Lake District

Well yes, I know I'm already in the Lake District but I have to find a general title for the places I visited. One thing I'm sure of is that I stayed at a series of YHA hostels. So based on the hostel locations, my guess is that I stayed at Windermere, backtracked north to Derwent Water, and ended up in Keswick. I probably caught a bus for the longer stretches and walked between hostels otherwise. The Lake District is fairly compact and you could make a walking holiday of your sojourn.

The lakes are in valleys so a short walk will get you to higher ground where you can survey the lovely lakescape.

I think the subject of this photo was the mill over the stream. From the bluish cast either the photo was underexposed, or it was a gloomy moment.

My walk took me past small farms. At one field a friendly horse came up to the fence as I approached, hoping for a lump of sugar or similar. Alas I didn't have anything but some pats for it. I also remember petting a friendly farm cat. Out of the city, farm animals are less fearful of humans.

I can't locate these pictures precisely but from the similarity to other photos on the Internet, I think they are of or around Derwent Water, between the River Derwent and Keswick.

I remember it also rained at times so I had to use my raincoat.

The English have also kindly provided rest spots along walks and this vantage point featured one.

A closer look at the lake, or more likely, the tarn.

The body of water in the photo is too small to be Derwent Water. Looking at a map it could possibly be Watendlath Tarn reached by a short walk from Derwentwater Hostel. At the time I visited, this was a YHA hostel. I see that they are now an independent hostel.

Not many hostels have a waterfall just behind it. I was so gobsmacked by the sight of a waterfall from the window of my dorm, complete with the hissing sound of falling water.

A typical Lake District country road.

Probably Derwent Water, on the way to Keswick.

At Keswick I visited the Cumberland Pencil Museum. Graphite used to be mined in Cumbria, and pencil making was important at the turn of the 20th century. These days tourism is king of course. The displays were very informative. I remember learning how the pencils are made from two slats of wood with a row of grooves to receive the extruded graphite leads. The slats are sandwiched with glue (you can see the join if you look closely) then individual pencils cut from the sandwich. The pencils are then finished to a hexagonal or circular cross-section.