We decided to do a scenic drive today that was recommended in one of our books on the Lake District. We would drive to Keswick and then follow this loop:
More about why that did not happen in a moment.
We did drive to Keswick, filled the car with diesel and headed south along the eastern shore of Derwent Water, through the Borrowdale Valley. We stopped to see the Bowder Stone and along the footpath, met a man whose parents live in Gig Harbor, WA of all places! He has lived in England for quite a while and just finished doing a PhD on Viking art and relics in Cumbria. He is collaborating with the National Trust to set up a show of sorts. The Bowder Stone is estimated to weigh 1,870 tons and was thought to have been left behind by the retreat of the glaciers that carved this valley. Here is Hal at the bottom and a couple pictures I took from the top.
We drove on to the Honister Slate Mine; there has been slate mining here since the Roman occupation and at one time it was a huge production.
It nearly collapsed financially, was rescued in the mid 1960's and is now operated by one family. Picture is of the small engine that hauled big chunks of slate out of the mine.
I liked this triangular window in one of the walls,
and here are crates of slate roofing tiles ready for shipment.
This is the surrounding area of the quarry/mine--bleak but beautiful in its own way.
This was taken coming down Honister Pass--that is the behemoth Volvo station wagon in the background.
On to Buttermere, where we had lunch at the Fish Inn.
I have grown very fond of cheese and pickle (chutney) for lunch. OK, so once again we programmed the GPS for the next major town, and it took us a while to figure out why we were driving along this incredibly narrow, poorly paved single track sheep trail and not finding any of the towns on our "scenic drive." Well, the navigation system took us on a short cut, 2nd only to the one we took ourselves on when driving the Isle of Mull in Scotland--fortunately the drops to the side of the road were not so high, and we did not meet any buses coming the other way. We did see lots of sheep, a water fall, and nice country,
but missed driving along Crummock Water and the towns of Low and High Lorton, as well as the Whinlatter Pass. At Braithwaite, I turned back west to at least go see the visitor center in the Whinlatter Forest. This view was taken facing Bassenthwaite lake as were partway up Whinlatter Pass.
Our final surprise of the drive was when all the traffic on the "A" road was stopped to allow this flock of sheep to move along to another field.
Now back to wrestling with the dryer from hell which just keeps running but does not seem to be drying the clothes.
We did drive to Keswick, filled the car with diesel and headed south along the eastern shore of Derwent Water, through the Borrowdale Valley. We stopped to see the Bowder Stone and along the footpath, met a man whose parents live in Gig Harbor, WA of all places! He has lived in England for quite a while and just finished doing a PhD on Viking art and relics in Cumbria. He is collaborating with the National Trust to set up a show of sorts. The Bowder Stone is estimated to weigh 1,870 tons and was thought to have been left behind by the retreat of the glaciers that carved this valley. Here is Hal at the bottom and a couple pictures I took from the top.
