Bugger, it's wet...

...but let's skate anyway!

Well the forecast was good: damp start but drying off during the morning to sunny intervals. So we set off with a spring in our step & a happy heart. Then we hit the M6 & saw the cars coming down from Cumbria with their headlights on...hmmm.

We decided to pause on the way up at Wilfs in Staveley for a depression-busting carrot cake & coffee. Medicinal reasons obviously.
James cheered up markedly at seeing the micro brewery next door.

It wasn't easy tearing ourselves away from the beer tapas on offer there, but well, we're professional skaternauts who take our exploratory work seriously. And we were skint.

Onwards! We hit the north. And the rain hit us back.

On arrival at Thirlmere carpark #1 the ground was damp but it wasn't actively raining.

Not until we paid our pay & display fee & put our skates on, then it started. After some miserly grunting from me about having paid bloody £2.50 to park, and having promised James that we would avoid any puddles we set off.


The tarmac was pretty good quality - about 7/10 on the dodgy "skateable tarmac scale", but there were a fair few wet pine needles around to get stuck to our wheels & a couple of tons of wet leaves, however I think several inch deep puddles washed them off ;-)

It was a nice gentle skate north for about 4 miles with good views of the Helvellyn range across the lake, with a gentle tailwind.


We arrived at the end of the lake after about 30 mins skating, slightly damp from the light rain & cold sweaty with fear - but exhilarated from our safe passage thus far we carried on towards Keswick & our doom. Well, not quite doom but a bloody steep, wet, leafy, slippy downhill with a blind bend half way down its quarter mile length. It's fine I said & hurtled off downward - cause that's the sorta guy I am. Stupid.

Having made it to the bottom intact with only a mild panic attack & only losing a few kilos of urethane from the wheels due to reckless T-stopping to show for it, I waited for James - eventually appearing a minute or two later with slightly wild staring eyes & newly white hair.



Fortunately the end was in sight by this time & we came to a wobbly stop by the Keswick road. The sun came out, hooray! And then went in again & more rain started. We paused for some slightly hysterical laughter & mopped our sweatily fevered brows before setting off back & doing it all again, but this time uphill & into a headwind.

All in all a really good skate, but possibly better in the dry.

And we saw a red squirrel! :)

And a beaver, but that's another story....