When you've been promising your best pal for the better half of the year that you’ll take her to Kielder Water and Forest Park, well there comes a point where you just have to suck it up and do it. So armed with her, my brother and pooch and a backpack full of goodies, we headed there on a nice little drive.

I drove, which let’s face it was going to be eventful from the start. I was constantly asking for directions, the dog barking in my ear and the remarks from my brother every five minutes of so only made matters worse. We got there in the end though, pretty unscathed, and by the time we were ready to head home, I had the driving thing down.

Kielder Water is the biggest man-made lake in Northern Europe and, at over 250 square miles, the largest working forest in England. There are many walks that surround the reservoir. Various trees and plants, flowers and shrubs that make you feel like you could be walking the grounds in some Canadian forest never mind a few miles up the road.

It is one of my all-time favourite places to go ever. It has this calming effect on me. I just love everything about the place. It’s also one of the reasons why I don’t like to go all of the time. I don’t want to take the shine away from it; I want it to be a special treat when I visit. That’s one of the reasons why I still haven’t ventured around everywhere. I don’t want to see all that it has to offer in one visit. I want to continue to go back again and again and always be filled with awe.

Autumn is fast approaching, but we still get those rare days of glorious sunshine. This was definitely one of those days. As soon as we got there we headed straight into the thick of it. I like how there are little pebbled bays where you can look across the water, or even dip your feet in for a paddle. I like being able to go right to the edge on the many cliffs and try and conquer my fear of heights. (It never happens.)

We settled down for a bit and devoured our picnic. (The dog included) Then set about exploring. If you stick to the path there are signposts going off in various directions. They tell you how many miles it will take to get to certain points. (If you do what we did, it’s not quite the same as that.)

For some reason we decided to do more of a rock climbing kind of activity. We basically went the same way as the paths but decided on the more dangerous grabbing at rocks and trying not to fall thing instead. It only lasted a little while and the dog was in no real danger so it was all good. I’m making it sound like we were so many feet in the air, but it wasn't like that. It was just three grownups acting like kids. 

Kielder has so much to offer. This is just a teeny tiny fraction of it. They have places to eat, events and attractions such as a castle. You know how excited I get over castles, so as you can imagine I'm dying to check it out. 

Also a little dream of mine is to get a little boat and go out on to the lake and just float around. It's great looking at the water from the land, but I reckon seeing the forest from out at sea (I'm a pirate) would be even better.

Kielder also have their Winter Wonderland celebration coming up too. I think it would be amazing for kids, even weird supposed grown ups like me too. I'm not sure if they still have tickets, but it's worth checking out.

Have any of you been to Kielder Water and Forest Park?