Cumbria – Land of lakes, rain, furry sheep and ramblers

---

Now some may think from my last blog that all I am worried about is saving a buck rather than trying to support the ailing UK economy. So for this report I promise I wont complain about Britain’s extortion of tourists, and instead discuss other things.
After Chester we headed north about 3 hours to a B&B in Culgraith; a small village south of Carlisle. During our 2 night stay it either rained or was blowing a gale. Didn’t prevent us seeing what we wanted to see, although Jane didn’t want to go right round the top of Carlisle Castle as the wind was blowing pretty strong and she thought her rain jacket would act like a parachute and drag her over the edge. We did a drive through the Lakes District on Sunday afternoon. We were hoping to get a look at Beatrix Potters house; but the best we could do was drive through the town without stopping as there looked to be a Beatrix Potter convention on. There were cars, kids and people everywhere. So the only thing we saw related to anything Beatrix was Peter Rabbit road kill. We had booked a table for dinner at the local pub down the road from the B&B and realised we would be late if we stopped anywhere. We had underestimated the time it would take to navigate the narrow (but apparently 2 way) roads which were packed with cars and “ramblers”;as it was a long weekend. These ramblers are closely related to our bushwalkers except this sub species are a little more pale and pasty looking, many have scraggy beards (even some of the men) and they seem to rarely walk in the bush. I haven’t checked the road code in the UK, but when there are no foot paths they just walk down the middle of the road and it appears you have to treat them as vehicles and wait for an opportunity to overtake. Despite these trials, I have to admit that this area of the UK is picturesque and despite some nervous moments navigating the narrow roads and the ramblers, the scenery is very impressive.
Jane managed to find yet another stone circle called Long Meg and her daughters. The daughters are the actual stone circle (about the size of a small football field) and Meg is a taller stone standing alone outside the circle. It is surmised that Meg was a marker stone for some astrological purpose. Most of these circles are in sheep paddocks so you have to negotiate long shaggy haired sheep with long tails as well as the considerable amount of refuse these grass munching ruminants produce.
For those who know Carlisle, would know it is the border town before Scotland. It has considerable Roman history as it was the furtherest outpost of the Empire and where Hadrian built his wall to keep the marauding Scots away from their lands. Interestingly most of the people in Carlisle wish it was still functional!! We visited Vindalanda a Roman Fort on the wall. The archaeology is huge and they estimate they will need to be digging for another 200 years to uncover all the buildings and recover artefacts. They have even uncovered pieces of parchment that describe activities of the Romans as early as 100 AD; only surviving because they were buried in mud that kept the enviroment anaerobic, so no bacteria was able to survive to allow decay.
We are currently in Edinburgh..... but thats a blog entry for another time

---