My visit to the Lake District.

     We set off and with in half and hour we turned off the main road and headed for the mountain. Shortly we were at a T-junction where we wanted to turn left. We stopped and looked around, to the right was another road that looped back to the main road, in front of us was the mountain and to the left was a gravel road with signs saying ‘steep roads’, ‘rockslides’ and ‘wildlife’. This was the road we wanted. We took it, and almost straight away the road started too get very steep, after a mile or so the road leveled out and we were able to stop to see sights and take pictures. We continued going for another ten miles when we came to a corner, as went round it and to our amazement the road seemed to be going straight up. Beside the side of the road a sign read ‘thirty percent’ and a sign saying ‘use 1st gear’. The road was black from tyre marks and had patches of gravel on it. Dad backed up and put in to 1st gear, he put his foot on the accelerator and we slowly approached the hill. We started to go up it, it felt like the car was going to let go and fall back, But it didn’t. We got half way up and the car sounded like it was struggling so dad put his foot down a bit more. We jolted forward a few feet, but then the car began to lose grip on the road. The wheels started spinning and we slowly began to move backwards. Dad put his foot down again and the wheels span even more but we began to move forward again. As we passed the passed the patch of gravel we slowed down and steadily got to the top. We pulled over for my dad to calm down, and shortly we were moving again, still up hill but nothing like what we just faced.

     We carried on going and the dry stone wall, which was running along the side of the road disappeared and uncovered the 200ft sheer drop to the next road. On the other side it was the opposite, rather than a drop it was a steep cliff face rising up to the road above. We drove on and soon we saw signs saying the road was liable to rockslides. We thought nothing of it and carried on and soon sore a group of mountain goats on the steep slopes. As we got closer to them we stopped to have a look around. Where the goats had been walking on the loose cliffs, gravel and small rocks began to tumble down. We turned and looked down at the country below but our attention was soon turned back to the goats. There was a quiet rumbling coming from there direction, we looked out but couldn’t see them. The noise was getting louder so dad stuck his head out the window. He gazed up and look puzzled. The noise continued to get louder and as it did dads eyes widened. He pulled his head in and slammed his foot onto the accelerator and we shot forward. As we did there was a crashing sound, we looked back to see boulders the size of cars smashing into the road along with a huge cloud of dust. Suddenly stoned started hitting the car like machine gun fire. Then a boulder the size of a fridge pummeled into the side of the car, causing the back to swing out. The car span towards edge of the road, then turned so that the back was heading for the edge. At this point dad was slamming the brakes on and my sister who was sat in the back was screaming. We began to skid and slow down but suddenly the back of the car dropped and we stopped moving. We were hanging over the edge of the cliff and the only thing stopping us from falling was the weight of my dad and me. We calmed my sister and told her to slowly unclip her seat belt, she pressed it but it wouldn’t unclip, she started wriggling again to try and free herself but she couldn’t. We calmed her down again, and I remembered about the knife. I slowly took it out of her pocket and showed my dad. He gave me an awkward look and said ‘okay, go on then.’ I reached back and pulled out the knife blade. I pulled the seat belt out a bit and began to cut it. It wasn’t long before I had cut through it, I sat down again. My sister slowly moved to the front of the car and we all got out.

     We walked over to a rock and sat down, dad got his phone out  and called the emergency services. It took a few attempts to get through because of a bad signal but finally did. He explained to the lady at the switched board what happened, and she sent mountain rescue and a helicopter. We waited for 15minutes and we finally saw the helicopter coming towards us. As it got closer they told us to walk up the road until we got to a wide enough bit of road for helicopter to pick us up. We walked for 5minutes and found a place, they hovered about us and dropped a cable a harness. One after another we held on to the harness and the pulled us up on to the helicopter.

     When we were all on they flew us to hospital for a check over. We were all okay and were then taken back to the caravan and were allowed to stay until everything was sorted. A week later everything was, we caught a train back home so we could enjoy the rest of the holiday.