8 May ’05, Sunday.
The Lakes District… We haven’t traveled a great amount of miles, but we have traveled on some of the most incredible roads, through some of the most enjoyable scenery. First, we are in the mountain areas of Great Britain. They aren’t the mountains that we have in the North West, but they do get as high as 3000 feet, but they are formed more like large rolling hills than jagged mountains. One of the “passes” we went over we had to climb at a 20 to25% pitch and then going down was the same…the roadway is just wide enough to barely have room enough to meet a car coming at you. Remember, you are driving on the “wrong” side of the road, at about 35-45 miles an hour, a large hedge or rock wall (standing anywhere from 4’ to 8’ high) right at your drivers door, and the front wheel on the passenger side is riding on the little bumpers in the middle of the road (you just can’t get over enough to get off of them). And then, on top of all of that, the road is winding, twisting, rising, and dropping constantly. Every once in awhile, you will come to a part of the road that is just wide enough for your (or their) car…you hope when that happens, you are by yourself. Again, the day was spent in wonderful scenery, and on a bright day of sunshine, it was going to be tough to find anything wrong with this day. We did find a waterfall that we could hike up to, and it was worth the stop. We also stopped by the Castlerigg Stone Circle. These large stones were laid out in a circle high up on one of the hills. They say they don’t know who or how these stones were put there. They don’t even have any idea yet how long ago it was that they were laid out there as well. What they do know is, it was a long time ago. Well, tomorrow will treat us to more of the same roads and scenery for at least a couple more hours. Tonight, we stay in a forest, right on a river bank, about 30 miles from any town or city of any size…it will be a dark and quite night, I’m sure….
The Lakes District… We haven’t traveled a great amount of miles, but we have traveled on some of the most incredible roads, through some of the most enjoyable scenery. First, we are in the mountain areas of Great Britain. They aren’t the mountains that we have in the North West, but they do get as high as 3000 feet, but they are formed more like large rolling hills than jagged mountains. One of the “passes” we went over we had to climb at a 20 to25% pitch and then going down was the same…the roadway is just wide enough to barely have room enough to meet a car coming at you. Remember, you are driving on the “wrong” side of the road, at about 35-45 miles an hour, a large hedge or rock wall (standing anywhere from 4’ to 8’ high) right at your drivers door, and the front wheel on the passenger side is riding on the little bumpers in the middle of the road (you just can’t get over enough to get off of them). And then, on top of all of that, the road is winding, twisting, rising, and dropping constantly. Every once in awhile, you will come to a part of the road that is just wide enough for your (or their) car…you hope when that happens, you are by yourself. Again, the day was spent in wonderful scenery, and on a bright day of sunshine, it was going to be tough to find anything wrong with this day. We did find a waterfall that we could hike up to, and it was worth the stop. We also stopped by the Castlerigg Stone Circle. These large stones were laid out in a circle high up on one of the hills. They say they don’t know who or how these stones were put there. They don’t even have any idea yet how long ago it was that they were laid out there as well. What they do know is, it was a long time ago. Well, tomorrow will treat us to more of the same roads and scenery for at least a couple more hours. Tonight, we stay in a forest, right on a river bank, about 30 miles from any town or city of any size…it will be a dark and quite night, I’m sure….