Summer in the Lake District has looked a little different to what we were expecting, call us ignorant but 3 months of rain and wind was a bit of a shock. Our camping trips came to a grinding halt because it’s just miserable in bad weather, saying that we did a spontaneous trip for my birthday, trying to be optimistic that the 50% chance of rain would sway on the drier side of things. We didn’t set off until 4pm and while we walked with a patch of sun shining down on us we could see the clouds thickening over the hills and becoming darker by the second. After a tough slog uphill we reached a rocky plateau where we were hit by a wall of wind. We looked like we were drunk the way we were struggling to move in a straight line, our legs being blown sideways before we could push our foot back onto the ground. The clouds were moving so fast around us until we were surrounded in a damp fog, followed by a hail storm. My goodness. We quickly put our waterproofs on which were flapping frantically in the wind as the balls of ice painfully slashed sideways into our faces.

We pushed on though as the forecast had suggested that it would suddenly clear up at sunset and again for sunrise the next day. We were way too ambitious with our route though and when we reached a camp spot we’d visited previously we realised it was in the direct line of the wind so we had to search for a new location that was more protected. It was now 8pm and we were starving so it felt rather fitting that just as we found a flat spot to pitch-up the heavens opened. We were rushing to put the tent up and my hay fever was in full-force but it was too wet to even use tissue to blow my runny nose so I just had to keep sniffing but that became a big challenge once I was bending down, reaching for the tent poles. At one point I probably had 3 inches of snot hanging out my nose and I couldn’t help but think maybe just having a meal in a nice restaurant like a normal person might not of been such a bad way to celebrate my birthday after all. Once the outer layer of the tent was up we crawled inside until the rain eased so we could set up the inner and finally make dinner. Craig had to cook in our miniscule porch as it was blowing an absolute hooley outside and just as we began eating we heard the rumble of thunder. As far as bad camping conditions go we were up there with the worst of it. I love watching lightning bolts from a cosy house and feeling the building almost shake from the roar of the thunder, but camping in a thunder storm is absolutely terrifying. I was worried about the metal poles on our tent or my camera equipment attracting the lightning bolts as we were in such a high-risk area at about 800m elevation atop a mountain. As luck would have it the rumbles seemed to begin to move away from us but it left me paranoid all night about any more storms.

Sunset turned out to be a big disappointment and we couldn’t wait to lay down and try and get some sleep. We had a quick chat about what a disaster the night was and I said “cor when we were setting up the tent my nose was running so badly I couldn’t stop it, did you see how bad it was?” at which point Craig abruptly said “NO” which made me look his way and he was staring wide eyed at the roof of the tent before cracking up with laughter “of course I fucking saw it!” which made us both laugh a lot. Here’s to turning 34 in a thunderstorm up on a mountain.

After that trip we decided we wouldn’t go camping in bad weather again, if the forecast was a bit iffy then we’d give it a miss. It actually made me despice camping even though I normally love it so my advice would be to do your first camping trip in optimum conditons otherwise it might put you off for life.

We only managed one more camping trip during the summer months and we decided to make our way to the eastern side of the Lake District. It was a tough old hike uphill, before descending and having a brutally steep section back up again. Once we were up on the plateau we began searching for a nice spot to pitch up. There was a fabulous, bright blue tarn nestled beneath us but we wanted a view on the other side of the plateau, facing the sunset. The only downside to that plan was that it was the windy side with strong gusts so we compromised and cooked dinner in a sheltered spot overlooking the blue tarn and decided to pitch up later in the evening. As far as dinner locations go it was pretty damn spectacular, even if Craig was sitting on an awkward steep slope to avoid the wind.

Then it was time to pitch up which was a challenge as the tent fabric was flapping everywhere but eventually we were set up. The wind was blowing straight into our tent so we had no option but to zip up our door and say goodbye to the view, it was just too cold. It’s pretty wild to think that it’s July and the real-feel on the hills was around 0 degrees. A little bit of drizzly rain passed overhead at sunset and we unzipped the tent to see what it was looking like. The sun was piercing from beneath the black clouds creating an incredible glow that turned the hills pink and orange.

It almost looked like the weather might turn really nasty but it seemed to avoid us and as the sun dipped behind the peaks the colours became even more intense with fluorescent pink clouds. It was still lightly drizzling with rain at the same time as the spectacle was happening so I was frantically trying to wipe the droplets off my lens so I could continue taking photos.

We woke early for the sunrise and ran across the other side of the plateau to face east. It was very foggy with just a hint of colour from the sun but we did get a great view of the tarn which looked more heart shaped from this angle. There were some nice clouds drifting by and it gradually all burnt off to reveal a perfect blue sky day. We had a lovely walk back down, witnessing the first herd of deer we’d seen in the Lake District and going via a popular tarn with little islands.

As we began the decent we had a green hill straight ahead of us which was seperating two valleys. The hill had an almost volcanic shape to it from this angle and it looked so unusual, more like a sight I’d expect in Iceland than England. We were back down at the bus stop at around 10am and ready to go home, thankfully our love for camping has been rekindled.