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Just so you know, I took a LOT
of sheep photos |
I am so happy to opening up this blog again!! I've not done it since Bordeaux, but then again, I've never had a reason to until now. As last week, I spent my first proper holiday since Bordeaux (not that that was really a holiday but never mind), with my boyfriend last week in
Keswick, which is in the northern area of the Lake District. I had not been to the Lakes in a long time, probably since I did my GCSE Geography coursework on Hawkshead - or have I been since then....? I'm not sure. Never mind. What's certain though is that I have never been to Keswick until now - and this was my first proper holiday with my boyfriend too...
And I'd never had a particularly active holiday until now either - before we go any further, I'm not the fittest person in the world, and my boyfriend spends most holidays walking, climbing etc, so I wasn't really used to a lot of stuff we were doing and I was tired a lot - but it was nice for him as well to take it a slower pace and capture all the scenery - both through our eyes and my camera.
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| Tom checking the map at 300m |
So on Sunday last week, we arrived from my boyfriend's place (and after a pit stop at my place) in the evening, at a little campsite a couple of miles outside of Keswick; with views of the nearby mountains wherever you looked. Now seeing as we were both hungry, we drove into Keswick itself after putting the tent up and about two minutes after parking, we could smell chips! So we followed our noses to a chippy, and then, for pudding, found a little restaurant that had an ice cream stall still open. I had a scoop of the
Key Lime Pie ice cream - it was delicious. After having a little walk round Keswick to try and burn that off and find out where everything is, we went back to the tent for a good nights sleep - and boy was that needed for the rest of the week....
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| At the top of Ullock Pike at 700m |
For the first full day, after a brilliant bacon, sausage and egg barm (and egg, bacon and beans on toast for Tom) in the campsite cafe, we set off for the Skiddaw range of mountains, which were one of the sets of mountains visible from our campsite and around Keswick. I've never climbed a proper mountain in my life, and so we decided to see what happened/how I felt. Well, I managed to reach the first main peak in that range,
Ullock Pike, which is around 700m - that's not bad is it? The views even from 300m were incredible, let alone the top - and it was perfect timing to get the panoramic setting on my camera working! Oh and Tom and I really couldn't resist singing The Sound of Music full blast at the top =P
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| WE MADE IT!!! 700m up at Ullock Pike |
As we were coming down, we really could start to feel the heat of the afternoon - you couldn't feel it 700m up, but we could see it waving about in the right place. Unfortunately, I didn't feel the effect of that heat until waking up the next morning - when I could feel my arms were both hot and sore, and so an
emergency trip to the shop for both sun-cream and after-sun was made. In fact, while I remember, I'd like to mention the weather we had there - it was British summer come early!! The sun stayed in the sky all week, making it the perfect opportunity to experience this beautiful area. It also meant as well that we often had a good start to the day - it was boiling hot in the tent by 9 o'clock in the morning, becoming much more preferable to get out than stay there all day...
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| Lovely flowers in Keswick town centre |
Now, on the Tuesday, after having put on enough sun-cream, we then walked into Keswick to look for bike hire - and found a place right on the edge of the town centre that offered us half a days hire for £20. We then went on a route that suited someone like me who hadn't sat on a bike in a while, but was also a reasonable distance, around 5 or 6 miles. The first half used to be a railway line and so was really flat until the halfway point in Threlkeld, where we stopped to have some lunch (including a slab of marbled chocolate and cherry cake at their cafe). The route back was quite hilly though, and as I hate going uphill on a bike, I had to get off and push for a bit. Luckily, it wasn't a hard bike on the way down (what comes up must come down after all). Plus the climb was worth it as we reached
Castlerigg Stone Circle at the top. It's basically some old stones in a ring, but where it is is magnificent, and is described in the guide book we had as a photographer's dream. Well you can imagine I had fun with the camera, when I had strength to actually walk.
