A New Year, a new beginning (Blog #20)

Happy New Year, and a big welcome to my latest travel and photography blog.

2023 had for various reasons taken a heavy toll on my stress levels, and to cap it all my wife and I both succumbed to a nasty bug in the second half of December. So by way of a complete rest we booked a 4-night self-catering break in the Lakes for the first week in January, staying at Keswick Lodge Retreat for the 15th time since 2018. 

We have a fairly regular pre-departure routine, with one hard and fast rule, which is never to question or interfere with each other's packing. While she uses numerous handwritten reminders and lists, most of which have seen better days, I am definitely a digital being, ticking things off on my carefully put together Packing List app. Neither method is however foolproof or infallible as we have both occasionally forgotten to pack one small item. Oh, well. 

Fully stocked up with M&S Two Dine In, bacon, sausages, bread, butter, marmalade, and not forgetting tea and coffee, we loaded the car. Amongst these essentials we have to make room for my wife's numerous art bags. Did I mention that she's an artist? No, well she is, not a professional, although she does occasionally sell some of her work. Anyhow, she uses some of her time away to paint, which she finds very therapeutic. Me? I listen to audiobooks, edit my latest photography, and think about what I am going to write in my next blog. It's a system that works well for both of us. We rise fairly early, then a quick bite of breakfast, then out for the morning. The afternoons of this trip were definitely scheduled to be times of relaxation.

It's roughly a 3-hour journey, allowing for slow traffic on the A66. Check-in is 4pm, but on this occasion we were given an early pass so could check in at 2pm, so some recalculation was needed as to our departure time. Plus there was the question of whether we set off early enough to catch breakfast or leave slightly later and have brunch, at our favourite on-route spot, namely, Mainsgill Farm Shop. These things require very careful planning and precision timing if our trip was to get off to a great start. Mainsgill is definitely worth a visit, a large farm shop, retail area, and a large cafe. It wasn't quite 10.30am when we pulled in, so breakfast it was, not their full breakfast, which had two of everything, just a breakfast roll, which for me had to be bacon and egg. All of the meat sold and served at Mainsgill is from their farm, and it all beautiful.

The rest of the journey was unremarkable except for the changes in the weather. We went through fog and mist (I never know the difference) and intermittent heavy bursts of rain. Judging by the fields, this part of the country had definitely had some really heavy rain recently.

We arrived almost on time for check in. We were greeted with big smiles and a glass of Buck's Fizz. We caught up with the Manager and the other Receptionists, exchanging anecdotes about what we'd been up to since the last time we were here in September. A common theme was how many of us had had awful colds.

Our lodge, a 2-bedroomed, 2-bathroomed affair, was down by the pond at the far end of the site, which suited it as it would be nice and quiet. Keswick Lodge Retreat is not a part destination, and on the rare occasions when other guests have got a bit noisy, this has been dealt with promptly and professionally by the staff. Unpacking didn't take long as again we are well into a regular routine and delegation of tasks. The most strenuous thing we did after we'd unpacked was opening the complimentary bottle of Prosecco. Cheers!

As I have already mentioned, we weren't going to do too much on this trip, so the first full day we headed into Keswick, which was very quiet. I managed a few photographs of the Market Square with hardly any people in shot. It was dinner in the onsite restaurant in the evening, an unremarkable end to a pretty unremarkable day, but at least we'd managed to get out even it it wasn't for very long.

The temperature dropped markedly over night so we woke up to a heavy frost and having to defrost the car before we could go anywhere. We hit patches of fog on our drive to Keswick, a not too unpleasant experience as it gave the hills either side of Bassenthwaite lake an almost mystical aura.

Down on the shores of Derwentwater you couldn't see more than 25 meters, if that, at times. 

From Friar's Crag we headed off through the woods and down along the water's edge at Calfciose Bay. I have read that since COVID people have been more inclined to stop and talk to total strangers, what happened next was to be one of those encounters. We passed a chap and his young son walking in the opposite direction; nothing unusual in that except the father was carrying a sturdy 'I mean business' camera tripod, and yet he wasn't carrying numerous cameras hanging from his neck or a serious looking camera bag. We all stopped, turned to face each other and he and I almost simultaneously muttered something about it not being a good day for photography. The mystery of his lack of camera gear was soon solved as he proudly revealed that he was a smartphone photographer, which instantly created a mutual bond between him and me. We exchanged photography stories, and a bit like you show me yours and I'll show you mine, we eagerly shared images we had on our phones. He lived in the Lake District and was a very keen, if not passionate, photographer who loved to share their passion on social media. We swapped contact details, but not before I had taken several photographs of the gradually reappearing landscape as the fog began to lift. This casual meeting was definitely a meeting of minds, and unlike others, was one that would stick in my mind for a long time to come.

Our final day was spent close to the lodge, walking around the site, avoiding slipping on the icy paths, and finally enjoying a Sunday Dinner in the onsite restaurant. 

We were sad to leave the next day: it had been what we hoped it would be, that is a stress-free break and an opportunity to blow away the Christmas cobwebs. Two days later we booked a return trip for April, but before that we had to prepare for our trip to California in February. 

© Mike Young 2024.