UK Tourist & Leisure Attractions - Lake District

This was the first of two Cumbrian Fell walks we did from Staveley, a 12 mile one in and around the Fells of the Kentmere Valley.  Despite early rain, the day turned out fine and sunny and was the best day of the week weather wise.

We stopped here to admire the beautiful Kentmere Valley scenery by this stream.  We'd done a few miles uphill and were looking for a suitable spot to consume our picnic lunches, it's amazing how hungry you get walking in the Cumbrian Fells!

How's this for a great picturesque spot for lunch by this stream in the beautiful Cumbrian countryside!  See our UK tourist resources for websites giving details of walks in the Lake District and elsewhere in the UK.  Right, onwards and upwards and...

...another shot in the bag, a picture of Longsleddale.  Despite it being high summer and sunny, we still found it chilly in the Cumbrian Fells, and also quite boggy underfoot owing to the large amounts of rainfall the Lake District receives.  It's all very scenic though!

Safely back in our Staveley holiday cottage we enjoyed a candlelit fish and chip dinner from the local shop, washed down with plentiful red wine.  This was the evening of our 12 mile walk, sure were glad of the bath to soak in to sooth our aching legs!

Looking out across Morecambe Bay from Grange-over-Sands we wondered where the sea had gone - it was all grass!  The town just didn't float our boat and seemed rather uninspiring; moral: don't believe everything you read on tourism websites!

The one redeeming feature of Grange-over-Sands was the pub we found for lunch, we were able to sit outside which was just as well owing to the very smoky atmosphere inside.  Our tourist links page lists the website that recommended this town!

This eating at pubs is getting a bit of a habit on holiday!  In the evening we visited the Watermill Inn in Ings, the next village along from Staveley, where we enjoyed another wonderful meal in the Lake District, washed down with plenty of the local ale.

Now that's what we call a plateful in the Watermill Inn in Ings!  On our last night we did a pub crawl of all three Staveley pubs after another yummy meal in the pub where we'd dined earlier in the week.

On our last day in the Cumbrian countryside we did another Fell walk, the Dale Way, which mainly followed the River Kent.  It was pretty wet for most of the day, but we set off despite the rain!

The walk guide book quickly became rather soggy on the Dale Way walk, in fact it started to disintegrate later in the day due to the atrocious weather!  But we tried to made the best of it, after all the Lake District isn't known as the wettest area of the UK for nothing!

Here a suitably drenched Mike put on a brave face for the camera, the point at which Belinda was tempted to push him into the river for deciding to go Fell walking on such a dreadful day!  Check out our video clips of our Cumbrian holiday.

Fortunately we brought a bin liner to sit on while eating our lunch which was just as well as we couldn't find anywhere dry to sit.  We wimped out and cut the Dale Way walk short in the end owing to the rotten weather, only doing eight miles instead of the full twelve or so, longing to get back to the Cumbrian holiday cottage for a nice long soak in the bath.  Oh, did we say it rained?

Belinda's case always seems to be bulging at the seams for the return trip on our holidays - this time it must be all that Kendal Mint Cake she bought stuffed in it!  Despite the 'iffy' weather we still had a most enjoyable week in the very scenic Lake District; it's a vast area and we only visited a small part of it, we'd need far longer next time.