"The Lake District is the core of England's beauty."

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Said a coursemate as we were hiking.



And she's not wrong.

The Lake District National Park is in the Northeastern part of the country, north of Manchester and just south of the Scottish border. As the name suggests, it contains a number of beautiful lakes as well as some mountains dramatic enough to rival the Scottish highlands or the ring of Kerry.



Friday night I and four corsemates made the 2+ hour drive from Newcastle to a place called Derwentwater (pictured above) to stay in a hostel-that-used-to-be-a-mansion near the edge of the lake.

It was really nice inside, with maps and guides posted everywhere, staff who were super-nice and rooms with some pretty fantastic views.



Also it was within walking distance of the edge of the lake



and a waterfall, reached by private hiking trail behind the hostel. Farther downstream from this was a turbine that supplied the hostel with roughly 40% of its electricity. Which I thought was pretty cool.

Continuing to climb beyond the waterfall, we came across a cute-and-very-English-looking bridge



called the Ashness Bridge, and eventually reached "Surprise View"



over Borrowdale valley (south of the Lake, we stayed to the north and east of it)



and the rest of Derwentwater. On the right side of the photo, you can see the small town of Keswick, just at the northern edge of the lake. We stopped there in the afternoon to visit the market and explore. It's a cute and very tourist-oriented town, lined with craft stands and outdoor shops and a Pencil Museum.

Just north of Derwentwater is a lake called Bassenthwaite.

The five of us who visited "Surprise View" on the first morning morning attempted to take an automated group photo of ourselves. A coursemate set up her camera on a rock.



And didn't quite manage to reach us in time.

Then I set her camera on a rock and propped it up with some leaves. I reached the group with several seconds to spare...



But the camera fell into the grass about a microsecond before the picture took.



Finally we managed it. The grass in the immediate foreground was obviously a choice to make the picture look artsy and authentic.



Casterligg stone circle. Not as large or as famous as Stonehenge, but just as old and with a fantastic 360-degree view.



It was thought that tribes in the Stone Age used to meet here to negotiate (ex. "I'll keep this mountain if you take my daughter and some cows...") It might have been used for religious rites as well. Standing on the open field surrounded by mountains, I could understand why people could have called it a spiritual place. Definitely a place of significance.



Later we met up with a few other people and moved into a Camping Barn just east of the lake. No pictures (which I later regretted), but it was essentially a 2-story cabin with 8 bunk beds, a kitchen and a table with benches. You reached the upstairs by a ladder and trapdoor, and had to walk along a path between pastures and over a bridge in order to reach the toilets. It reminded me very much of summer camp. I loved it.

Later in the afternoon, we did a hike on the Western side of the lake up Cats Bells. What I loved about this hike was that after about 5 minutes of uphill climb, the view opened up and only got better the farther up you went. No delayed gratification on this climb. It was very motivating.



Looking north.



and west. I love this one.





We did not need multiple attempts for this, partially because a random stranger volunteered to take the picture for us.



The hike then brought us down a very steep path (not as bad as some of the alternative paths, however...ahem) to the edge of Derwentwater. Here I broke my own record at skipping stones and NO ONE WAS EVEN LOOKING. Obviously. But of course everyone was looking when I slipped and the stone didn't skip once.

Whatever.

Anyway after a night in the camping barn and the coldest shower I have taken since those times when the hot water runs out at summer camp (had forgotten what those feel like...), the next day we visited a cute little town called Glenridding, which is on the shores of yet another lake (Ulswater) and in the shadow of Helvellyn, the Lake District's (and England's) third largest mountain.



Quieter day spent here, save an adventure with a frighteningly aggressive swan and hasty mid-lunch relocation.

All in all the Lake District is incredible, and I can see why everyone has been ranting about it this whole time. A great weekend with everyone (it was nice to get away from coursework and have fun together), and I would love to go back sometime before I'm finished here.

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