So after I finished work on Sunday we began our 5 hour journey to Lancaster straight away. It’s always a bit of a dull journey, but it surprisingly didn’t seem to take too long. We got to Lancaster university in the evening, met my brother then spent the night in the hotel they have on campus. The next day we got up early and drove to Grasmere via lake Windermere and some other beautiful landscapes. The village was so pretty, filled with cute little tea rooms and gift shops. There was an old fashioned gingerbread bakery which smelt so good, and we got some gingerbread in there. It’s a real tourist attracting area because William Wordsworth lived there. There is a memorial garden for him with a river and bridge running alongside.
(If you google Grasmere, one of the suggestions is the Gingerbread shop, to prove how good it was)
We grabbed a sandwich and headed out for an afternoon walk.
Now in my mind, an afternoon walk is a gentle stroll round the little villages
or parks, in my parent’s minds it is a hike up the biggest hill you could find,
well one of the biggest anyway. My dad had his mind set on climbing
Catbells. Now you can Google Catbells in
Cumbria and it probably won’t look that big but for inexperienced walkers like
myself it was basically Everest and I wasn’t looking forward to it. We briefly spoke to a passer-by at the
bottom, who told us we’d be better off going up another hill as the view was
more impressive from the top. She said it was a shorter walk, but I now know
she was most probably lying as the highest point is apparently higher than
Catbells. Well anyway, my mum and I were relieved that this new hill, seemed to
be a shorter walk, so we started walking up the first path we saw. It looked as
though we were heading the right way to the top of the hill, until we saw a
load of hikers on the other side of the valley seemingly also heading to the
peak. After bumping into some walkers we found out we were in fact on the wrong
path, but we could still get to the top if, we walked a bit further. We walked
for a good hour and a half (or should I say bad?) up a constant leg burning
hill, with the sun blazing and our feet
slipping on the thousands of tiny rocks making up the pathway. I was far behind
the rest of the family, and I’d love to say this was because I kept stopping to
take photos, but even I don’t believe that. We got almost to the top, and had near enough,
vertical climb on the rocks to get to the highest point. We made it. The view
was breath-taking. I don’t even think my photos can do it justice, there is no
better feeling than getting to the top, all the climbing was done, it was
completely silent and we could see for miles. The lakes were glistening in the
sun and the clouds were casting shadows over the valleys. Amazing. If anyone is
near to Rowling End you have to climb it, no question. You might want your
Nordic poles though.
The view!
(Very steep)
I only included this because it made me laugh! I couldn't get the timer to work properly.
There was a pile of rocks made by people who made it to the highest point!
You might even befriend some sheep along the way, I clambered down to a really
steep section of grass right at the top of the hill to get these sheep shots. I
was on my hands and knees and couldn’t risk getting any closer because I was so
near to the edge, but the sheep stood still for a while so I got a couple of
shots.
The walk down seemed harder, it takes so much effort to keep
a steady, slow pace as you balance your footing on the rocks and slippery
grass. I slipped once and my legs were shaking the whole way down. I have never
felt so glad to see the car!
We stopped at Keswick on the way home which was
nice, but there wasn’t a lot to photograph there. We, then went back and had
tea in a lovely three story restaurant in Windemere Village, The lighthouse. I recommend the calamari!
I know this blog post is really long already, but despite
being a break of only two days, we seemed to do a lot, I haven’t even included
everything….just the best bits.
The next day we got up early again and went to Carlisle. I
loved the look of the University and photography course at Brampton road (the
arts campus of the university of Cumbria, in Carlisle) on the website, so we
went to visit to see if I really did like it. Can’t say I did. There was nothing particularly wrong with it
and it would probably appeal to a lot of people but just not me. I’m looking
for a huge bustling campus with shops and cafes and loads of social places as
well as a good course and so far I’ve found nothing of the sort. But I have
plenty of time so I’m not worried…YET! J
I did tweet to you all about Universities, and asked if you knew any good ones that did photography, so let me know if you find any!
We had a look round the main city of Carlisle, which is
historic and as parts of Hadrian’s wall there I believe. Th city was lovely, really busy and had loads of shops! There were people singing and there was a really lovely atmosphere.
Next up to Ulswater,the viewing points and hills around
there. It was all lovely, and we stopped a number of times to take photos. We
then went to Morecombe beach before we had our dinner. It was cold and bleak in Morecombe and wasn’t
exactly busy but there was a real
atmosphere from the desserted beach.
Ulswater-
Sorry that this was such a long post, I tried to keep it as
short as possible. I hoped you enjoyed reading and looking at the photos. I’d
just like to add that it is under a week until my Race for life with my mum and it
would be so great if you could sponsor us. My target is £100 and I have £50, if
you could help in any way I’d be so grateful. I’d love to reach my target and
raise £100 for cancer research. You can donate onlinehttps://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/beckyweale49 and even the
smallest amount would help such a lot. Thank you all! The website is secure and safe and the money goes straight to cancer research. Thank you.
Bye for now
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