Libations in the lakes

The lovely Lisa and I were back in Langdale for the August bank holiday. As the journey is long and tedious we stopped at the Watermill once we'd left the motorway. We both went for their own Collie Wobbles at 3.7% ABV as we know it's nice and refreshing, but as we sat down I spotted a Stringers beer mat and sure enough looking at the boards behind the bar I saw one of their beers was on in the bar next door. 

As I like the Stringers blog I'm keen to try the beer but one was enough so it wasn't to be this time. We did manage to find one beer we were after later that day as one of Lisa's favouries Coniston Old Man Ale was on at the Sticklebarn. 

The next day we were lucky enough to see the dangerous low water levels recover somewhat as horizontal rain drenched us for most of the day as we went over the Crinkle Crags. Delighted that the reservoirs, and our clothes, were now filled with water we stopped at the ODG to celebrate. There's a good beer range but it's not the cosiest of pubs so after a swiftie we headed back towards the hut. Not that we got there for a while as we passed the Sticklebarn on the way... We did manage to get past the New Dungeon Ghyll without stopping though, as despite the currently low interest rates we didn't fancy having to re-mortgage to be able to afford a round.

The next day was somewhat different from our usual lakeland excursions as we walked over to the Grasmere show to watch one of our friends compete.

The two main competitions were Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling and a short fell race. Our mate was in what looked by far the most painful option - running up this hill: 

He made it though, and here he is once he'd got back down:

We managed to find something that suited us and did our bit for Cumbrian culture by visiting the Jennings beer tent.