England-Scotland Day 12 (Part 2) – Keswick town and Derwent Waters in Lake District of England

14 April 2010

The above photo shows Derwent Waters, shot at Crow Park in Keswick, Lake District. This was my favourite moment while visiting Lake District in spring. Sheep and lambs were wandering freely in Crow Park while we sat on the lawn, enjoying the views and warm of the setting sun.

Earlier, we drove into Keswick at about 4 PM. We would be staying 3 nights at the Honister House and the directions given to us by Mr John Stark, owner of the B&B, on how to get from Glasgow to the Keswick Central Car Park near to the B&B were quite detailed.

M8, M74, M6. At Junction 40 take the A66 westbound to Keswick. Avoid the first exit to Keswick (591) but continue along the bypass to the roundabout. At roundabout turn first left (5271). Straight on to T junction. Turn left. To mini roundabout. Turn right. Follow the road round to the left (Heads Road) to Central Car park on left. Turn left into car park and park.

We made it to the car park as directed. A phone call later, Mr John Stakes came to the car park with the parking permit for our car and also helped us with the luggage to the B&B which was a short walk away. I had chosen Honister House for its proximity to the Keswick town centre, on the corner of Borrowdale Road and Derwent Street. It was interesting to hear Mr Stakes pronounced the name of town as “Care Sic”, when all along we had pronounced it as “Kes Which” when we speak amongst ourselves.

After leaving our stuff in the B&B, we went to explore Keswick town centre. It was a short walk from our B&B to the shopping streets of the town centre.

Keswick town centre.

Keswick Town Centre – people out and about.

Enjoying ice cream. Nice red boots to match the white and red house.

This car reminded me of a car in the “Wacky Races”. Must be a owned by a lady. 

Famous “one-hand” clock at Keswick Town Centre.

Keswick is located near a lake called the Derwent Waters or Lake Derwent. Based on a map of the town, we make our way there, passing by nice B&Bs located on the lakeside.

We sat by a park bench to watch locals or tourists playing some lawn games. In the background are some beautiful B&Bs and hotels that we passed by earlier.

Then we discovered our favourite place in Keswick.  Crow Park!

Panorama of Crow Park, shot from the centre of the park.

Crow Park is a big open field next to the Lake Derwent and at this time of year, the park has many sheep and new-born lambs!!

It was fun walking amongst the lambs and watching them up close and photographing them. Most interesting were the black lambs. In particular, one that was “lost” and trying to get close to an adult sheep. After several rejections, it was finally accepted by a sheep and managed to feed.

Besides the cute lambs, this place is a photographer’s dream – awesome landscape

My favourite photo of Derwent Waters.  This is a panorama comprising a few photos stitched together using a panorama maker software. The family is in the picture, sitting closest to the lake.

After watching the lambs bonding with the ewes, it time for family bonding as we sat by the lake.

Sheep and Human alike – family bonding time.

Wild geese flying close by.

Geese flew over our heads to land in the waters.

We sat by the lakeside till the sun set. Really enjoyable and relaxing way to spend the evening.

Lambs – backlit by the setting sun.

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England-Scotland Day 13 (Part 1) – Crummock Water and Buttermere Lake at Lake District of England

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.

Interesting flock of sheep at Crummock Waters. Nice colouration.

Taking photos of the sheep and landscape.

Sheep hurdling across a small stream.

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.

There were many trails here, leading to different places.

Panorama of the family walking to the water falls at Crummock Water.

Nice view of Crummock Water from the hills.

Waterfall at Crummock. Not impressive on its own but the views from here were nice.

 Making our way back down to our car.

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!

Exploring the shores of Lake Buttermere.

Walking path on the shores of Lake Buttermere.

Multi-shades of green in spring.

Interesting lone tree surviving on the rocks.

Panorama of Lake Buttermere, taken near the water’s edge.

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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England-Scotland Day 13 (Part 2) – Windermere and Keswick of the Lake District.

15 April 2010

We completed our driving route through the Crummock Water and Buttermere earlier than I thought. So we decided to head down south to Windermere for a late lunch.  We parked our car on a relatively busy street (A5074) at Windermere, had lunch and did some window shopping at the souvenir shops. Then we drove on to explore Windermere.

Pier at Windermere, Lake District.

When planning our visit to the Lake District, I was deciding whether to stay at Windermere or Keswick. I think I made the right choice. Windermere is quite commercialised. If you are looking for boat cruises, shopping, and activities, then Windermere would be the right choice.

We parked at a paid car park near  Bowness-on-Windermere and walked to the pier.


Video shot at lake-side near Bowness-on-Windermere

We decided we had enough of Windermere pretty soon and headed back to Keswick, arriving at about 7.15 PM. As there was still some light, we parked our car on the Lakeside Car Park at the Theatre (our parking permit for the Central Car Park provided by the our B&B Honister House could be used there), next to Crow Park.

Derwent Water at Keswick.

We went for a walk by the banks of Derwent Water, something we did not do the day before.

These are some of my favourite photos taken that evening. 

Panorama of Derwent Water at Lake District.

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