The Old Man of Coniston

Phew.... I'm pretty tired!

So we left at 9am for the Lake District which was about 3 1/2 hours away on Friday morning. As soon as we got there we got all our sheets and stuff to get our beds put together in is assigned rooms. My room was called "Napping Tree." hehehe! Then we got split into 6 groups. Each group was assigned a job each day to do a specific job. For example, Friday night my group was on dinner duty. We had to set the tables, serve the meal, and wash up afterwards...lots of work!

Every night at Coniston we did 'community' building games with our entire group. We did the name game the first night. We had to say our name with and adjective, the only name I could come up with was "Kick-ass Kirsten!" LOL!

On Saturday, my flat mate Ashley and I decided we were going to hike up the Old Man Coniston....now let me tell you about that... The people at the Presley Centre, where we were staying, said that it was a hike on a trail.... WRONG! It was more like a 7 hour mountain climb! It was one of the most mentally/physically demanding things I've ever done! 2276 ft, on a steep steep steep rocky path that wasn't really a path at all. The entire time up I kept saying to myself, "Why am I doing this?" But as soon as I made it to the peek, I looked down at my accomplishment and at the beautiful scenic view and it was all worth it! It was amazing! I saw the Irish Sea and the entire country side and it was absolutely gorgeous! I have never hiked in my entire life and after this experience I decided you either go big or go home.

On the way back down our leader Dan decided to make up his own route and took us through the country side were we got lost and went through a knee high muddy swamp and a river. As soon as we found the main road we took it back to the center.

On Sunday, the last full day, I went on a 2 hour canoe trip to a small island in the middle of the lake. There were five three person canoes and we all had a fun pirate fight on the way there which sounded like a good idea at first but when I was really the only one who got so wet that I could take my jumper off and I could bring it out….it suddenly became a bad idea cause I was sooo cold. We got to the island and had elevenzies. This is tea and biscuits at 11 o’clock! YUMMY! Then made our journey back to the center. At this point I was very very tired from all the physical activity and ready for a small cat nap before our evening meal. But I didn’t want to miss out on anything so when we got back, 11 of us decided to take a 10 person canoe to the Ruskin’s Home across the lake. A famous local paint critic and botanist. His large home for a tour and a small coffee shop for some tea, cakes, and beer.
We left early Monday morning for Birmingham and got home around 3ish. I was thrilled to find out that my internet wasn’t working and neither was my phone….not. Last night we just hung around our flat and relaxed, well besides for the grocery store visit.

It’s about 6:30pm here and I’m just about to get ready for a Fresher’s Fest event starting at 8. It’s a huge festival going on this week and tonight it’s at the Oceana Club. I better get ready!

Cheers!

Kirsten