Day 10 - Ullswater and Aira Force walterfall

[Dollymixture]

It was another beautiful sunny day today and we had tickets booked in the Ullswater steamer from Glenridding to Aira Force (or so I thought, ha!)

We set off around 11 and had an hours drive to get to Glenridding on Ullswater.
We drove along Lake Windermere and through the Kirkstone Pass - the scenery was absolutely epic!
I had to stop to take some photos here!

We arrived at Glenridding and parked in the steamers car park. Luckily I had prebooked and paid £5 for parking. There wasn’t a single space left so Koolie popped in to the visitor centre and asked them where to park - they had a few spaces reserved and let us park in one of those.

I went in to collect out tickets and they didn’t have our name on the list! I got my reservation email up and the guy pointed out I had booked for the 27th - which was in two days time. 😦
I have no idea how I managed to do that and not notice it! Felt like a right idiot! Haha!

They were very nice about it and although the 12.30 boat was full they could get us on the 2pm and back on the 4pm and swap the tickets over - so we did that. Apparently I wasn’t the first one today to turn up on the wrong day. 😂

This gave us some extra time in Glenridding much to Lila’s delight as she as longing to paddle at the beach. We set up the picnic blanket, got some coffee’s and cakes and relaxed until 2pm. Koolie took some footage with the drone of Glenridding bay and Ullswater.

Lila and I had a paddle and the water in the lake was so warm compared to the sea!

The time flew by and we boarded the boat for 2pm. Unlike windermere, the boats here were prebook only and limited capacity, so there was plenty of space on board and it was very comfortable. We were able to go outside and look at the views too if we wanted.

Ullswater is a beautiful lake and I preferred it to Windermere! I found it much more scenic and hilly.

The boat trip was only about 20 minutes but thoroughly enjoyable. We arrived at Aira Force and followed the footpath up to the visitor centre and tea room. The path to the Aira Force waterfall is from the car park and it took about 15 minutes to reach the viewing point. There are quite a lot of steps but it was manageable.

The waterfall was nice but not overly impressive - I expect partly down to the lack of rainfall recently! It looks pretty powerful in some photos I have seen.

Lila was hoping to see red squirrels and was searching the trees but we didn’t spot any unfortunately.

It was soon time to board the boat back to Glenridding - again a very comfortable and well managed boat trip.

We drove back down the Kirkstone Pass and stopped off to take some drone footage! It’s just so stunning in this area, I could have stayed for ages

The kids were hungry though, so we carried on and picked up some takeaway from Charcoal Grills in Grange on sand. Food was great!
At 6pm in the caravan we noticed we had no running water at all. After checking with others and driving to the main amenities, it turns out nowhere on the Haven site has running water!
Not great when you can’t flush the toilet or get a drink 😬
Not a single member of staff is around and no one can get though to anyone on the out of hours phone number, it’s abysmal really. There are people who have no drinks for the kids, the shop on site is completely out of water and bottles and cans! And of course there are no toilets now as we can’t flush!

Nearly midnight and still not heard anything - very poor service from Haven.

Still it hasn’t spoilt our day, it turned out to be a really great day… despite me being an idiot and booking tickets for the wrong day

Tomorrow we are on to Glasgow … I’m excited as I have never been to Scotland before!

[YorkshireT]

We went to the waterfall also. Great pictures. We love the Lake District.

[Pumpkin Pie]

Really enjoying this trip report.

[BevS97]

I’m also really enjoying your trip report m. Thank you for sharing it.

Very poor on Haven’s part to have no one available when there are problems.

[margyloveswdw]

Another lovely day but really poor of Haven to have no one around and no contingency plan….

[P&S]

Another great day and I must admit I prefer Ullswater to Windermere as well

What a poor show from Haven leaving people with no water but more so no explanation!

Hope you got water back on soon.

[Dollymixture]

We thank you, this helps motivate me to keep going! It’s hard to find the time at the end of the day sometimes but I forget it if I don’t say it straight away! 😅

Originally Posted by Pumpkin Pie

Really enjoying this trip report.

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[Dollymixture]

Thanks so much! It’s nice to know others are enjoying it
Yes Haven really should have been present to reassure people and to hand out bottled water at least to those who had nothing to drink or clean baby bottles with.
It was the lack of flushing toilet that worries me most! 😅

Originally Posted by BevS97

I’m also really enjoying your trip report m. Thank you for sharing it.

Very poor on Haven’s part to have no one available when there are problems.

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[Dollymixture]

Thank you… we got water back at around 1am… with no communication from haven at all, not even an email!

Originally Posted by P&S

Another great day and I must admit I prefer Ullswater to Windermere as well

What a poor show from Haven leaving people with no water but more so no explanation!

Hope you got water back on soon.

See more...

[JudeB]

I love the Lake District - it's my favourite place on earth! We are just back from 3 weeks there in our tourer caravan at Keswick. The weather was fab - which was an added bonus.
Loving your trip report - there seems to have been even more planning/booking required than a Florida holiday!