Blogs from Cumbria, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Days 18 - 22 Monday was another day of touring in Cornwall, Andy taking us to Land's End, the most Westerly point in UK. A very dramatic landscape out over the ocean, dolphins in the bay below and plenty of sightseers today. Something I will mention at this point, is the amount of dogs in the UK. Owners are allowed to take their dogs into pretty much any shop, cafes, restaurants, Taverns....basically anywhere. And they do, you can end up sitting next to a table of 3 humans and 2 dogs in any eating establishment. As most of you will know, Ange & I love dogs, but I don't necessarily agree with taking the pooches into eating venues. We left Pat & Andy on Tuesday and headed for Yorkshire Dales & Lake District in Cumbria. After ... read more

Longest day so far and an anxious Ellis from the night before. Up early again for an 8am breakfast (it’s nice being able to have a guilt free full English - apparently we actually need the calories!!). Ellis still feeling nervous about having to cover the furthest distance so far - over 20 miles in a single day. Noisy start with the first bridge over the train line and then the second bridge over the M6. But soon managed to put those behind us within a few miles. By mile 6 however we could still see the M6, and I wasn’t sure that we should have been able to. Yep - we’d taken a slight detour (or, in layman’s terms - got lost). iPhone and Google maps to the rescue we set a corrective course and ... read more

Monster of a day! Up nice and early at 6.30, breakfast for 7.30 and off at 8.00. Ready for the day. Up, up and away for today. Straight into the first beast of a climb to Lining Crag. Nice gentle start through to Stonethwaite before we start to go up. we look up at a HUGE monstrosity called Eagle Crag - looks enormous, but a bit concerned since the guidebook says that we’ll be looking down on that soon(ish). So up we go - already starting to get steep and rising above lovely waterfalls. Still steeper until a beast of a climb to the top - more like scrambling up these rocks. Finished! Except we weren’t - over the top just to see another peak even higher that we needed to go up to Greenup Edge ... read more

Dents Hill!!!! Wow, Dents Hill!! Left The Manor 8.30am after a wholesome breakfast and had to walk just over a mile to the start of the walk. Climbed up to the cliff top for amazing views over the Irish Sea (after collecting our pebbles - 1 each - to give to The North Sea). Not sure about this start to the route since we seemed to be walking for two hours in the wrong direction before turning inland towards our destination. Nice views, so could put up with the extra mileage (if only we‘d known - Dents Hill, the pain to come that’s inn as Dents Hill)…. Inland for another two and a half hours for our lunch stop. A nice cafe or restaurant to look forward to? Nope - corner shop in Cleater for tuna ... read more

Today we got up at our Elim Bank Guest House and went downstairs for breakfast. Because it’s a small breakfast room you sign up for your breakfast time. Ours was 8:00-8:50. We had several choices but I wanted the yogurt parfaits because the owner made her own fruit compote for the yogurt. It was delicious. This is one of the most delightful places we have stayed. It’s a 169 year old Victorian era home with 7 guest rooms. The young couple that own it live on the premises and do all their own cleaning, cooking, and preparing for guests. It’s in the heart of Windermere and Bowness-on-Windermere (called The Lake District). It’s such a cute area. Today we had a private tour around the lake region, particularly the areas owned add frequented by Beatrix Potter. Beatrix ... read more