The Lake District

We're now back in London, staying at Vince and Fel's place. Not long now till we head to Paris.


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Saturday
Rosie, Jen and I hired a car (a sweet little Renault Clio) as it was cheaper than train tickets. We drove the 3 hours to the Lake District, and met up with Ali and her mum Anne. The weather was pretty grim; we headed into Keswick (pronounced "Kezzik", obviously) and had yummy but thin pizzas for lunch.

Then we headed off for a walk in the rain. The Lake district is beautiful. Everything looks so English. Stone walls, green fields, sheep, farmhouses, hikers walking down the street wearing FULL gore-tex kit complete with gaiters, pack covers and trekking poles... Cool mountains and lakes. I like.

The start of an easy Saturday stroll.

After our pleasant little stroll we headed back to Anne's house where Anne had been baking up a storm! There was a fruit crumble, lemon meringue pie, flapjacks, and fruit bread, all freshly baked and waiting to be shoved into our hungry mouths. We helped Anne whip up a quick vegie curry which was delicious, and then we tucked into dessert. I think we found heaven. Afterwards we walked the half-hour to the pub and enjoyed a pint of the local brew (a half-pint for me), and were home by 1am.

Local brew at the local pub.

Sunday
After a long sleep in and several rounds of crumpets for breakfast, we headed into Langdale where we met up with Rosie's friend Alex, who she'd met during her time in Namibia. He and Ali took us up Jake's Rake (or Jack's Rake; apparently it's known as either). This involved a solid slog up the side of a steep creek, up to a beautiful tarn at the foot of a nice looking cliff. There was a line of weakness diagonally up the cliff which we scrambled up; it was good clean fun.

Halfway up Jake's Rake

At the top of the plateau, we took photos of sheep and then walked to the top of Harrison's Stickle. I'm not exactly sure what a stickle is, but there were apparently lots of stickles around. There were great views from the top. It was sunny and almost warm, despite the temperature being in single figures. It was the best bit of weather we'd had our whole trip so far I reckon.

Sunning ourselves at the top of Harrison's Stickle

Nice photo Jen. Harrison's Stickle

On the way down

Apparently having a pub at the bottom of a hike is a common occurence, and yes, there was one at the bottom of this hike... and just in time too, as it started pissing with rain when we were about 50m away. Hot chips and cold beer were the order of the day. Awesome.

We bade farewell to Ali and Alex and the three of us drove back to York, stopping at a small town (can't remember what it was called. Oops) for dinner at a pub called the Snooty Fox. It was delicious.


Monday
We spent Monday buying presents for Simon and Rosie, and also made it to Evensong at York Minster which was cool. The organ was a lot less overpowering and there was also a string quartet accompanying which added to the feel. Cooked some dinner for Simon and Rosie, and then bade them farewell as we caught the late train back to London.