We knew the forecast was for heavy rain and cold, so we waited for breakfast at 8:30 in order to fortify ourselves against the day and off we went.

Our shortcut took us around Ambleside, but over a steep hill, perfect for warming up before Grasmere. Grasmere is a very pretty village, famous for being the home of William Wordsworth. Though it was raining hard, we found a bus shelter and took a photo from there, the only one of the day. It was partly for the dramatic view and partly to show the snow up high in the hills.

There was a very nice couple sheltering from the rain, waiting for some friends and we had a chat before continuing on. From Grasmere, there is a climb to Keswick, up to around 300 metres. As we cycled up, I thought the rain was mixing with snow, and sure enough before long we were cycling in reasonably heavy snowfall.

At first, I found this mildly exciting; I hadn’t cycled in snow since my days living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. However, as it continued it became a lot less fun. If you remember, we discovered in Cornwall that much of our waterproof gear failed. It was uncomfortable but not a huge problem there, as it wasn’t terribly cold. Failure in the snow proofed to be fatal. My hands became painfully cold, and the right hand, which I had de-gloved earlier to take the photo, became painful and unusable.

We were fortunately headed to Keswick, where I knew there was a bike shop, so tried to focus on making it there where we could warm up and buy new gear. By the time we arrived, I couldn’t change gears or use my brakes with my right hand, so coming down the hill was a bit tense. But my rear brakes held and we manged to find an outdoor shop fairly quickly.

Husband managed to pull off my gloves, we bought a travel towel, found a seat and began recovery. His hands were soaked as well, though not quite as numb. I bought a fleece and a new long-sleeved base layer, changed into them and then we found gloves in a shop next door. I bought two pairs, one mittens, one gloves, both supposedly waterproof.

We then retreated to Costa, got hot drinks and food and decided to wait out the weather. So here we are, waiting. It is supposed to improve by around 3:00. We have around 30 miles to go, but get even higher than last time. It’s light late, so we are in no hurry. And so far Costa doesn’t mind.