THE LAKE DISTRICT

This is England's largest national park and is full of stunning mountain landscapes and lakes dotted everywhere. We decided to make a long weekend of it, and took the 4 1/2 hr train journey north of London to Keswick where we based ourselves. The next few days were spent hiking and cycling the local tracks around Keswick and Derwentwater.

Friday afternoon we orientated ourselves with the town. We headed off with a hand drawn map and took a hike to Castlerigg Stone Circles. Think Stonehenge, but with smaller stones. We only took one wrong turn but thankfully the people behind us realised we weren't really geared for a mountain trek and quickly pointed us in the right direction. The local sheep seemed to enjoy the area as well.

On Saturday we took on the challenge of a mountain hike. Although with this mountain named 'Catbells' it wasn't quite as tame as we thought and we did an extra peak. That'll teach us to follow the crowd!

Seems nice from this angle.

Getting steeper from this angle.

The first of many breaks on the way up.

Are we there yet?

Near the top of the mountain we spotted this lonely tree.

Proof that we made it to the top of Catbells, with Derwentwater in the background.

The view from the top. Spectacular scenery.
For our Sunday adventure, we took a less ardous approach, and stuck to mostly level ground. This couple were also out for their Sunday morning stroll. Awwwwww....

We also found this calf on our trip. Must have been very young, as it was struggling to stand up.

Speaking of young animals, we also saw this duck in one of the streams, although Mum was trying to shield all of the offspring.

As we had really good weather for our trip (a balmy 20 degrees), Claire decided it was time to dust off the shorts in an attempt to get a tan.

Our lunch picnic spot whilst waiting for the ferry to take us for the trip home.

In an endeavour to get the perfect lighting conditions for a photo of the water, we were faced with the dilemma of Sunrise vs. Sunset. In hindsight it wasn't too difficult a decision, as Sunrise is about 4:30am, and Sunset is about 10pm. Its nice to be able to go out for dinner, and still have daylight.

For our final days activities, we hired some bikes, and cycled our way along a disused railway line, which has been converted into a cycle path. This is part of the 'c2c' cycle way which goes from the east coast to the west coast of England. Fortunately our bikes had many gears to help us up the hills. We also had a few photo stops along the way.

Claire the budding photographer on this occassion.

Steve taking back the camera.... One of the locals thought my camera was something from CSI, as he held down the trigger and took about 10 photos at once.

One of the many bridges on the disused railway line, over the River Great. Very picturesque.