Ok, so my past post wasn't enough of a trip report. I barely mentioned what we did. Thing is, I'm lazy to blog at the moment (I'm lazy to work my fingers). But I just had to say something more about the weekend… 

Xi has blogged her account, and my photos are all tagged and uploaded.

'Base camp' was the youth hostel at Ambleside, at the northen end of Lake Windermere. There were lots of ducks and swans and boats… and people… a bit of a crowded place. The important compass points (east and west) were both in the wrong directions, so it was a shame we couldn't witness a proper sunset and sunrise from there. 

We went through the Stock Ghyll woods and went about seeking out the waterfalls on the first day (which started in the morning with a tube ride and a three-and-a-half-hour train journey…) The park/woods wasn't really that spectacular, but the 70-foot waterfall looked more massive when we reached its higher end. All in all a rather gentle stroll in the park (relative to what was to come). We milled about the small town of Ambleside; there were outdoor shops everywhere! Aside from that, it was cottages and fields of daisies and hills surrounding us on all sides… 

Lake Windermere at sunset. We spent a good deal of time passing time at the lake, watching the waterbirds and making friendly talk with a local northerner who took a fancy to my 80-400mm…

More ducks.

The next day we decided to go full-on hiking. The last time I did any proper trekking was in Australia… and I wasn't prepared for this! Took more than a bit of guts to overcome my fear of heights as we made our way uphill… where there were some narrow ridges and it was a steep drop on the sides… but I wouldn't have stopped, not then, not when we knew what awaited us at the top. There was a mini-mini-great-wall-of-China-sque stone wall running along the peaks. Probably dating from Roman times or something…  

Group photo at the first peak… 

View of Lake Windermere from higher up… 

There were lots of little lakes/ponds up there. Almost each peak had a few… and we met many hikers at the top. Most were seasoned trekkers, many were old folk (how do they manage?! - we met little children too. The locals must've started trekking at young ages! A regional pastime methinks.), and some were, like us, incapable of navigating without the maps. 

One of the charming dogs we met, having dips in the lakes… 

Rolling hills. They never end… 

We got 'lost' on the way down, where the terrain was thankfully rather flat, but boggy and damp. We stumbled upon the remains of some unfortunate ungulate near a stream… 

Finally reached lower grounds. Found some caves… which are some caverns in a little hill near Rydal Water (another lake) are really cool… much fun can be had out of playing with echoes…  

We were getting hungry. The girls, at least. The guys just wanted to go up, up, up (I've no idea why). We missed out lunch and our stomachs were growling, and throats were dry. Rations of water were running out… so we took a 'short cut' down the hills and into some woods (as opposed to taking the highland route). Got a little disoriented again. Some old chaps came along - the whole bunch of them, some in sandals and leather shoes! - and with their trekking poles looking oh-so-fit and helped us along in the right direction. Gotta admire the locals. More trekking uphill… across hills… and we finally saw signs of civilisation. It was the village of Grasmere, plus an uber-filling and satisfying meal (a massive Fell Burger + salad + coleslaw + fruits + 1 lemonade + 2 bottles of J2O). More outdoor shops. Then waited by a bus stop for a bus which comes every 2 hours… and hitched a ride back to Windermere. Only to have missed our stop, so there was more walking along the lake back to our hostel. Dusk falls… 

The third day was less adventurous. It was rainy weather, and most of us were too tired to even cover the few flights of stairs up to our room on the third floor, so we opted to take a bus ride - one roller-coaster ride that was - to the next major town of Keswick. Even more outdoor shops! And countryside shops… and pebbled streets. Everyone in town wore outdoorsy attire and hiking boots. How dashing. We saw signs to a Pencil Museum and thought "why not?" and ended up looking at pencils in the world's only Pencil Museum. But that took less than hour… and we needed to kill time since it was ages before we need to hop on that train back to good 'ole London. Found a coffee shop… lingered around for a very long time… … 

Bah, I'm talking in incomplete sentences. I gotta sleep. Viva tomorrow… the very last thing I'll ever need to do as an undergrad student. Flight's booked for this Saturday, everything's kinda rushed… I'd push it back if I could, but it's not up to me… 

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