UK Lake District

About 5 hours north of London is the UK Lake District. This is a mountainous region with several good sized lakes, hiking trails, and other generally outdoorsy activities.

Friday, August 7th

I left work a few hours early to "hire a car", but since we picked it up from Heathrow, we still didn't get out of London until nearly 4:00. This trip gave us the opportunity to use our brand new (to us) GPS. We'd been thinking of getting one for a while, and on the last trip got fed up with paying £12 per day for rental from Avis, so when I found one used online for £50, we jumped on it. It has turned out to be a (potentially hot) gem. Between Friday traffic and the wreck outside Oxford, we didn't get in our B&B in Keswick in the north Lake District until after 10:00, so we pretty much went straight to bed.

Saturday, August 8th

We got up pretty early and had a wonderful breakfast at our B&B - Badgers Wood. The wife cooked up an amazing English Breakfast, and the husband offered up good conversation and advice on the area. A very friendly place that we have already recommended to our friends here in London with us.

After eating we took a walk around the town, where every other storefront was a camping and outdoors store. Probably really good for the people like us who came completely unprepared. Too bad we didn't take advantage.

We headed through the town to the edge of Lake Derwentwater, one of the larger lakes in the area. We hopped on a boat that took us around the lake for some scenic views before dropping us at the foot of one of the large hills, where we had planned to start our first hike. Turns out that lack of preparation (no water, no real hiking gear) was probably not wise. We got by fine, but had to take it slower than normal, and got a little embarrassed when we'd take a break and be passed up by the couples older than our parents.

As we climbed the hill, we were amazed by the incredible views. We were lucky enough to have sunny skies (and perfect weather - warm enough to be happy, cool enough to not die from the hike). After about two hours, we reached the peak of the hill at 1,500 feet and could see for miles. The site of several other lakes, rolling hills, farm and pasture land was just breath-taking. It is moments like this when we remember how much God has blessed us by giving us the ability to be here, and see all of His wonderful creation! As with many other things we've seen on this journey, there are pictures, but they can't even come close to giving you an idea of the experience of sitting on the top with the wind on your face, looking down at the majesty of the lakes and valleys.

After having a few minutes to pause and take it in, we headed back down to the lake and picked up another boat. We hopped off at another section of the lake, and had a late lunch at a small outdoor cafe near a tiny village called Lodore, and then saw some nearby waterfalls. By this time we'd done the main sites around this lake, but we'd heard there was a nice drive through the area, so we decided to head back to the car.

The combination of 6 hours in the car on Friday night and the morning spent hiking hit us pretty hard while on the boat back to Keswick. We planned to do an evening boat cruise, and were going to have just enough time to do our scenic drive and get cleaned up before going to that. On the way to the car, though, we both decided that maybe the drive could wait, and we did something that we've never done on any vacation yet - we went back to the room and took a nap! I set the alarm to just sleep for 45 minutes, but of course I set it wrong and we woke up nearly 2 hours later, and ended up having to rush around to get ready for our cruise.

The little boat tour was nice. It took us out to the middle of the lake that we'd spent the day hiking around, and a local man talked for about 30 minutes about the history, current affairs, significant events, and landmarks in the area. It was nice and relaxing and a good way to hear more about the Lake District from a guy who was born and raised there, and seen it change (he made sure we knew that he'd passed on the opportunity to buy a lakeside villa for £10k forty years ago, and it just sold the month before for £1.5m. He thought it was too much money back then!).

After the tour we were pretty hungry, so we walked around the town looking for a place to eat. It is a pretty small town, and since every other shop sells camping gear, there aren't a lot of options. We were lucky enough to wander down a side street, though, and come across a nice Indian restaurant, which had very nice food and atmosphere (although the waiter let it show that he was much less than pleased when we ordered tap water to drink).

Since there isn't much night life in the area, and we wouldn't be too interested if there was, we headed back to the B&B and spent the rest of the night relaxing and reading in the room. Very different than most of the travel we've been doing, but it was a nice change, and very relaxing for me after I'd just finished a pretty busy time at work.

Sunday, August 9th

Since it is a long drive from London, we didn't have a ton of time on Sunday. Our first stop was at the at the Lakeland Sheep and Wool Center for a sheep show. We'd missed out on a similar show when we were in Wales, so when we saw that this was just a few miles from where we were staying, we had to go. It was a little cheesy, but they brought out 18 different breeds of sheep that are bred in the area (there are something like 80 breeds in the country). They would let them loose from a back room and they would come running around the corner and right up to there place on the stage, where of course there was a bucket of food waiting for them.

The presenter talked about the different types, where they were from, and what they were used for. It was interesting to see the differences between types of wool, colors, horns, etc. I think if you'd have asked us 12 months ago how many types of sheep were in the world we'd have been pretty confident in saying "one". Now we know better. They also did a sheep dog demonstration. Since it was indoors, they couldn't have the dog herd the sheep around the small stage, so they used geese instead. It was pretty funny, as the dog walked these 4 geese around the stage, them flapping their wings and falling all over the place!

At the end they let us up on stage to pet the animals, including the cows they'd brought out at the end. The wool looks nice and soft when they make it into a sweater, but when it is on the sheep it is pretty gross. It is dirty from a life spent rolling around in the grass, but it is also very oily, which keeps it waterproof. Our hands were feeling pretty disgusting after the "hands on" time.

We left the show and headed off for another hike around the smaller Buttermere Lake. This hike was pretty much just a stroll, and a total joke compared to what we did on Saturday. It was still incredibly nice. There were several waterfalls flowing from the nearby hills down to the lake, and the views were still spectacular. It was basically just a 4 mile walk around this lake, with a few little ups and downs here and there. We ended up getting a little bored by the end, but it was probably better than trying to do another serious hike.

After the walk we went on our short driving tour. It was nice, but pretty similar to a lot of the scenic small towns and countryside that we've seen in other parts of the country and in Ireland. It was enjoyable, but I think we were glad we opted for the nap instead the day before.

By the time we'd finished the drive, it was about 2:00 and we were thinking about lunch and a long drive home. We stopped at the local grocer and picked up some picnic essentials. We planned to eat at a nearby stone circle (Stonehenge in only one of literally thousands in the UK, it is just the best). I was pretty hungry, though, and Jenna was feeling a little sick from the narrow windy roads, so I ended up just eating in the car on the way. We stopped at the stone circle, but it wasn't too impressive and there were a bunch of annoying kids screwing around, so we took off pretty quick, jumped on the road, flipped on the Top 40, and headed for home.