BTs in London: April 2006

The Lake District

Last Thursday, along with Beni and Stef, we left the polluted, busy streets of London for the green hills of Britain's premier walking destination - the Lake District. For the first time since arriving in the UK, we hired a car and hit the English roads. This proved not to be that smart an idea. As trains sauntered past, we got stuck in a traffic jam. It took us 4 hours to travel around 400kms, then another 4 hours to travel the next 50. Let's just say that it wasn't the best driving experience of my life!

Nevertheless, after a good 11-12 hours of travel, we finally arrived at Glenridding, a quaint little, ex-mining village in the northern Lakes. We stayed at the Helvellyn youth hostel, at the base of the 3rd highest mountain in the Lakes District. We spent the next three days walking up and down mountains. On Friday, we started off slowly with a 2 hour walk past a waterfall, and then tackled Helvellyn in the afternoon. It was a surprisingly hard walk. Following a pretty constant climb, we then had to climb up jagged rocks (along a ridge with relatively steep drops either side) and snow to the 3000ft summit. The views up there, however, were amazing.

Battling sore muscles, we tackled our second hill/mountain on Saturday. While this walk wasn't as challenging, it was much longer, and we were exhausted by the end. And when Nick professed the need to work in the late afternoon, us girls went into the touristy part of the Lake District in search of the traditional english afternoon tea of scones, jam and cream!

Sunday we headed west to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins in another small town. After another stiff climb, we settled into the comforts of their flat for a traditional Sunday roast. For interested family members, Trish and Pete are doing well. Pete managed most of the walk, and, although he gets a little tired, looks well.

So all in all, we had a wonderful weekend, coming home with much stronger muscles (I can't get Nick to stop going on about his calves!) and a healthy take on life. Actually, despite all our travelling over the past year or so, we found that there is nothing more relaxing than getting out into the countryside and doing some physical exercise. Blue mountains here we come!