15 April 2010
Breakfast at the Honister House allowed us to meet an interesting English couple who stayed near Manchester. It was nice talking to them over breakfast after Mr Stake made the introductions. This was one of their many visits to Lake district and they had stayed at the Honister House on past occasions. They were about our age, so we talked about our teenage kids, their education and also about English football. The man was a supporter of Manchester United and so a little bit of friendly blagging and teasing occurred naturally once he discovered we were fans of rivals Liverpool FC. We were used to these sort of chat coming from a country where you were either a supporter of LFC, supporter of Manchester United or supporter of anything but Manchester United. It is interesting to note that there is no “supporter of anything but Liverpool FC”.
After breakfast, John Stakes provided us with some tips on what to see and do around the Lake District. The best way to see Lake District is to go on walks through the scenic landscape. We didn’t have the energy and gear to go for long walks. Our plan for today was to do a driving tour of the area to the west of Keswick, and stopped by to do short walks in particular around the Crummock Waters and Buttermere Lake.
Leaving Keswick, we took the A66 west towards Cockermouth. At Braithwaite, we turned west onto the B5292 for Lorton and made a stop at “Go Ape” inside the Whinlatter Forest area for a look. Go Ape is a mixture of adrenaline-fuelled Tarzan swings, tree-top climbing and zip wire fun for both young and old. Here we watched some brave folks attempt the high rope obstacles up in the trees. To do the complete course would take about half a day and not something we planned to do. We visited the Whinlatter Forest Visitor Centre where Daniel bought a pair of binoculars. The centre sells binoculars for bird watching, especially ospreys but Daniel wanted the binoculars for a different purpose. He wants a closer look at the Liverpool players when we attend a live match at Anfield in a few days time!
From there we drove on through a narrow, winding B-road to Crummock Waters and parked the car on a sandy patch by the roadside. There was a trail leading to a small waterfall at this area.
A trail that was not clearly marked led to a small waterfall up the hill. As pointed out by John Stakes, the best way to appreciate the beauty of the Lake District was to take walks through the hills.
We followed the path, next to a small stream, uphill to where the waterfall is.
From here, our next stop would be Lake Buttermere. At Lake Buttermere, the road was narrow and there was not much parking spaces that was provided or vacant. But I managed to park on the narrow grass verge on a road, with little room to spare.
I like Buttermere Lake better than Crummock Water. There was a nice walking path on the side of Lake Buttermere. The spring sunshine was nice and not too warm. Despite the eruption of the Iceland volcano Eyjafjallajökull that we heard on the news that had stopped all flights across Europe, the sky we saw over UK was clear and blue. But, not a plane in sight!
And when you were least expecting it, it happened. I saw several highland cows! Or bulls with horns.
I finally got my photo of the Hairy Highland Cow (or Bull) with their horns! Fancy doing that in Lake District England, and not Scotland.
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