15 July 2018 Local area
Ideas for fair-weather pursuits in and around the Lake District!
If you have ever had the opportunity to ever go on a safari then you will be familiar with this concept I imagine. The top 5, also known as the big 5, are the five animals that the majority of tourists really want to catch sight of whilst on safari, or staying at a game reserve. However, if you have any bearing on where the Lake District is in relation to the populations of endangered wild animals such as lions, elephants, rhinos, x and y then you will be fully aware that to encounter any of these creatures you would simply need to hop on a mere 8 hours flight south. Hah. Oh how simple!
So over the next month or so I will be bringing the big 5 concept and altering it slightly to the ‘top 5’ and there will be five posts coming your way with the top five things to do in each of the five categories to come! Now, just to be clear I am defining a ‘sunny day in the Lakes’ as a day where the sky is anything but a dull grey and the rain is being withheld in the arms of the clouds the mere threat of rain is not cause for gardener’s distress. I’m going to make a rather ambitious claim now shall we say, as from significant observation not only into my own experience with family holidays and watching other families enjoy their break at Park Cliffe, families are just fascinated with constantly planning days out in order to ‘make the most of their time in the Lakes’. And you know what (this could really land me into quite treacherous water here) the people I think who make the most of their time here are the people who choose to explore and make day trips and visit new places, but also spend a pleasant afternoon with a football they brought having a kick about on Fellside, or having a barbeque for tea (yes – you’re just going to have to accept this up North ‘dinner’ is always ‘tea’!) Well, this is interesting. My writing here seems to have taken a slightly different route here so I don’t really think the title quite reflects the post now.
Invest in a decent football/badminton kit/volleyball.
Having an ingrained love or board games (or from my family’s perspective a very competitive nature) I thoroughly enjoyed parading up and down shopping market aisles or toy stores in the search or new games to try. I’ve been forever trying to convince my family to play monopoly with me, so I have learnt that I’m much more successful in the GIANT outdoor versions of Jenga and Connect 4. For inspiration for outdoor games you needn’t look far as many large supermarkets have a great selection of outdoor games, all which appear to be quite travel friendly – that is if you can get them back into the box how you first took them out!
Do you have overly imaginative children? Or do you have a couple of cans of cider running through your bloodstream?
FYI (for your information, for everybody over the age of 25!) this could be a real laugh.
Lie on your back and take in the sky!
If you become quite invested in this rather simple hobby I would strongly suggest you check out the Cloud Appreciation Society Twitter page to see what other people are discovering by just looking up above their laptops and day to day dwellings.
You can either walk into Bowness following our directions which can be found just inside reception (open from 8.30am – 9pm), take the bus at the bottom of the road, or drive (going back down to the main road and taking a right).
There are endless options of what you can do on the Lake so I have detailed most of them below:
Boat rides – main location for this is next to the Lake in Bowness:
Water sports hire:
Now, we know you can hire all kinds of water sports craft on Windermere, but where on earth can we hire it?
Take a quick dip in the stream that runs through the park (when it starts raining again! we are having fabulous weather in the summer of 2018)– and this is most certainly not off limits for adults. By no means do you have to go in pursuit of small fish (which have in fact been found numerous times in the beck) but a quick paddle can be very nice in all this hot weather. By the picnic benches outside the restaurant there are some stone steps either side of the stream which are made to allow for people to not only make the short cut across the stream to their tents, but also to sit down on in the sun. For keen fishermen and women fishing nets are available to buy in the shop and crocs/water shoes are advised to prevent slipping. If any creatures are captured be sure to report your findings to reception where we will add them to the wildlife board which you can find to the right hand side of the bench at the entrance. I cannot guarantee if you find trout that we’ll be happy to cook it for you, however, we will be very impressed by your discovery!
*On a serious note, if animals are caught please release them back into nature and leave them in the stream.*
Now, look up from your electronics leave them in your pocket – perhaps not if you’re heading into the stream, – and soak up the glorious sunshine!
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