EMMA PRESTON reports from onboard MV Tern as the Olympic flame travels across Windermere

Last updated at 16:01, Friday, 22 June 2012

THE phrase “once in a lifetime experience” is one used a little too often for my liking.

FLYING THE FLAG: Pupils from John Ruskin School on MV Tern LINDSEY DICKINGS REF: 50035210B020

But yesterday I found myself lucky enough to be part of something I know will not happen again for generations to come – as I stood onboard the MV Tern clutching an official Olympic torch, its sister burning brightly just a few feet behind me.

How it must have felt for 15-year-old Stephanie Booth, who held the flame aloft as the boat travelled from Ambleside to Bowness, I can only imagine.

The sights from the Tern were nothing short of spectacular, dozens of boats sailing alongside the vessel to form a guard of honour reminiscent of the Queen’s Jubilee flotilla.

And the typical Lake District weather that had so concerned everyone throughout the day proved to provide one of the most stunning settings any of us could have imagined.

Moody skies and clouds of mist lying low over the fells made for an intensely atmospheric backdrop, the Lake District almost defiant in her beauty amidst weather that would have made anywhere else look dull and drab.

The Olympic relay is designed to give every person in the country the chance to view that iconic torch, but surely no one outside Cumbria can claim to have seen it in a setting even half as majestic as yesterday’s.

As we came into dock, it seemed the south of the county echoed my sentiments – thousands of people forming a waving throng to see the Tern arrive.

They were rewarded with a front-row view of the iconic torch “kiss”, as Stephanie touched hers to that held by the day’s final bearer.

Among those taking photos, I had spent the hour prior to our journey kicking myself over my failure to charge my smartphone – convinced I was going to be rendered unable to take the pictures that would preserve this experience for me indefinitely.

In the end, the battery held out, and I got the shots I wanted.

And yet, as it turned out, I needn’t have worried quite so much.

In this case, neither a picture nor a thousand words could ever sum up how it felt to stand and watch as history wrote itself right in front of me.

Photos or no photos – the memories will last a lifetime.

First published at 13:26, Friday, 22 June 2012
Published by http://www.walneylocal.co.uk