I've missed my sis this half term as she is normally my companion on mad dashes round the country, but as she's otherwise engaged on the far side of the world I dragged along the other half instead. He is famous for being a sun worshipper and has been known to get his shirt off in February if there is a hint of warmth in the sun. The Lake District is not his cup of tea! The first time we visited we had a week of solid rain - which is no fun when you're camping! I visited the Lake District on just about every school holiday between the ages
of 11 and 17 and came to love it whatever the weather (usually rain, but occasionally snow, sun or wind). Derwentwater is a beautiful place and Grange in Borrowdale is the place I want to be when I visit. My grandmother's house has changed little in the (far too many to mention) years which have passed since she sold up and had the nerve to emigrate to Australia. Castle Crag still draws me like a magnet. It's only a little hill at 900 feet, but it guards the Jaws of Borrowdale and the views from the top are fantastic - on a clear day.I dragged him first to Chester. I've had fleeting visits there twice now. The first was in the evening when it was dark and my interest was piqued. I'd lived in Wales for nearly 13 years as a youngster so why had my parents never taken me to Chester? Earlier this year I visited during daylight hours and was very impressed. It's a beautiful city and I wanted to see more. This time we stayed overnight right in the centre of town (well, just outside the city walls) and had the
morning and some of the afternoon to look round. The day didn't dawn well as it was drizzling and it absolutely poured down while we were having a full English breakfast. It returned to drizzle when we started to walk round the walls and after only 5 minutes the sun broke through and we had some good views of Welsh mountains while we were looking west. The plaques on the walls are really interesting and it was a very pleasant walk. The walls go right past the castle which my sister and I hunted for high and low when we first visited. We had decided that there was no castle so I was rather surprised to see how large it was and how close to where we had looked for it!When we finished the tour of the walls we left Chester and I managed to avoid the usual detour along past Albert Dock in Liverpool and resolutely directed the other half up to Crosby Beach to show him the Anthony Gormley statues on the beach. He didn't seem too impressed - but that might have been the less than perfect weather with a strong cold wind blowing in from the sea. At least it wasn't raining!
We set off for Keswick and managed to find the worst traffic jam in England that day on the M6. We crawled for miles and arrived late and starving. The Guest House was rather nice which was a pleasant surprise after the very late booking, done with a hint of desperation when nearly every other guest house in Keswick was full. Unfortunately there was not a table free in any of the nice restaurants and pubs by the time we ventured out looking for food but we found a little Italian restaurant off the beaten track that was practically empty. Fortunately the food was good, if not too exciting.
The next day was dismal for the other half - rain coming horizontally, wind, flooded roads, etc. To me it was bliss being there and visiting Friar's Crag and Grange. He didn't seem to appreciate the drive through Honister Pass and was relieved when I directed him to some wider roads. We toured lots of lakes that afternoon: Buttermere, Crummock Water, Loweswater, Bassenthwaite, Ullswater (and Aira Force - lovely cream tea in the caff), Brother's Water, Windemere, Rydal Water, Grasmere, Thirlmere and ending up next to Derwentwater again.
The sun showed up the following day - crystal clear mountain tops which had been covered in clouds the day before. A wonderful Lake District day! There were a few clouds drifting over Blencathra and Skiddaw but Grisdale Pike was revealed and even Great Gable and Helvellyn were mostly out of the cloud. We debated whether to do Castle Crag (again!). The other half's claim to fame is that he managed to climb Castle Crag in flip flops the first time - not to be recommended as the path through the shale is rather hairy. Instead we decided on Latrigg as it was close and is also a relatively easy climb. We had some false starts as we didn't know where to start the walk from. The A66 wasn't there when I climbed it previously! After 2 false starts we managed to find the right route and it was a very pleasant walk. The views from the top were great, although it was starting to cloud over a little. Derwentwater looked black, which is unusual. Skiddaw looked tempting but we remembered that it would be getting dark early and both of us have knees which are far from perfect, so we decided to resist the temptation. Instead we decided to take a different - and quicker - route down to Keswick and only realised how steep and tricky it was after we'd got half way down. It was a practically vertical path through the pine forest and rather hard on the knees and calves but we made it back to Fitz Park and headed straight for some refreshments. We found some rather nice toasted teacakes but had trouble standing up and walking out of the cafe after a sit down as our muscles had ceased up!
Grange was calling me so we headed back there via Watendlath. The other half really didn't like the road up there and back but the tarn is pretty and the river was in full flow on the way down to Lodore Falls. The cafe there was closing so we headed down to Grange and visited the old post office. However the milky coffee they serve is nothing like latte and I wished we'd gone back to the other cafe instead. Afterwards we strolled down to Hollows Farm camp site and admired Castle Crag. It was beginning to get dark so we couldn't attempt it. I managed to explore the island by the bridge in Grange on our return as the day before the rain had really poured down just as we were going to walk across it and we hadn't bothered. It's just something I have to do when I visit. The river was bigger than when I visited last - because of the heavy rainfall of course. That evening we had a lovely French meal as we ate very early - we'd learned from our mistake the previous evening!
We visited Tarn Hows on the way home the next morning. Unfortunately the cloud was low again and it was drizzling a little. It's the first time I've been back there for many years and it was disappointing that it wasn't as spectacular as I remembered it. However the walk round the Tarn was lovely, if damp and misty, and the reflections were as good as I remembered.We travelled home via Conniston Water which made a round dozen of lakes visited this time - not counting Tarn Hows because it's a tarn, not a lake!
I had a lovely time - the other half wished he'd been able to book the holiday in Turkey instead!
