Going under

Despite our good intentions to get up early today we were both unable to get out of our sleeping bags, having only just managed to get warm enough by getting up time. I keep forgetting it's still only April and it's quite chilly in the middle of the night. Claire had a dream about a monster outside the tent and I had a very vivid dream about it being the apocalypse. Today.
I should mention that today is our 2nd anniversary of meeting, so we were just hoping that these dreams were not bad omens.

We went over the road to Fell Foot Park which is some National Trust owned land by the lake. We were pleased to note that it had a tea room, although unfortunately did not note what time said tea room closed. The boat launching enquiries hut was closed but to our surprise, a friendly national trust man told us not to bother paying a launching fee, and directed us to a fence to climb over to a suitable launching place. Not normal national trust warden behaviour at all.

The lake was nice and calm and once we'd got over our initial panicky wobbles and remembered to put our skegs down we were able to get around well (skeg = a little fin that helps with steering and not wobbling so much). I kept getting splashed because I wasn't allowed to wear my spray deck (a cover for the bit of the kayak you sit in). This was because I had not yet proved to Claire that I could get out of my boat after capsizing it.

I had bought myself a whole host of neoprene clothing (vest, shorts, shoes and gloves) although after a while came to the conclusion that only the vest and shorts were actually beneficial. The shoes were cutting off my circulation and the gloves were, in a quite contrary way, cooling my hands down. So I had to go back to being a barefoot paddler and face the consequences later.

We paddled for miles (although later discovered it was probably no more than 2 miles), had a quick snack then headed back to make use of the tea shop. Which was closing on our arrival.
We then decided it would be a good time for me to practice getting out of a capsized kayak. Never mind that it's April and the water is, I'm quite certain, sub zero. At least then I could wear my spray deck tomorrow.

I stripped down until I was clad entirely in neoprene and shivering just looking at the water. Claire them made me capsize not once but twice. Once without the spray deck on and once with. Fortunately my numerous experiences changing rubber masks in a hut full of CS smoke at work stood me in good stead for not panicking.
The lake was breathtakingly cold as were the slimy rocks at the shore on my bare feet. I still have a headache some 5 hours later caused by plunging into the icy water.
Anyway, my efforts were not in vain and I am now allowed to use the spray deck.

We got back to the campsite and have now moved into our tipi tent which is very nice apart from the smell of wet tent (always a risk when camping in April), and the lingering but (fortunately) fading smell of stale fags.
On inspection, my big toes were both completely white which explained why I couldn't feel them. After sticking them up Claire's jumper and then in a bowl of warm water they finally recovered.
I am not very happy about this at all as it appears I may have inherited Reynaulds disease from my mother, which is something I am going to have to have words with her about.

We decided a trip to the not-particularly-local pub was in order and have just finished tucking into some Cumbrian style platters washed down with real ale.

Tomorrow we are popping up to Grasmere to stock up on gingerbread and check out the Cotswold rock bottom shop, and then doing some paddling round the top end of Windermere. Hopefully the weather will be a little bit more summery for us.

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Location:In the lake