An even better waterfall

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood. This post is from Nicola

While we were wet camping by Ullswater we went up to Aria Force again knowing that the sheer volume of rain would make it and High Force show-stoppers. The waterfalls are owned by the National Trust, and have a lot of visitors. But you can just about escape the crowds by following the path up towards Gowbarrow Fell. In fact we got so keen on the ascent that we decided to climb the fell and have smarties (rather than a picnic) at the top.

Nell beat us all to the top this time, and then beat us all downhill too. Both girls will soon find their parents slowing them down at this rate...

The pic is of Lola by High Force which is a beautiful and noisy waterfall. Though it is smaller than the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe it could so easily have got the same name given that the Victorians were swarming over the Lake District 150 years ago. Just before Pete and I decided to give up plane travel in a bid to make more of a concious effort not to clock up even more carbon emissions we visited friends in Zimbabwe and toddling Lola (aged one and a half years) came too. There's a pic of her being carried in a backpack wrapped in waterproofs as we stroll through the spray looking for rainbows. How lovely to be able to do the same thing in Britian, without having to carry our daughter this time...

Perhaps the best part of this trip was seeing the girls realise why Ullswater kept rising during the day - inching steadily towards our tent - even when it wasn't raining.