Been to the Lake district today.

lovely place .great scenery .great pub grub.p.s when do the lights start in sunny blackpool

The most scenic part of England (of the places I've seen) closely followed by the Yorkshire Dales.  Can't speak for parts of scotland, by all accounts that is even better, but i've never been.

Last time I went to the Lake District it belted down, kind of added to the experience to be honest.

Oh and all this stuff about the lakes been crowded.  It really isn't all that crowded if you can make it up to the tops of most peaks (Hellvellyn excluded).  Even in peak times.

Lights usually start about the first week in Sept I think but not sure as locals tend to avoid it.

Fantastic area, I was pointing out a few places for a friend today, they travel on Thursday, Hawkshead then Keswick .
Told them about a swimming spot we use when up there it is popular with rock climbers as well, worth a visit  http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/288443

Am lucky enough to get free use of a cottage for 1 week twice a year in the Lakes. We stay in a lovely little village about 5 miles from windemere on the edge of ulswater. My favourite weeks of the year, some great places to eat and plenty to do in Keswick, Windemere, Ambleside, ect.

Done plenty of fell runs/walks on some of the peaks and the views on a clear day are simply stunning. If anyone's having a trip up and is a bit of a golfer i would recommend playing Keswick or Windemere golf clubs-beautifull panoramic views. Could quite easily live up there.

last year I went to Catbells and the wind and rain were so strong that we had to crawl on all fours onto the summit,still a great day, a challenge that didn't prevent us from carrying on to Maiden Moor.
A great place and a great challenge.

Is that patterdale Jimmy?  or glenridding.  Patterdale is lovely, if rich I'd love to spend a week in the patterdale hotel.

yeah patterdale UTI, never come across a more beautifull village. Waking up on a sunny morning looking out to the mountains, sounds sad but there's just something about it. Easy access to Helvelyn, Place fell, High street from where we stay-look forward to the lakes more than my abroad holiday!

The patterdale hotel is nice mate yeah (pricey from what ive seen of the rooms tho), had some nice meals and good nights outside there just wasting the night away with a few beers. U a regular visitor UTI?

yeah patterdale UTI, never come across a more beautifull village. Waking up on a sunny morning looking out to the mountains, sounds sad but there's just something about it. Easy access to Helvelyn, Place fell, High street from where we stay-look forward to the lakes more than my abroad holiday!

The patterdale hotel is nice mate yeah (pricey from what ive seen of the rooms tho), had some nice meals and good nights outside there just wasting the night away with a few beers. U a regular visitor UTI?

Been there a few times on the coast to coast walk.  Angle Tarn is 2 miles (admittedly very steep miles) from there and is as nice a spot as you could find - and you can camp wild and swim in the cold water - dunno if that's your thing or not.  Actually the hotel isn't massively fancy but the beer garden is just lovely with all them views.  There's another nice pub just round the corner on the road, can't remember the name now.  Massive burgers.

Think the coast to coast route takes you past the cottage i stay in mate to be honest, or so the father in law tells me-its a stand alone cottage near the farm at Patterdale about 500 yards from the Patterdale hotel. Believe ive been to Angle Tarn, did a scramble straight up a waterfall from the bottom all the way up, seem to remember some people camping out there at the time, very peacefull and serene place.

Think the pub your referring to is the Yellow Lion (might be White Lion), big white building anyway! Never eaten in there though. Oh to be there now.

Must be white lion, (I'd've remembered the word "yellow") - I thought it was something lion.  Patterdale can be quite busy, especially near that main road which can get a fair bit of traffic at busy times.  Remarkable how quiet it can get the further you go up though - especially if you avoid the more well trod paths.

I've surely passed your cottage 4 times then - you're a lucky man.

Well, i wish it was my cottage! Family friend of the gf owns it and are kind enough to let us have it for nothing for a few weeks a year. Still feel very lucky to have those times though.

Always seems quite to me Patterdale but thats probably because im a city man 50 weeks a year.  Respect for completing the coast to coast, more than once by the sounds of it.

A pleasing thread.
Did Cumbria survive the rioting unscathed please?

