There's snow up in those hills, but it was still a lovely crisp weekend for walking in the Lake District. The Liverpud and I drove up Friday night to visit friends in Kendal and on Saturday, we drove to Ambleside, parked the car, pulled on the hiking boots and did a favourite circuit leading up to Wansfell Pike.
Along the way you get great views of Lake Windermere looking very still and magical in the early afternoon light. And the sheep didn't seem to mind the cold.
Our walk takes us through the little village of Troutbeck (with a quick stop for some chocolate and jelly babies) and then it's a left turn into Nanny Lane and a very steep climb up to Wansfell Pike (a little over 1500 feet). Here we are about half way up. We had to be a bit careful as the path was very icy in spots.
Unfortunately the top was shrouded in mist but normally you get a terrific view of Ambleside and the surrounding hills. It cleared a bit once we began our descent.
Sunday was clear and sunny and we went on a brisk country walk in the hills above Kendal.
The route took us along this path towards the Kendal Golf Course.
And the most spectacular views awaited us. Can you imagine playing golf with this type of background?
These photos don't do the scene justice - you can see huge stretches of the fell ranges all around you. I absolutely love this part of England. Yes, the Rockies are higher and more majestic, but you mostly have to see it all from a car or the train. The Lake District is just as beautiful, but more humanly scaled. With a little effort you feel as if you've really earned the views and it doesn't take too long to get to them. Also there are no bears!
Our walk ended in the lovely town of Kendal which has a busy and very pretty pedestrian high street all decorated for Christmas. We got lattes and did a bit of shopping. Alas, Williams Wools was shut but I'll definitely try and get there on my next visit.
I did see a lot of very pretty yarn bombing around town though.
All in all, a very relaxing weekend and it was nice to get away from the madness of Christmas shopping.
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