lake district walks 1

Just back from 5-6 days of glorious walking in the Lake District. I have to admit though that walking in a combination of rain, cold and wind isn't exactly my cup of tea. I got drenched to the skin on my first walk of the trip - found out that my jacket wasn't exactly waterproof... and well, I'd gone out walking in jeans. So later that day had to do some quick shopping for waterproof stuff at the village I was staying in. It rained quite a bit during the next 4-5 days... one of the days it poured so much that the roads to Ambleside were closed. Yesterday was the only completely dry day (and of course today as I was heading back to Newcastle, the sun was bright enough to blind you). Well, so didn't venture out too high - that I've left for sunnier (and hopefully less windier) days. Still, once equipped with some basic waterproof stuff, I managed to do quite a bit of walking and it felt GOOD. And thanks to the weather and the season, the Lake District wasn't overrun with tourists.

The Lakeshore Walk: From Glenridding to Howtown by one of the "Ullswater Steamers" and then a 6.5 mile walk from Howtown back to Glenridding along the Ullswater lake

Rainbow, seen from aboard the boat from Glenridding to Howtown

Starting off on the walk from Howtown

Along the lakeshore

Walk towards Grisedale Tarn: I didn't walk all the way to Grisdale tarn (a tarn is a small lake, more like a pond) which is quite high up. Instead, I did a smaller 6.5-mile loop, from Glenridding along the Grisdale Beck (a beck is a stream) to Ruthwaite Lodge, across the beck to its other side and then back to Glenridding. No views of Ullswater lake on this walk, but the valley along the beck was just beautiful.

Grisdale Beck

Looking back to the valley along which I've been walking
and
looking further up the valley along which I continued to walk (below...)

Nearing the end of the loop - - or I could have gone on and climbed steeply up... Grisdale tarn is somewhere behind those peaks

On the way back...

the weather could not make up its mind and the dark clouds (and rain and drizzle) came and went...

At one of the bookstores in Grasmere I saw a book titled "Know Your Sheep" - just peeked in and now I know that there are more than 100 breeds of sheep. Quite fascinating, I must say.