We were heading up from Northamptonshire on Saturday. We left earlier than we had originally planned as the weather at home had been bad for over 24 hours and the lane in front of our house had been a river for quite some time. Also the forecast was horrendous for later in the day on Saturday.
Driving up the M6 everything was fine and dry but a bit blustery, until we got to Haydock where it started to rain. A few minutes further up the road and we hit it. Or maybe it hit us. Torrential rain and standing water everywhere. The one up side was that there was very little traffic on the road. Hardly any HGV's and most of the ones that were there, were on their side.
Once we got off the M6 at Penrith, we had a very slow drive back up the 7 miles to home. We couldn't go our normal way, it was blocked. We gingerly crept through villages with rivers for roads. In many places it was a question of working out the depth based on knowledge of the road and verges. I wouldn't have like to have made that drive on roads I didn't know well.
We made it back, and bar a couple of pools of water from small leaks, into a dry house. We are SO lucky. So many lives have been devastated. Homes and businesses washed away, many of them for the second time in a few years. It's going to be a long road to recovery for Cumbria.
I have copied a few of the masses of pictures that have been appearing on facebook, as a record for ourselves for the future.
Dunmail Raise - the main Keswick to Ambleside (North to South Lakes) road
Glenridding (there is supposed to be a road where the water is)
Glenridding
Cockermouth
Glenridding
Patterdale
Glenridding
Cockermouth
Keswick
Near Pooley Bridge
Keswick
The above photos and video are thanks to the following: Clive Hutchby; Beyond Imagination Photography; Lake Distirct; Heliopromo; Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team
Today, as things are calming down, we thought we would get out to one of our regular dog walking haunts at Mosedale. Carrock Fell thought otherwise though, it has slipped down onto the road and completely blocked it - and demolished a large section of wall too. Instead we thought we'd have a short walk up Bannerdale. It was short too. Bannerdale Beck is impassable and I don't think it will be too long before Bullfell beck bridge goes the same way as many others
The track is supposed to carry on here
I don't think this will be the last demolished path and bridge we are going to see in the coming months
We have been so lucky. There are so many hundreds of folk who have been badly affected but other than the inconvenience of most of the cross county routes being closed, we have got off pretty much Scot free. We have had so many phone calls and messages from friends and relatives around the country asking if we are OK. Thank you, we are fine and really appreciate your concern.
