With the main construction of the garage finished, meaning the rest of the work was just down to us, we thought we’d have a late summer holiday. The few months of total lack of spare time and constant disruption meant we could really do with a break. We’d been invited to a wedding we’d have to travel a little for and stay overnight so we thought we’d take the Evo and extend our journey on to the Lake District and see what the roads were like there.

As per usual before any road trip I gave the Evo a good check over and proper clean.

 

And the Mazda got to live in the garage for a week.

 

So we did the boring journey to the wedding trying to keep the MPG at a sensible level.

 

A champagne and ice cream reception. Win!  A rare selfie with me in it.

The Groom is also an engineer and he’s into cars. He also used to be a Mini owner so the venue was suitably decorated.

 

This was the base of the stand for the table plan.

 

The Mini was full of sweets which went down well with the kids and Jem.

 

The Bride and Groom requested people fill in the guest book with a decorated thumb print or something like that. This was my effort. It’s the only thing I can draw that isn’t a technical drawing of some sort.

 

Had to get a taxi to the hotel and leave the Evo unattended in the dark. This is not something I do often!

 

Well that was pretty much all the photo’s I took at the wedding. You can probably tell how interesting I find weddings.

Anyhow, on to the the road trip. Jem wanted to go to the Malvern Autumn Show so we went via it on our way to the Lake District.

 

We found some record breaking vegetables.

 

Some very well presented tomatoes. Me neither???

Tractors! That’s more like it.

 

A Mini.

 

I work in Herstmonceux so was a bit surprised to see these guys.

 

Trucks.

 

Want one of these.

 

A very tidy example of a chicken.

 

Jem made a friend.

 

Time to get on our way.

 

Home for the week.

 

Wen’t down to check out Lake Windermere and the local sights on the first day. Such as a big boat,

 

the casino,

 

some public transport with wifi don’t you know

 

and last but not least Bargain Booze.

 

We also found time to check out the Lake

 

and have an out of focus ice cream.

 

We thought we’d get a closer look at the lake so got ourselves a little boat. It was the slowest boat in the world!

 

I got a few lucky snaps of some guys enjoying their Sunday on the lake.

 

We got back in the Evo and went to find some other sights around the lake.

 

As the weather was going to be total rubbish all day we booked a day of off roading with Kankku. Wasn’t cheap for the two of us for the day but we had a really good day so worth it.

 

Went for a walk down the river next to our cottage one evening.

 

Jem got hold of the camera for a bit.

 

Collecting stones for skimming. It’s got to be done.

 

We did a full day on the road one day which was most of 8 hours solid just finding cool, quiet roads. We would have stopped more often but the weather wasn’t that great.

 

The sheep, they don’t care.

 

We’re about to go down that empty road, quickly.

 

We tried all the famous passes including Hardknott where we stopped to check out the Roman Fort.  The little information boards do a decent job of explaining what it all was.

 

 

 

Jem sheltering from the weather. It was pretty soggy up there.

 

Another random stop.

 

We walked up a trail along a waterfall..

 

…to a view at the top.

 

Got some bikes for a few hours at Whinlatter one day.

 

Lunch stop.

 

 

That’s enough peddle power, back to some petrol power.

 

We visited the National Trust property Allan Bank, mainly to find red squirrels as Jem wanted to see one.

 

So we started with a walk around the grounds.

 

We actually found a red squirrel

 

and a quick glance of a deer.

 

The house was a really quiet, comfortable place to relax for a while and have some lunch.

 

Some very old walking boots.

 

Nice spot of lunch. while spotting more red squirrels or the same one lots.

 

My co-driver planning our next interesting route.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jem found a route that included a ferry crossing. We always try and work a ferry crossing in to some part of a road trip if we can.

 

 

 

 

Snacks are a very important part of any road trip!

 

More roads in the hills.

 

 

Camera was getting pretty wet by now.

 

After all that we headed home with a filthy Evo.

 

Now I have to clean it all over again…