There were raised voices in Ambleside over a parking issue

Threads like these only serve to remind (& irritate) me that we don't charge enuff (ie nowt) to allow outsiders into the Chosen Land.

Me and the Mrs lived in blackpool at the time, took the mini stuffed with two quilts, took the Staffie and kipped two nights in the open air in a forest. Great times.

Best place to take a holiday in England, bar none.

Went for a weekend and a 'look round' in 1988.

Went back 2 to 3 times a year after that, up to 202, only been twice since as I can' hike up them hills any more.

Did Hellvelyn 3 or 4 times, Scafell Pike once.

Me mad my best mate used to with our families, start one of their recognised wlaks, then purposefully turn of the track and get lost, but always back in the cottage before midnight. Great fun.

My ex-wife tried that with her new hubby, they got lost and stranded overnight on the slopes near Wast Water. 

My old man was born there and his family still live there today. We now live in Sydney, Australia. Took my wife there during our european honeymoon 5 years ago and we have been back twice since as she also fell in love with the place.

Fifteen years ago when my dad passed away in Australia we took his ashes back to Lake District and scattered them on Loughrigg, which is a lovely hill overlooking Lake Windermere in Ambelside. 
Funny story, his mother owned the only aged care home in Ambelside many many moons ago, and after 20 odd years of operation, the authorities came in one day and realised she didnt have a license to operate the place, she took it to court, and she ended up in the high court in London.
She rocked up to the court dressed in a nuns habit and uniform, and when the charges where discussed in court and the lawyer talked about the work she did for the area, he dismissed all charges...  and didnt ask her if she was infact a nun. True story. She became a local legend back then.

My old man was born there and his family still live there today. We now live in Sydney, Australia. Took my wife there during our european honeymoon 5 years ago and we have been back twice since as she also fell in love with the place.

Fifteen years ago when my dad passed away in Australia we took his ashes back to Lake District and scattered them on Loughrigg, which is a lovely hill overlooking Lake Windermere in Ambelside. 
Funny story, his mother owned the only aged care home in Ambelside many many moons ago, and after 20 odd years of operation, the authorities came in one day and realised she didnt have a license to operate the place, she took it to court, and she ended up in the high court in London.
She rocked up to the court dressed in a nuns habit and uniform, and when the charges where discussed in court and the lawyer talked about the work she did for the area, he dismissed all charges...  and didnt ask her if she was infact a nun. True story. She became a local legend back then.

UTI
Oh and all this stuff about the lakes been crowded.  It really isn't all that crowded if you can make it up to the tops of most peaks (Hellvellyn excluded).  Even in peak times.

I may use that one day. [smiley:crazy]

Good story KangaMick, well done to her.

Rockmonkey
Threads like these only serve to remind (& irritate) me that we don't charge enuff (ie nowt) to allow outsiders into the Chosen Land

Not with you there mate, are you suggesting people should be charged for visiting the Lakes?

Would make it a lot more peaceful, which is the point really. All the clowns who have to call the Mountain Rescue out should definitely be charged for that though.

well i see your thinking mate, definetly not a place we want to get overcrowded. On the other hand, doesnt the area need the money tourism brings in.

Your right that there are some right idiots taking climbs/walks on that they arent experienced enough to do. But for every idiot is a person who has the misfortune to break an ankle on the top of Blencathra and needs the MR to get down.

Live in Langdale - cycle commute 90 miles/week. Happy days! Looking forward to the traffic clearing a little in September.

Oddly having parents and inlaws who have lived their 20/30 yrs i'm totally blase about the gaff,used to love camping there as a kid and sailing/rowing canoeing on Coniston(without doubt my finest memories as a child)Always rememebr the Campbell mile markers sadly long gone on the Brantwood side of the lake.

Gets a bit hideous in the main villages in summer and Windermere, Coniston,Ambleside can get log jammed on a nice day with hordes of day trip walkers and weekenders talking in ridicoulsly loud voices in the bars and outside about their "climb" or whatever,nobody wants to hear you shouting your heads of after 2 pints of real ale you bearded fecktards.

