The Lakes District, History & Beyond

Colourful Rapeseed covers much of the countryside in spring

We dropped down out of Scotland into the Lakes District, another place we had visited in Bouncy Bert, our motor home of 1979 (who knew what that would lead too). We have been chastising ourselves for not reading our diary from the 79-80 trip

as a reminder before leaving NZ.

After the daffodils came the Bluebells

To be honest there are few recollections, but then there has been a bit of water under the bridge since then.

Durwent Waters
Bev, Mel, Frank & us

The Durwent Water or as we would say Lake Durwent, has a small campsite where our friends we made in Spain, had organised for our reunion. An ideal location, walks in all directions and scenic to a fault. Bev, Mel and Frank are working on a Caravan Club Site in Hawes on a 9 month contract, with the odd rotated break, ideal for us to get together this weekend and try some of that Euro wine we were able to import when we crossed back over. A delightful 3 days were spent walking eating drinking and talking. Keswick is the local village at the other end of the Lake, a walk of two hours or so, with a pint on the way (never far from a pub or similar in this country).

Another front of hail & snow coming our way

Then a wander through the village which has a preponderance of outdoor clothing shops, due to the preponderance of walkers here. The place was buzzing with people mostly dressed in what I call technical clothing, ready for an amble round the lake side with only a few getting into the places where the clothing gets a work out. It was sale time with the winter clothing going out on sale to make way for the new seasons look (the climate belies this). There were some lovely jackets and I was sorely tempted but as I have 3 jackets bought since we came over (from NZ) and we seldom need them at home I resisted the temptation. Sheryl didn't!

Lovely pub meal - look at the size of the Yorkshire puds!

We did succumb however to a good pub lunch complete with Yorkshire Puds and tankards of Ale, aye life is good!
The return trip down the other side of the water was another scenic leg complete with obligatory pub stop, a full day out and a few miles under our belt for the day, we deserved a beer on our return to the camp.

Spring weather on top of the Catbells

The next morning, our next walk was up the hills behind the camp, CatBell. This was a good hike, very scenic complete with weather fronts moving through casting wonderful transitions of light and textures across the wide open country, hills & valleys.
We twice needed to shelter from the driving sleet / hail / snow. You could see how one might get trapped as the ridge we were on became almost dangerous if the pattern had persisted. Another welcome return to our campers after a full day but sadly no cafes or pubs in the clouds, we really deserved a beer!
It was a nice catch up with B,M & F and we think we've nearly talked them into a real trip some day out to see NZ (probably not Frank sadly).

Dunstanburgh Castle

As we still had time up our sleeve, we ventured back up north to the south-west coast of Scotland, not so much on the tourist map but still scenic, with plenty of castles, Neolithic sites and scenic charm to keep us out of trouble, though still a tad cool.

Duddo Standing Stones, Northumberland

Dundrennan Abbey

 The farm stay camp sites generally provide power and though eschewed by us in NZ we were thankful being able to run the fan heater most of the evenings and first thing in the mornings.
After a few days of this indifferent weather we headed east cutting across the Isles to sunnier climes and it was a "bit" better, I use that term advisedly. The history is still thick on the ground and it all being new to us was good. Warkworth was a treat, the small town nestled in the crook of a tidal river a mile or so inland, the similarities with our own Warkworth were easy to see, but wait  a fine castle as well.

Warkworth Castle

With the membership to English Heritage we have been visiting historical sites daily indeed some days two sites and it has been soooooo interesting and if we're being honest not something we would have done if we had not bought the package. The sites often  have an Audio guide which is a small radio type player that you enter a number in and listen.

Whitby Abbey - couldn't see
very far in front of us

Whitby Abbey two days later with sunshine

Whitby fishing village

It brings the ruins to life, so helpful imparting information as well as characters from the time, the ennui of everyday life  at the time. Fascinating. It has rekindled in Sheryl  a need to read more historical novels and me...... well the time lines are neat, what was happening around the world when this was happening here and needless to say NZ not even on the map much of the time.

Holy Island looking across to Lindisfarne Castle
from the Priory 

Dunskey Castle
Portpatrick