Ambleside. Ambleside is in the heart of the lake district. Its a small town that is mostly for tourists and weekend warriors.
Starting to check in at lakes lodge, we were off to a bad start. They could not find the booking from ebookers.com….and they were full. They called their parent, the Ramada, and eventually they found the booking. Apologizing, they told us the only room available was the 600 sq ft executive. Darn.
The adventure really started when we met one of Bonnie’s livejournal friends Cathy. We all decided to go on a tour of a slate mine called Honister near Keswick. It was still raining. A lot. While on the miner tour we found out about something called the Via Feratta. Instantly we all decided to do it. It basically ended up being a climb up the face of the mountain using clip lines and iron rungs that were drilled into the shear rock. We climbed through waterfalls and over lots of wet rock that was pretty dodgy at times. Then a zip line across a gorge and more climbing. All in all one of the best experiences I’ve had, even though we were soaked through.