And the food some of the main pubs get away with serving to tourists is an abberation it really is cheap muck,and they all think their eating the most wonderful meal in historynot to so say theres not of course some quality gaffs to eat in as there most definitely is.
The locals are inverted snobs of the highest degree though(pleasant enough mind you) but talking about NIMBY in extremis.


Avoid Windermere at ALL COSTS if in summer.

Talking in a loud voice about climbing Helvelyn as if you've just conquered K2 without oxygen does NOT endear you to people or let them think you are Chris Bonnington,but simply highlights the fact you may well have a very small pen1s.

Are there many blackies?

lol - typically topical [;)]

Loads and now is just the right time for picking

slartybartfast
Live in Langdale - cycle commute 90 miles/week. Happy days! Looking forward to the traffic clearing a little in September

got any spare rooms for invading cockneys, slarty ? [smiley:crazy]

I've seen the odd coachload of asians at Bowness over the years, but they're only there for the day.

Me and my mate played as a pair against two Sikhs on pitch and putt.

We lost, but it was a good laugh. 

You don't see many if you go further afield into the fells.

Got a houseful of my own little barstewards, Jack.

That's why I love going to work!  

Planning to cycle the Fred Whitton next month:
.
http://www.fredwhittonchallenge.org.uk/routemap.php

Fack me slarty, you must be fit.

I could never get up Kirkstone or Whinlatter Passes on a bike, even when I was young, never mind the Hardknott and Wrynose.

I'd have a car following me with facking long oxygen tubes.

:D

Yeah, fitter than ever since I started cycle-commuting last year.

The Fred's an awesome route. Been doing a bit of training, as well as the usual commuting. Last month I cycled Langdale to Boot (Eskdale) and back. Two 1 in 4's and four 1 in 3's (Wrynose-Hardknott and back)in under 30 miles. Well pleased that I didn't have to stop on any of the ascents. Just wanted to check I could do them fresh. Will be a different matter on "the Fred" when you hit Wrynose at 96 miles in.

I've got a video of me racing down the Kirkstone Pass in a car.

I let all cars go at the top until there was a two minute gap before I started. I was quarter of a mile from the facking bottom when a tw@t pulled out in front of me from a farm side road. I forgot the camera was on and called him all the coonts under the sun.

My kids have never seen the film with the sound on.

Ha ha ha! There's a load of gouges on that little rise at the foot of the hairpin near the top where people have overcked it and bottomed out! Did you? 

The A'side-Kirkstone road ("the Struggle" as it's known locally) is a beast of a climb - steep straight from the turning off the main road in Ambleside (all the cars coming down reeking of brakes or is it clutches) - levels very briefly after about 10 minutes - then a long, steepening drag - then that little twisty descent and then the kier: a couple of seriously steep hairpins and a longslope to the top to finish your legs off.

Chapel Stile - Kirkstone in just under 40 minutes - wished I hadn't smoke for 12 years! I could have been in the Tour de France.

Ha ha ha! There's a load of gouges on that little rise at the foot of the hairpin near the top where people have overcked it and bottomed out! Did you?

How very dare you

I drive every pass at least twice before I speed over it.

I raced my mate over Hardknott and Wrynose passes many years ago. I was in a Mini Metro and he was in a Vauxhall Cavalier. He doesn't race that well, but he thinks he does.

I gave him a two minute start and caught him before the top of Wrynose.

I took him back over as my passenger in the same Metro in mild rain the year after.

When I stopped the brakes weres steaming and his knuckles went white gripping the dashboard.

I'll be looking out for nutters in Metro's when I'm trying to finish the Fred! Tbh, it's so bloody hard that there could be Sherman tank heading straight for me and I wouldn't notice.

As teenagers, me and some mates borrowed one of their dads' Ford Granadas and went up and over the passes a few tmes taking it turns to sunroof surf. The car was so long he had to wheelspin it round the hairpins - all good fun!

That's why I never took my Jaguar up there.

You never mentioned your jag before.

nice to see jack back

must be his birthday or sumfink

It is, just