Blogs from Cumbria, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 2

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

Monday 25th left Ulverston and decided to take the route through Yorkshire Dales National Park which was a beautiful run when it wasn't raining! More gorgeous towns along the way like Malham where Malham Cove is situated, a huge curved limestone formation formed by a waterfall carrying meltwater from glaciers at the end of the Ice Age more than 12000 years ago.....the history of stuff here is amazing! To get to it the boss took a short cut, along the tiniest little lanes that you could just scrape two cars through, adding to the problem with our big Renault van!!! Anyway after a couple of near misses we eventually got to Malham Cove, with typical Yorkshire Dales weather misting and foggy! From there through Harrogate which is another very picturesque town, I think it oozes money, ... read more

Pleasant drive from north Wales to Keswick, which is in the "Lakes" (and yes it rained). English make a big deal of the lakes and "mountains" (highest is 3200 feet), but gosh the green grass filled with sheep driving north was quite a treat. If you or I saw the intensity of green our comment is "photoshopped"; nope it's actually that color. Yes Doozer, sheep abound, even more abundant than the Cotswolds, but these poor folks have tasty meat, not reared for wool, but their muscles. Bit sad isn't it to kill these pleasant creatures for our palate. Keswick is central to the lakes on the shore of the largest (Derwentwater). Much of the town is constructed of slate that has a greenish hue, quite pretty. However, no one would describe the weather pretty on 28 ... read more

After a quiet and solid night sleep, we had a slightly slower morning, but we’re still walking by 9, for another 20km day. After seeing another waterfall, we headed up the steep but brief track to the track along the ridge and followed this along with magnificent views into the valley. We then chose the lower route of the two options (way marked by an old tractor frame) down into the valley and were met with easy, flat walking along the river, for the rest of the day; cue Paolo Nutini and others keeping us company for most of the trail. It mixed between gravel and mud tracks, wide and thin, right by the river to higher ridges, and through wild meadows. A busier trail, mixed with coast to coast walkers and day trippers, it is ... read more