A week in the peaks

We quickly followed our long weekend in the Lakes with a week in the Peaks.  I've never really understood why it's called the peak district as it's pretty lacking in peaks really but we had a nice time in generally rolling hillscapes.

It was truly lovely weather (until the last day).  We employed our tarp every day as a sunshade rather than a rain cover, and played about with different configurations for the 'little house'.  We spent time lazing on the campsite.  We did some outdoors stuff and some underground stuff.  We barely checked our phones or email or any of that nonsense.  We sat around in the evenings listening to Olympics coverage.  We only had one day of Marisca poorliness and pretty good sleep all round.

We went on Marisca's first proper bike ride!  After lots of riding round this campsite and the previous one, we took ourselves to the Monsal Trail, hired bikes for the grownups and a trailer for Tom, and set off.  We had a great time cycling along the old railway line, toot tooting under the bridges, riding through long lit tunnels, and generally having fun.  And we're super proud of Marisca - probably a 7 mile ride is a very good job and she absolutely loved it, as you can see.

We had a really great walk on the Roaches.  Perfect - quite a short climb up to a nice ridge with enough scrambly rocks to keep everyone interested and enough breeze on a hot day.  We had a picnic at the trig point, and a fair number of bilberries on the way, as Tom's purple mouth testifies.

And we had a nice walk, with orienteering, up through the woods on Grin Low.  The orienteering was just following the main path and looking out for the posts but it really kept both children interested.  The tower at the top was really fun and we had a lovely picnic and played dragons at the top of the hill.  Afterwards was a trip into Poole's Cavern which Marisca was really captivated by.  Another brilliant day!

Just to wrap up the post in the way we wrap up the days in the tent.  Risky and Thomas reading away until it's too dark to see.

Outdoors fun in Keswick

A couple of weeks ago we had our first camping trip of the year. I'm happy to report that we all like camping exactly as much as we did last year! We went back to the campsite just outside Keswick where Marisca was a bit poorly last year, and had a much better time.

Probably the best bit was climbing up Catbells.  It's been a little ambition of mine as a family friendly fell, and the children loved the climb up; mostly the scrambly bits and the sweets-for-fuel bits.  The way down and back to the parking spot was less fun and less well documented.  But the hill climb itself was great.  Look at these little people go!

The next day we walked in the same place, more or less.  Taking the boat around Derwentwater and then a short kid-guided walk along the shore to the next landing place.  Marisca loved being in charge, and Thomas loved playing Boo! (as usual).  We also got the chance for a bit of swinging and tree climbing.  Lovely.

And happily, at the campsite both of them really got into riding their bikes again.  Every time we went anywhere Risky would tell us that when she got home she'd go for a little ride.  And indeed, still being in pyjamas didn't stop them.

A nice weekend away, lots of fresh air and fun.