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Published: June 19th 2011
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Blackpool
Making our way from the Peaks to the Lakes, we stopped via Jo's number one must-go UK destination - Blackpool. And there it was, in all it's glory... a permanent seaside amusement town, with customary promenade and pier and
plenty of hotel accommodation everywhere. We're thankful that it was only a weekday and not middle of the summer holidays! And a visit to such a place wouldn't have been complete without fish & chips and sugared donuts, which we willingly obliged.
Lake District
We were staying on the west side of the Lakes District, away from the reportedly touristy Windermere. This meant in order to get to our new residence, we had to get our tiny little car around all the tight, single-lane roads, complete with blind-spot on almost every corner. We also had to get up and down the fells, which did we mention, it was a tiny little car. It struggled many times!
The tiny roads leading from village to village were awesome, and were just the sort of driving Brett was hoping to do. But the real spectacle was the scenery when we entered the mountains, or fells. Here there were more sheep, this time
Road to Wasdale
The weather wasn't looking that great for Wastwater Lake and it's neighboring fells.The scenery was still awesome. free-roaming, which added extra interest to the driving, and the peaks were much more prominent and higher than in the Peak District. The fells provided some dramatic views of spectacularly rugged slopes and scree strewn peaks, with some fells rising straight from the lakes below.
The drive was breathtaking, but it wasn't to be our last surprise in the area. We eventually pulled up outside Irton Hall - our accommodation for the next two nights. It was not the simple cottage we were expecting. We had been upgraded to a three bedroom manor, a spa-bath in each bedroom en suite, large kitchen, a living and dining
hall, and football table in the lobby. The big dilemma we then faced was which bedroom to take - the biggest of course! We happily settled in to being Lord and Lady of the manor and set off to explore the district.
On a local recommendation we headed to Wasdale on the end of Wastwater Lake; a stunningly dark lake set at the base of more of the impressive fells. We decided to embrace the spirit of the Lake District and do what all great adventurers in the area do, hike UP
something. We chose Kirk Fell, a 2600ft peak, based on nothing more than the fact it was right in front of us, looked high and would be a suitable challenge.
So UP we went... the trouble with mountains is they are always steeper than when you are looking at them from the ground. But this one was manageable - or so we reassured ourselves - and after just a few pauses to 'enjoy the view' we made it to just over 2300ft, slightly short of the peak but by this stage Jo had done enough scrambling up the scree-covered face and opted instead for a well earned lunch break.
The view was more than worth the effort and bracing winds. The lush green farmlands, dotted with more sheep, and Wastwater Lake spread out below us, bordered by the cloud covered peaks of the surrounding fells.
So we decided to head back down, but this time with a little help from our friend, gravity. Our knees proceeded to get quite the workout and by the time we made it back down to flat ground, our legs could barely take any more. So we opted to recover in the
pub until the local 'medicine' had kicked in.
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Marek
non-member comment
my boy:-)
Seems like you have learnt something during the trips to Czech:-)