Day 189 - The Longest Day

yurt in the paddock

This is the lovely Yurt-in-the-Paddock, our home whilst we've been here in the Lake District.

A Yurt is a large, round tent, of a style used by nomads in Central Asia for thousands of years.

Inside, the decor is ethnic - I would have guessed Morrocan or similar, but maybe it is Mongolian or something.  In any case, it's cosy and welcoming, and a really lovely place to stay.

With a double bed, and a woodburner for warmth, this is what is known these days as glamping - glamorous camping.

cosy

The view out of the front door of the yurt (yep, it's a tent with an actual door!) looks across the valley of Wasdale.  Looking left from the doorway gives a spectacular view up the valley towards Scafell Pike (the highest point in England), which is a couple of miles distant.

how green is my valley

Last night at midnight, we could see the lights of walkers descending from the summit...perhaps they'd been up there so late to witness the setting sun on the longest day of the year?

The Yurt stands in a paddock (like it says on the tin), with a fenced off garden of its own.  In the main Paddock, a few metres from our door, there is a friesian cow and two young bulls. 

On the first evening we were here, we saw a local hare that lives in the immediate vicinity...Anna saw a deer shortly after that, followed by a rare sighting of a badger that seems to have taken up residence of late.  

During the night we can hear large deer barking around in the field just behind the yurt.

It's a lovely place! 


Today, as befits the date, we had a longest day all of our own.

Up at 8am for a very welcome full English breakfast in the farmhouse, we had a leisurely hour or two at the Yurt, before heading off to Eskdale for some trad climbing at Hare Crag.

It took us an hour or so to scramble and fight our way through thick bracken, and across boggy fells, just to get to the buttresses we were heading for!

I led a long slab route, which started a little nervously... with few opportunities to place protective gear in the rock, a new rock type (granite) to familiarise with, and a blustery wind, it all felt somewhat precarious for the first 15m or so...a bit like Anna's start to Little Chamonix yesterday.

But then the climbing eased, I started to feel more comfortable on the rock, and before long we were at the top, enjoying the lovely views up the valley.
 

rocky perch

We down-climbed an easier side route, which was great fun, then fought our way through more bracken to another buttress, where Anna bravely led a bold route, the brilliantly (although obscurely) named Fireball XL5 (MVS).  

MVS is an unusual grade, only used in the Lake District.   It means Mild Very Severe, which seems contradictory to me...in any case, it seemed like a full on VS as far as I could tell, and definitely a fine lead from Anna.
 

harder than it looks

  Here's a view looking back at the buttress as we made our way down off the crag. 
 

big rocks

For some reason, we were still up for more, so we stopped at the Eskdale Fisherground for some bouldering.  We did a few lovely little problems, before rapidly running out of steam in the warm sunshine.

Still, when we came across this curious little stone doorway on our walk back to the car, Anna couldn't resist trying to climb it!
 

how old is she?

Back at the yurt, we had an hour to take a very much needed shower and started to unwind for the evening.
 

evening in the paddock

There are some funky li'l chickens wandering around on the farm, and Anna took this lovely photo of them outside the main house. 

because chickens

I had a play on the swing because apparently I still don't know how old I am.  I might start a series of upside down photo's!

how old is he?

The hare was pottering about in the paddock, and I managed to get close enough for this nice shot.

hare today

As the evening started to fade, we bought takeaway pizza from a cool little pizzeria in Gosforth, and headed to the coast at Seascale, where we sat and watched the sun go down.

sunset over sellafield

As if that wasn't enough for one day, we then went to the dunes at Drigg, where there is a colony of the rare and protected NatterjackToad.  We didn't see any, as it was 10.30pm by this time (although still not fully dark, being the longest day and all that), although we're pretty sure we heard them croaking in the long dune grass.

By 11pm, we finally got back to yurt, where we were so tired it was a struggle just to walk up the embankment from the car.

When we got there however, the interior of the yurt looked lovely in the soft lighting.

even cosier

And so ended one of the longest days I've ever had!   I'm hoping tomorrow is going to be quieter, or at least easier, but the plan is to go up the valley to the Wast Water to get some photo's, and then go bouldering at St Bees, on the coast...

So we'll see!

B-)