The small village of Buttermere is a popular Lake District tourist spot, and also home to a few working farms. On our next hike, to Scarth Gap and Haystacks, we saw a lot of evidence of the active dairy and sheep farming in the area.
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UK 2022 -Scale Force and Windermere
The area around Buttermere Village has long been my favorite in the Lake District. I have visited its two adjoining lakes, Buttermere and Crummock Water, many times over the years, but have never stayed for more than a quick day visit. I was determined that we would spend ample time to explore it well, and even planned to come here twice on this trip!
Continue reading “UK 2022 -Scale Force and Windermere”UK 2022 -Castlerigg Stone Circle and Honister Slate Mine
Our long day climbing Helvellyn was also the last of our days on Ullswater, and it was time to drive to our next base at Buttermere. Good timing! The weather had turned overnight, so we took a leisurely route to visit a couple of places that have withstood the cold and rain for millennia: the Castlerigg stone circle near Keswick, and the Honister Slate Mine on Honister Pass.
Continue reading “UK 2022 -Castlerigg Stone Circle and Honister Slate Mine”UK 2022 -Helvellyn via Striding Edge
Helvellyn is the third highest peak both in England and in the Lake District (don’t worry, I’ll name the two higher mountains in a later post – we tried to climb those as well!). It can be reached from many directions along numerous trails, but the most famous, interesting, and exciting route is from Glenridding via Striding Edge: the knife-edged scrambling trail, or arête. (Note: Helvellyn is a big mountain – it deserves a big blog post. You have been warned.)
Continue reading “UK 2022 -Helvellyn via Striding Edge”UK 2022 -Fell Pony Adventures
It is common for many visitors to England’s Lake District to walk beside the lakes or hike in the fells – alone, with special companions, or in a group. What is less common is to do it alongside creatures that have been specifically bred to work in these hills. We spent a day with Tom Lloyd, owner of Fell Pony Adventures, and two of his ponies, Lucky and Prince, for a hike along the country lanes and through the woods above the villages of Lakeside and Newby Bridge on Windermere. It was a day of hiking as we’ve never had before!
Continue reading “UK 2022 -Fell Pony Adventures”UK 2022 -Aira Force
The weather gods delivered excellent conditions (cool, overcast, and dry) for us to hike up into the nearby hills, so we set our sights on Ullswater’s famous waterfall, Aira Force. Most people in Glenridding walk to and back from the waterfall along the lake, on the Ullswater Way. But to get more distance and elevation, we found a nice loop away from the water and around the peaks of Glenridding Dodd and Sheffield Pike.
We were finally fell-walking!
Continue reading “UK 2022 -Aira Force”UK 2022 -The Ullswater Way
Our drive from Bowness-on-Windermere over the Kirkstone Pass delivered us to the small village of Glenridding on Ullswater: just 16 miles away on the odometer, but with such a different atmosphere as to make us feel we had traveled hundreds of miles.
Gone were the crowds, gone were the cars, and gone was the noise.
Continue reading “UK 2022 -The Ullswater Way”UK 2022 -Getting to the Lake District
We said our heartfelt goodbyes to Iain and Janie to take a leisurely drive north from The Wirral, under the Mersey (not on the ferry this time – there’s a tunnel!), through Liverpool, and up the Lancashire coastline into Cumbria and to Bowness-on-Windermere in the Lake District.
Because Lakeland was our home for the following three weeks, there are a lot of photos that I’ll be sharing here in the upcoming posts. Before that, however, I have something else to show you…
Continue reading “UK 2022 -Getting to the Lake District”UK 2022 -Liverpool Football Club
Those of you who know me, even a little bit, will recall that I am a longtime, avid, and unapologetic supporter of Liverpool FC, the best team in the world.
Continue reading “UK 2022 -Liverpool Football Club”UK 2022 -Liverpool and The Beatles
Joanie and I have finally gone through the hundreds of photos and video clips from our recent trekking holiday to the UK, in order to find the best ones to post here over the next few weeks. My intentions with this blog are to document our experiences for posterity and to share our experiences with those friends around the world who might be interested in following along our journey. Thanks for viewing, and don’t hesitate to ask any questions or add comments.
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