Camping at Sykeside, Brothers' Water

When a friend from Buckinghamshire said they were coming up to the Lakes this summer I knew it was a good opportunity to show off my adopted county. I suggested camping for the night and then sent a few potential sites to her from pitchup.com. From these she chose Sykeside near Brothers Water. It was a wet and misty drive up into the mountains from Kendal and I was beginning to think camping had been a bad option! Then as we descended Kirkstone Pass the vista opened up and it just looked stunning:

Before pitching our tent we fortified ourselves with chips at the Brotherswater Inn. It was a good job we did as pitching the big tent in strong winds and drizzles was a testing experience... probably didn't help that I hadn't remembered to bring all the pegs so I had to buy more. The ones from the shop were more up to scratch for the hard ground any way! It was worth it for a view like this:

Once we were set up we headed across the fields for the short walk to Brothers Water:

Brothers Water is a small lake in the Hartsop valley, in the eastern region of the Lake District in England. Once called Broad Water, it lies at the northern end of Kirkstone Pass, affording picturesque views on the descent towards Patterdale:

Looking back we could see how the A592 twists through the Kirkstone Pass:

It was a delightful walk with plenty of things to catch the eye:

The children decided they needed to do an outdoor weights workout as we walked:

Of course this meant that they had huge rocks to throw into the water once we got there:

It wasn't long before they were actually paddling in the water:

They then had fun with the Kraken making slo mo videos: 

They also spent ages finding places for him to be photographed in:

It goes to show what fun these models can be even for a nearly 12 year old! He certainly had an eye for some great shots:

He even took some himself:

Then it was time to rustle up a camping dinner of spag bol whilst enjoying a G&T:

We experimented with melting chocolate to dip our marshmallows in as we didn't have a fire:

The children played various sports games with the children in the tent next door until it was too dark to see. Then their dad lit their fire which we sat around until it no longer gave out any heat:

An all too brief camping experience but with the promise to repeat it (hopefully when its warmer and dryer!). We would definitely recommend the campsite as it  has good facilities and is in a stunning location.