You only have to look a social media, says Sue Wallace. “People were asking: is that road closed? Can I get there? Is that hotel open? It sounds awful.’”

It’s just over 100 days now since Cumbria experienced its highest-ever rainfall in 24 hours, flooding 6,300 homes, businesses and farms.

The recovery following Storm Desmond swung into action almost immediately. The Environment Agency has a list of 100 repair projects due to be completed by the autumn, just in time for December this year.

But the recovery of our most important industry – tourism – is still a worry. Without the roads, bridges and other infrastructure, or places to stay, the visitors who come here every year and spend their money might give Cumbria a miss in 2016.

Easter, next weekend, is traditionally seen as the start of the tourist season and for Sue, chairwoman of the Ullswater Association, it is vital that tourists know we’re open for business again.

“We’re trying to restore confidence in folk, and tell them: ‘Don’t cancel your holiday’,” she says. “It’s important for this summer to be a success.”

There are definite signs of recovery in the north Lakes. The new bridge at Pooley Bridge reopens on Sunday, while roadworks on the A592 between Watermillock and Aira Force have been completed and that stretch of road should also be open again this weekend.

And the A591 is due to reopen before the late May bank holiday, a few days ahead of schedule.

To give the new tourist season an early boost, the Ullswater Association is laying on a programme of activities between Good Friday and April 17 called Daff Fest.

It’s the first time the association has tried this, and Sue says it’s in direct response to the December floods – and the popular misconceptions that arose afterwards.

There will be guided walks, canoeing, trips on the Ullswater Steamers, workshops on skills such as watercolour painting, “Mad Hatter’s afternoon tea” parties and events for children such as a “teddy bears’ trail”, finding hidden teddy bears.


And on Sunday, April 3 there will be the planting of hundreds of wild daffodils in Glenridding.

“We get quite a lot of tourist trade over Christmas, and places noticed a dip this year,” she explains. “For some shops trade is still a little slow.

“But people are getting back on their feet. It’s very much about restoring confidence, and dispelling the notion that you can’t get here.

“We’re saying: ‘There are lots of people up and running and waiting to greet people. Come back and say hello.’”

And as she points out, it’s not the only event being planned to start this year’s tourist season and show we’re bouncing back.

The new crossing at Pooley Bridge is being opened on Sunday, with great fanfare.

Penrith Town Band will be playing, the Bishop of Penrith Robert Freeman will bless the bridge, the first cars will drive over it at 12.25pm, and from 12.30pm onwards there will be free trips on the Ullswater Steamers.

And the businesses in the village are expecting to be busy. “Usually our season starts at Easter, but this is going a be a bigger event than the Easter holidays,” says Sarah Fowler, assistant manager of Granny Dowbekin’s Tea Rooms.

No-one could be closer to the bridge than the tea rooms. “The old bridge was our garden wall,” she points out. “We’ve been pretty busy because people have been coming out to see the building of the new bridge.

“It will be a relief not to have the diversion any more. It puts half an hour on your journey.

“For people going to work in Penrith it’s taking an extra hour to get there and back.”

The loss of passing trade affected all the businesses in the village.

Sarah says: “If anyone was coming here they were coming especially. It was nice that a lot of people did actually make that journey – they were still coming all the way round.”

She adds: “The winter is our quietest time anyway. But there are three pubs, two tea rooms, the shop and the post office here and if the bridge wasn’t opening it would have affected us. We are just lucky that it’s ours that’s going to be open first.”


Chris Callow Other places are still waiting for bridges to be restored. Chris Callow, landlord of The Beehive pub in Eamont Bridge, is confident of a good tourist season.

But it can’t really get underway until his village’s bridge is reopened, and he admits: “It’s frustrating. It seems to have been put on the back burner.

“The original date was the February half-term and that’s four weeks ago now.”

And until the bridge opens, the passing trade and other customers from outside the area are staying away.

“It used to be a mile into Penrith, and now there’s a five-mile diversion by car,” Chris explains.

“The locals have been brilliant. They have really supported us over the winter. But at the moment people aren’t coming from Penrith.

“You can understand them not coming, if a one-mile journey becomes a five-mile journey.”

He adds: “If it was open for Easter that would be fantastic. If it isn’t open for Easter we would feel a little hard done by.”

Parish council chairman and flood co-ordinator in the village, Chris Battersby, has been told that the actual repairs to the bridge should be completed next week, a few days ahead of Easter.

However he adds: “They will have some weight testing to do, and once that is done there is all the machinery to remove.

“When you don’t know when something’s going to happen it can cause problems. And it has taken trade from the two pubs in the village. They’ve put out signs and done what they can to keep their businesses going.

“But it sounds as if it will be ready soon.”

And once it is another facility popular with tourists – the bus from Penrith to Kendal via Eamont Bridge – will also come back on stream.

The service was one of those that faced closure when it lost its county council subsidy but the parish councils along its route, including Eamont Bridge, made up the shortfall to keep it going.

Chris says: “The holidaymakers when they come use that bus, and from Easter to the end of the summer holidays we run a return service. They can go down to Kendal, have a few hours there, and come back.

“That can stop in Eamont Bridge again once the bridge opens.”

Sue would like the Daff Fest to become annual event. And she’s optimistic. “We’re coming out of a difficult time, but looking forward to spring and summer.”