Better planning involved in this weekend’s than there was during last weekend’s. A car had been booked – over the phone this time; adequate time was allocated to allow for the indubitably lengthy procedure which we’d have to endure to complete the paperwork and so on; bags were packed, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Went to uni, then met up with Ash, walked to the car hire place, waited in line, and left with a car spot on 2pm. It took us about 4 to 5 hours to drive up to the Lakes District, and it was bucketing down with rain the entire way. But we made it there without any dramas, adventures or even anything remotely blog-worthy.
The Lakes District is quite a large area, and is popular for being the area where Beatrix Potter hung out and wrote her stories, and for being where Derwent pencils came from, even though lots of other famous writers got their inspiration from the area (like Wordsworth). You can read more about the Lakes District here.
The first thing that I noticed or realised was that we were actually on a mission to find what we’d left behind; something I always loathed tourists doing in my own home country down under. Why bother going all the way somewhere else if all
you’re looking for is what you already had at home? Still, it was a strangely comforting sort of realisation, since it really compounded the fact that there are certain things that I like, and ‘getting away from it all’ was one of them. It helps to make one appreciate what we have at home anyway: the room to move, the fact that in WA, one could just drive out and camp out for the night without having to see another person for miles around. And the fact that it’s all natural.Not so here. We drove and drove in search for somewhere to camp out for the night, but there was no such place. It was all very, very… well, done up. You know, specially made car parks, fenced-off walk ways, nice toilets and so on. In the end, we pulled over in a deserted car park and slept in the car for the night.
That was another thing we took for granted. There’s no room in the UK for sedans. Everyone drives itty bitty little cars. So there was much twisting and turning and maneuverings and even disassembling of the interior of the vehicle (no, I’m not kidding. Ash pulled out the back seat. Literally.) in order to find a comfortable sleeping position. It was not a comfortable night.
The next morning was just as rainy and cloudy. But we drove off again in search of a secluded camping spot, stopping by a town to buy some breakfast materials (eggs, bacon, tomtoes... saucepan).
And boy were we excited when we finally found a little turn off that led to a nice lake! Only to have our hopes brutally crushed when we saw, here, in the middle of nowhere, in a forest by a lake, where there was no one else around, no cars, not a sound of traffic, surrounded by nature and the sounds of birds chirping and rivers flowing and brooks-a-babbling, a ticket machine. Yes. A ticket machine. You had to pay to park. It was unbelievable.
Anyway. The rest of the day was very relaxing. We found a little nook along the lake, built a fire, enjoyed a nice bacon-n-eggs-n-tomatoes breakfast, drove around the towns of the lower lakes, tried to go sailing but the winds and rain blew that idea out of the water (ha ha); and would you believe it, actually found a camping spot somewhere off the road to Ickenthwaite. Wherever that may be. If it weren’t for the oak trees, you would think we were in Victoria or south western WA.
So we camped there that Saturday night, and went looking for another opportunity to sail on Sunday. But this time, there was no wind at all, so we couldn’t sail. So we headed for home. And as soon as we did, it started bucketing down again. It was strangely enjoyable driving through the pouring rain at 160kph. But the little Peugeot was doing about 4500 revs, and 5000 revs was in the red zone on the dial so I had to slow it. We made it back quite early actually, navigating through London traffic a lot easier having done it once before.All in all, a fairly uneventful weekend in the Lakes District. Photos can be accessed here.
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