A Slow Morning
We’d booked an early afternoon session at Go Ape over in Grizedale, so we were in no particular hurry. We took a leisurely breakfast in the hotel again.
The drive around to Grizedale was fairly painless. It’s a bit of a twisty road and, much as happened in 2019 when we came here, we got lost. The sat nav was all but useless, mainly because the postcode for the site covers a large area and the sat nav takes you to the wrong part. We had a flash of recognition at one point and knew we were more or less there, but not before we’d driven 5-6 miles along tiny roads in the wrong direction. To be honest, I don’t think there are any “good” roads into the place.
Apeing Around
This time around I’d booked tickets for all four of us to go around. I thought I’d give it a go, and soon regretted it.
Back at the plot, we waited for a while before our slot so we took a service break had a drink.
When it was time, we were ushered through quickly and joined the group at the base of the first step for our induction / training. They were running a bit late, but it wasn’t really a problem.
All four of us went around the beginner’s loop. It was rather slow because a group of quite small children has got in front of us and they were going rather slowly. We all got round this fairly easily, but I have to say I didn’t enjoy it at all. I didn’t like the sensation of things moving beneath my feet as I was walking. Obviously I was fastened on so I couldn’t fall, but balance isn’t a strong point of mine. I just didn’t feel secure at all.
After the first loop we started up the second one and I spied some parts I really didn’t fancy. At about the same moment Izzy expressed some concern about going on the larger one too. So she and I decided not to bother going further. If you’re going back, decide so at the start. So we back-tracked out and left Kas and Izzy to do it. Izzy fancied another go around the smaller circuit, so off she went while I sat at the bottom. Maybe next time I’ll remember and just not buy myself a ticket.
A Quiet Evening
Driving back was fine, but we couldn’t be bothered with much in the evening, so we went back to the hotel.
One of the other hotels in Grasmere had suffered a COVID outbreak amongst its kitchen staff, apparently. As a result, everyone was wandering around trying to find tables for dinner. Our hotel had allocated a few but had also decided that they were going to keep aside enough tables for all residents to have dinner if they wanted to. So that’s what we did. The food was functional and substantial again. I think the girls had more or less the same thing every night we ate there.