Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Wandering in the English Lake District - Day 6

Having been up before the sun every day, I was glad to finally be in a position to get a fairly good sunrise photo.



As I was watching the sky through my camera lens, I had the feeling that someone was watching me.



I was correct.

On this last day, the "harder walk" group was offered "an exhilarating ridge walk...the superb high level ridge...the geographical centre of the Coniston fells...one of the finest high level walks!" I am pleased to report that the walk lived up to its reputation. The bus dropped of our group just a few miles the other side of the village of Coniston and we started walking uphill. In the photo below you can see another of the many arched, stone bridges that we crossed during the week as well as the beginnings of our walk. We crossed the bridge to an area left of the photo and then re-entered the photo area on the ridge at the top and walked the length of the ridge before climbing the first of several peaks of the day.



The body of water in the foreground of the next photo was called a "blind tarn" as it was impossible to see until we were on the ridge well above it. The water in the background is Conistonwater with the village and HF house off the photo to the left.



Below is part of the group scrambling up the last few rocks to reach the first peak of the day.



From the peak we could see the next ridge leading up to our second peak, Coniston Old Man. Those antlike bumps on the ridge are some of the many people heading up the ridge to the peak.



Coniston Old Man (2633 feet) was the most crowded mountaintop that I have ever been on in my life. We did not stay long.



Below will be the last photo of the Wandering in the Lake District of England series. In this photo you can see the Irish Sea in the distance.



I think I promised earlier to talk about our dinners. You already know that we ate well for breakfast and lunch. Dinner was equally fine. Each evening, we had choices for the next evening meal. There were various options for the first course that always included a homemade soup, a salad dish, and usually several other options that I don't remember as I almost always had the soup. Second course was centred on a vegetarian dish, or fish, or meat of some kind. Items that I remember from during the week were options of beef, pork, lamb, trout, shark, codfish, and swordfish all with, of course, more exotic names. There were always three large dishes of vegetables to choose from on the table, one of which was potatoes in a variety of forms. Drinks, from the bar, were offered for sale while coffee and tea were always served with desserts. One also chose the dessert the evening before. Several kinds of ice cream were always available as well the fruit basket with a choice of cheeses or one could choose from a variety of pies and puddings. No one ever went away hungry unless they chose to do so.

This was my third walking holiday with HF and, I hope, not my last. I know a good number of other local Ontario hikers that have gone to hike with HF and have never heard a complaint from any of them. This group runs a top-notch holiday walking service that I highly recommend. Go if you like to walk and have the opportunity.

Contact addresses are as follows:

The organization that we booked our holiday with is called "HF Holidays."

Teachers' Travel Service Ltd. of Toronto Canada is the HF North American Representative if you are interested (email: info@teacherstravel.com).

I hope you have enjoyed this travel series. Tomorrow it's back to exciting days of autumn in Ontario. (Sure it will cool down soon. It always has.)

7 comments:

Rurality said...

Well all the pics are great, but that cow... that's my favorite of the whole trip! Too funny.

Crowe said...

I love the cow too. I'm very fond of cows. I had a blind bullock as a pet for a while when I was a child. Then it went away to "paradise" ...

This has been a great series, OW. I've really enjoyed reading of yours and Eglantine's adventures in the Lakes, and seeing your wonderful photographs. Thank you.

Lené Gary said...

I never thought about a "walking holiday." What a great idea. Your pictures are great. I'm wondering what type of low growing vegetation makes colors of the hills.

Anonymous said...

I have enjoyed your series of posts and pix about the vacation. I hope you do it again and again. It's why I like coming to your blog so much.

Ontario Wanderer said...

R, Cows have always liked me. When I was a lad with a 4-H calf, it followed me like a kitten around the barnyard.

SGJ, Glad you like the photos. I wish I had had the time and energy to put up more photos. Eglantine had more great photos from her walks but I could not get her to do a write up. Maybe later she will have the time?

L, I've had some great walking holidays in your area along the Apalachian Trail and the Green Trail but they were a lot more work. The HF holiday is a real treat.

P, Glad you enjoyed the photos and notes. I hope to do more holidays before I run out of retirement money. (I know your son is not on holiday in Kenya but I hope he has a camera and you can pass along photos or have him set up a blog. I have shots from my trip to Kenya a few years ago and if things ever slow down here, I might dig them out and share some of them too. Kenya is beautiful in a much different way.)

robin andrea said...

Wonderful journey you and E had. I am so grateful that you took us along. Great photos and commentary. I too like the cow photograph. Beautiful.

Ontario Wanderer said...

RD, I'm glad you enjoyed what I had to offer. I had lots of photos to choose from and kept a daily journal so the effort at creating the posts was not terribly hard. I am just sorry I had to leave so much out.

It's time to moooove along to other topic now. Thanks again.