in October, which I don't really have a photo for, is that we were approached by a publisher and asked to write a book about Cumbria.  There was a bit of too-ing and fro-ing on content, the upshot of which being that we have now been commissioned to write a book covering the recent, ancient and natural history of 10 sites in Cumbria.  It will be a balance of Steve's gorgeous pics and my mad ramblings and will be available in October 2015 - perfect for next year's Christmas lists!

The book will have lots of Steve's gorgeous pics!

In other news in October, we introduced some very dear friends to Cumbria, explored Stott Park Bobbin Mill, slummed it Hipping Hall for a night and attended our very first spoon club meeting.  Oh, and on 31st of October I stuffed my foot up, thus curtailing hiking activities for the rest of the year...

Gorgeous Cumbrian View

Stott Park Bobbin Mill

Stott Park Bobbin Mill

Spoon club - from this...

...to this.

Hipping Hall - hell - hell on earth I tell you...

Oooooppss!

November

So... things to do with a dodgy foot.  First of all there was Kendal Museum - fascinating and everso slightly brilliantly bonkers!

Kendal Museum

Then there was Kendal Mountain Festival where people with far worse injuries than mine explained how they shrugged them off before hopping up the north face of the Eiger, on stilts whilst juggling flaming torches... or something like that.

Next was a spot of Christmas Card making back at the glorious Quirky Cafe in Greystoke (well I made Christmas Cards, Steve was learning how to blacksmith) - we were even treated to an inversion along the way.

Taken from the M6.

Learning to paint Christmas cards

The Legend of Greystoke

But the MOST exciting thing in November was that Steve finished his challenge of 214 Wainwrights in 214 days in 2014.  We celebrated in style on top of Castle Crag.

A fantastic achievement!

December

And all of that goes some way to explaining how December seems to have come around way too soon again.  At the start of the month there was a quick visit to London where I finally managed a trip to the top of the Monument.- been meaning to do that for ages - there are a LOT of steps to climb but the views from the top are worth every step.  It was built to commemorate the Great Fire of London and is definitely worth a look - it's one of London's quirkier attractions plus you get a step class to boot!

Then on to Glasgow for a reunion with my Commonwealth Games friends and an excuse to explore the Botanical Gardens which we missed last time.  Not every country celebrates the gardens of the world in the same way we do - but where else can you wander around the tropical house in t-shirts in December while the hail pounds down outside?

Love how this captures the energy of the evening.

Back home and it was time to welcome an old friend back to Morecambe Prom - so great to see Eric back where he belongs, and lovely to meet his wife and daughter too.

From old friends to old adversaries and scores to settle.  For 4 years we've been trying to spot the bittern at Leighton Moss and finally we managed it - but was that enough for us?  Oh no - now Steve wants a pic of it in the snow.  Some folks are never satisfied!

Just time for a festive trip to Spoon Club where my hands fared rather better than last time and I managed to create a vaguely festive tree decoration - albeit one a little on the large side.

Christmas with the family meant lots of food, lots of fun and even a sighting of Santa on Christmas eve...

Christmas Eve sunset - complete with Santa zooming past

Of course we found time for a quick hike - at 7 miles it's the longest since I did my foot in, and I paid for it afterwards - but sometimes you just need to stretch your legs. The Chilterns are a little less lumpy than the fells we're used to, but it was a perfect crisp winters day and we definitely made the most of it.

St Giles Church, Chalfont St Giles

Our fabulous year was rounded off with lots of excitement when we found that we'd made the shortlist for the UK Blog Awards and got our pics in the local paper - not quite sure what it all means, but my mum's convinced I'm famous.  :-)

So that's it for 2014 - it's been a cracking year and 2015 has a tough act to follow (if you missed Part 1 it's here).  We have the small matter of writing a book and launching our walking guides to fit in around our adventures, but I'm sure we'll manage it somehow.  Thank you for taking the time to read the blog and may we both wish you a fabulous, fun and adventure filled new year.

Here's to 2015!