johnsunter.com >> adventures - uk >> dave stag 1
Celebrating David's Stag Do in the Lake District(1/2).
Like a lot of men (including me, and most of my married friends) my brother had always maintained that he would never get married. His force of will, was so strong, that in his case, I actually believed it. I was delighted however, when he met an amazing girl (Leigh) and decided to get engaged.
Things like this don't happen every day, and it seemed silly to waste it on some sort of afternoon drinking session, around the pubs of some big city.
Instead, we headed for the Lake District, stayed in superb group accommodation (which gave everything a sort of community feel) and did loads of exciting activities, which mainly centred around driving things or shooting/firing things against the stunning scenery of the Lake district.
My brother and I have, have always been lucky with our friends, and Lee and Caz were both attending the Stag.
I had recently found the whereabouts of a large cave in the lake district, that had significant history for the 3 of us, so we traveled up early to visit it.
Inspired by the famous picture of the allied leaders, photographed on a park bench together, I put my camera on timer, and take this picture.
After stopping for some food and a pint in a nearby Pub, we are given directions to the Cathedral Cavern, a place we haven't visited in 20 years.
The lads pose by one of the many entrances.
You can see how the Cavern gets its name.
As we wonder around the area, we see various rock formations.
We had previously visited Rookin house farm activity centre, and decided to use them again.
Instead of the normal bunkhouse, we went for the Deluxe accommodation, which had several bedrooms, a living room, with a real fire, and this excellent breakout area connected to the kitchen.
As the mixture of David's Solicitor friends, A few of my friends from Chester, some of our old friends, and several people from Leigh's family (Dave's Fiance) arrive.
We all decided to have a drink, and get to know each other.
People arrived throughout the evening, so a sort of "rolling" party ensued.
People were starting to get a bit hungry.
Dave had brought plenty of food with him, so we got organized, and cooked tea for everyone.
I was really impressed with the willingness of everyone to get involved in chores.
Here, Pete makes straight for the washing up, once the cooking/eating is completed.
After a great party, we all head for our beds, to get rested up for the following days activities.
Rookin house farm has all sorts of activities available. We had chosen Archery and Clay pigeon shooting.
As we walked over to the centre, another group were involved in JCB driving, and looked to be enjoying.
We were lucky with the weather. We did Archery indoors, whilst it poured down outside.
A friendly instructor called Mandy scored the Archery.
The competition was quite clever as different marks were given during different rounds, to keep everyone interested.
When it was our turn to do clay pigeon shooting, the sun had come out !.
I had met Edward the Clay Pigeon instructor before.
He was such a charming guy, that for a moment, you almost forgot just how deadly firearms can be.
The shooting was done 2 at a time, the rest of the lads watch with interest.
The shotguns we were using, had auto ejectors.
It was very important when opening the shotgun, not to look down the barrel, as the spring loaded ejectors, would flick the red hot cartridges into your face.
The instructor was really helpful, and here gave practical tips on shooting.
It was funny at times, as we would say animated things like "go for his legs, kill him." or "catch him as he comes over, dead".
It was easy to forget, that we were shooting clay, and not real birds.
My favourite quote of his, was "if it flies, it dies"
With the mornings activities completed, we head back to the cars, to get some lunch.
As we did, we saw Alistair, the owner, leading a quad bike tour, for some young children.
It was nice to see young children getting involved in stuff like that.
A few of us headed into Keswick for lunch, with a couple going to a local pub instead.
It was market day, we wandered around the shops, and then went to the local chippy.
I was a bit surprised at how expensive it was, but then it is a tourist area.
We had done a lot of the Rookin House activities before, so in the afternoon, we headed to another activity centre, called Greystoke Castle.
Although the Greystoke castle mentioned by Edgar Rice Burroughs in Tarzan, is mentioned in the South Downs, he had actually been a guest here, and the Castle he wrote about is this one, which is still inhabited to this day.
Our first activity of the afternoon was 4x4 off road driving.
We set of up the hill, to their custom made 4x4 track.
As we drive up, there was a course in mountain rescue being run by the International Rescue Corps, from this small expedition camp.
I spend a lot of time in the outdoors, and when you call mountain rescue for help, you really need it.
It was inspiring to see people give up their weekend, for free, so that they could help others.
We arrive at the Quarry.
Some of the hills, looked a bit steep for vehicles, but I shouldn't have worried, the original "go anywhere" vehicle, proved throughout the afternoon, that it could indeed go anywhere.
I was delighted to find, that instead of sitting us in the back, while our instructor drove us around, it was a real training course.
Our instructor Geoff Tomlinson took us around the circuit once, talked us through the obstacles and techniques, and then told us it would be our turn next.
Here the vehicle drives at an angle over uneven ground. It felt like the vehicle should tip over but it didn't.
It was one of many examples of re-learning the rules of driving, for off road.
Here, we drive down a very steep incline.
The key to off road driving, is keeping the wheels moving.
In this instance, we put the vehicle into bottom first, and using engine breaking, actually press the accelerator, and drive down the hill.
If we had driven conventionally and use the brakes, the vehicle would skid and probably turn over.
I was amazed at how easily the Land rover could fly up hills like this one.
Half way up the hill, we had to simulate a stall.
It involved applying the breaks, putting the Land rover into reverse, confirming it was in gear, then releasing the breaks, and "driving" back down the hill under control, to begin again.
All of that sounds fine, but its the moment, when like this, you are sat in the vehicle, and you have followed the procedure, that you take your foot of the break.
It was really quite scary, but the instructor instilled such confidence that I was able to do it.
