Autumn Residential |Ambleside, Lake District
From the 21st - 23rd October, 12 of us headed up to Ambleside in the Lake District to help out the National Trust at their High Wray basecamp. Lake Windermere, the largest natural lake in England, is only a short walk away from High Wray and is where many water speed records were set!
We set off on the Friday night just after 6pm, having had to make new arrangements for food after the entire food delivery was cancelled! After a few hours’ drive we arrived to find the bunkhouse nice and toasty (thank you to the National Trust) and made use of the industrial cooking facilities to serve up a proper good curry - complete with mango chutney.
On the Saturday, we made our way up to Nor Moss to help out with some spruce tree removal. The trees have gradually been encroaching on an area of Special Scientific Interest and so to stop the advance of the trees we cut them down especially since they aren’t a native tree in the area. We had a great time tackling some pretty big trees with bow and silky saws and our trusty loppers - no fire on this task, though.
After a hard day’s work, we headed back down to the base camp where we got a workshop in how to start up a log burner ready for later. First, we had a look to Windermere (the town is named after the lake) to the gem of a supermarket that is Booths. After stocking up on some treats and sampling one of the local pubs, we headed home again to crack on with the bolognese we had planned. With the fire now on and garlic bread in hand, we settled down for a night in with board games.
On Sunday, to be proper Lake District tourists, we drove over to Grasmere (using a road we now realise you’d struggle to negotiate in a car) for a walk up to Easedale Tarn. A tarn, if you don’t know, is pretty much a lake up a mountain. Easedale is really beautiful, as you can see from our pictures, and it’s a definite walk you should do if you are ever in Grasmere. After finishing the walk we walked back down into Grasmere for some of the famous gingerbread and a bite to eat.
Everyone had a huge feeling of accomplishment on the way back after a really successful weekend. Thank you to the volunteers for working so hard on Saturday and helping with the dinners and thanks to the National Trust at High Wray for hosting us! Special thanks to Andrew for his great minibus skills - especially on some very questionable B roads.
Euan
Residential Officer