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| Castlerigg Stone Circle |
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| Keswick Market |
And here's the reason I imply walking to be a bit difficult; as I said, I have not rode a bike for a long time, and I was not prepared for a very hard thin seat that wasn't made for a bum like mine. So by the end of the ride, I had a very very very sore bottom. I remember writing my notes and eating my tea in the car, as it was the best place for it to "recover". And I'm very very glad we decided to take it easy the next day. Well, you'd want to take a break to after 700m up a mountain and 6 miles on a bike in 2 days.
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| Who will buy my lovely strawberries? |
So for our break/day off, we spent the day
in Keswick itself. I had to buy a birthday present for my friend *fingers crossed she likes it*, and then went for a little bit of swimming after some lunch and a smoothie. Me being me though, I forgot my goggles, and I hate doing proper swimming without them. But then again, it wasn't the best pool to do lengths - it was a small pool, with a slide and wave machine (though that never came on). You've all been in a pool like that.
The day after that was also partly spent in Keswick, as they have their market there on a Thursday (which has also won awards), and we got a big punnet of strawberries to nibble on. From there, we went towards the
Derwent. The lake is one of Keswick's main attractions so it would have been a bit silly to give it a miss. They even have a little theatre by the lake which can stage both amateur and professional productions.
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| Lake Derwent (and a goose) |
There is a really nice walk right around the entire lake, which is about 9 miles altogether - but we didn't do the entire thing. In addition to the footpath, there is also a boat that you can take - you can either take the entire route, which would take around 50 minutes, or you can hop on and off whenever you'd like. In the end, Tom and I ended up doing most of the walk and then taking the boat for about 3 stops to Nichol End, then walking back through Portinscale to the campsite. If you do take the footpath around the bottom of the lake, you can take a little detour to
Lonsdale Falls. It only takes a few minutes off and is well worth a look. It is also the perfect place either have a picnic, or to whip off your walking boots and socks, and to dip your feet in very cold but refreshing water, or maybe both. Like going up the mountain a few days before, we took our time with the walk, taking lots of pictures and taking in the scenery. And it was a lovely walk - the only bad thing was ripping my t-shirt on a bit of barbed wire and it wasn't even necessary. RIP Stewie t-shirt and thanks Tom for taking us the wrong way =P
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| Lonsdale Falls |
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| Everyone loves a cute duck... |
I have to mention one more thing before going any further. The scenery here, particularly in weather that we had, was stunning. Both Tom and I needed to a real rest from life and all its baggage, whatever it may be; and Keswick really did give us that with the scenery alone - as it wasn't during peak time yet, the area wasn't too busy and though it was stressful, even emotional at times when realising just how unfit I am, it really was a perfect break away for what we needed.
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| On the Lake Derwent boat |
And it went by too quickly, as good holidays always do.
Neither of us wanted to leave on Friday morning, but the weather gave us a little hand in making us feel better. We woke up to much cooler weather and the sky was grey. As we discovered through the rain on the way back, it didn't really get much better than that......
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| View of Kendal from Kendal castle |
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| Kendal Castle |
But that's not the end of the story yet., On the way back to my house for a big pit stop, we stopped off at Kendal and then Sedbergh.
In Kendal, we decided to make a little visit to their castle, which is now a pile of ruin - and I love ruined castles. It wasn't very big, but there were still a few nooks and crannies to explore and find out where certain rooms were - from the great hall to the en-suite toilet.
Then we stopped off in a very cold
Sedbergh, which has been named "Britain's Book Town" - and no bloomin' wonder with the amount of bookshops they have, all independent too (and as we know, they're all in short supply). The one that Tom and I had heard about however is Westward Books, which is full of little gems: second hand books, new books, old books, first editions of both books and maps.... and on and on it goes. There was just so much to choose from! I decided to buy a book (for only £3) that was full of quotes about theatre and opera, in the hope that one day it will come in handy for a theatre blog post - I could chuck one in on day, it may happen.
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| More little lambs - they were EVERYWHERE!!! |
I loved Keswick - you probably got that impression already, and I told you what it meant and I mean it. The time had come for us to go off, stuff the world and have a really good holiday. Here's to Keswick and the next time I go on holiday. Means I can write here again too =P
If you're thinking of going to the Lakes, try the Keswick area. Just a thought ;)
yay
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