A weekend of cross country swimming in and around beautiful Ullswater, with accommodation in a superb bunkhouse. To fully enjoy this weekend, do need to be a strong, confident front crawl swimmer and comfortable in open water, we swim roughly 2-4km per day.
Accommodation
The spectacular luxury bunkhouse facility of Almond Lodge up the track to Helvellyn, just past the YHA.
Kitted out beautifully with 24 bunk beds, warm showers, a living room with a log burner. There's also a superb kitchen and dining room to enable comfortable self catering all weekend.
The beauty of the location is that once you arrive in your car / lift then you won't need to be back in it for the whole weekend. It's two days of walking shoes, wetsuits and swimming costumes.
The Route and Timings
Lots of flexibility but the broad plan will be as follows:
Arrive Friday afternoon any time from 4pm.
Saturday Glenridding to Howtown - a swim across Ullswater at Glenridding and up the east side to Silver Bay (2km). From here a walk to Sandwick bay (via a stop in the Sandwick tea barn) and a swim, walk into Howtown for the Steamer Ferry Back to Glenridding.
Sunday – offers the chance to head up behind the lodge round the back of the old slate mine and down the beautiful Glencoyne valley to the lake for another crossing via Norfolk Island. Or some height heading up Helvellyn for a dip in Red Tarn.
Finish at lunchtime to enable travel home or you can relax and stay another night in the warmth of the Lodge.
What's included
All the safety for swims, the accommodation (you are welcome to stay on for an extra night on Sunday should you wish), the ferry and we'll be stocking up on the basics for breakfast and pack lunches (bread, peanut butter, crisps, bananas - think YHA pack lunch). And logs for the fire (if it's cold). And we'll get a round or two in at the pub.
What's not included
Bring your own food and drink for breakfast, lunch and dinner if you have special requirements over the above. Options to cook, eat out are all in Glenridding also. The kitchen at Almond Lodge is really good and this will work to enable catering for all the different types of diet people have in the modern lifestyle.
