WMGT Day 2
On 21st October 2017 by AdminDay 2: The real start to this adventure. We met for breakfast bright and early at 7:30am. I had brought my own breakfast being the awkward coeliac person but the hostel put on a pretty decent spread for everyone else including full English, cereal and toast as well as juices, tea and coffee.
After breakfast we met outside the hostel and took some group photos and some individual ones with the new friends we’d made. We were told to grab Lydia for photos whenever we wanted, I can’t wait to see how they turn out. From here we travelled a short 15 minutes down Lake Windermere to do our first activity of the trip, kayaking and paddle boarding. We were a little early and the weather was wet so we stayed in our cars until our guide came for us. We had a safety briefing and then were split into two groups, half for 9-man paddle boards and half for 2-person kayaks. I shared a kayak with Ellie. Due to both of us having injuries we were allowed to stay on the kayak without swapping which was good and we made a pretty good team. It was an hour’s kayak across the lake to a small island and here we set up a camp fire, had tea, coffee, marshmallows/s’mores and just generally warmed up a bit and dried out before heading back across the lake. It was really nice to chat with everyone and get to know people better. I asked Lydia how Japan was when she and Mollie went and the trip sounded insane.
Once tea and coffees and photos were complete we headed back to our opposite activity. Like I said, Ellie and I stayed in the kayak but that was fine. We all paddled back together and Sam took some drone footage of us all. People fell in the lake which was freezing so I’m glad that didn’t happen to me. We were all finished by 1:30pm. We headed back to the hostel, showered and warmed up before meeting downstairs for afternoon tea. Mollie had bought an incredible cake for everyone (people said it was delicious, I made do with gluten free Jaffa cakes – welcome to my world people). We had a chat with Mollie and she let us choose some Herbal Essence shampoos and conditioners as she is an ambassador for the company. It’s really interesting that they are now gluten free. I’m lucky that I can wear makeup and cosmetics that don’t affect my skin with gluten, but a lot of coeliacs find it hard so this is awesome.
Mollie suggested to people they could join her in convoy and go to Grassmere to a gingerbread shop and a look around the village, but myself, Shannon, Lucy and Ellie decided to go to the Beatrix Potter museum and relive our childhoods.
Oh dear Lord that museum was adorable. All the characters have been made into models and there were explanations about when each story was written and who it was written for as she wrote a lot in letters to friends’ children. There was also Peter Rabbit’s Garden which won a Gold medal at Chelsea Flower Show in 2014. Right at the end there was a lot of information about Beatrix herself, how she was engaged to her publisher who sadly died before they were married. She used the surrounding villages and her home as inspiration for story settings and illustrations and she donated her house and land to the National Trust to protect the area from construction. It was such a cute museum. Even Peter Rabbit got involved wearing his Where’s Mollie sticker.
We headed back to the hostel for dinner at 7pm. Like breakfast the choices were good, jacket potatoes, curry, bangers and mash, puddings, and after dinner a few of us walked into town for a Tesco stop and a little look around.
All in all a great day! What made my evening was YHA kindly gave me an extra pillow to help me sleep better (it’s the simple things)! Get ready for Day 3!
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