Yes you saw right - it was a misadventure at Lake District this past weekend!
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| One of the few photos we took with blue skies |
Lake District has been one of my must-go places (yes another one) in England after reading about how beautiful it is and how it was such a source of inspiration for the famous English poet, William Wordsworth. How beautiful the daffodils are, the clouds, etc... and so, of course I was excited to join JL, Shany and their friends there. And what happened? It rained like crazy over the two days spoiling everything. boohoo And I must stress it is not the normal kind of rain.. it is the persistent kind of rain. It stops for like a few minutes before pouring again and again... and again (you get the picture). What's more, we failed in the logistics for this trip coz we had no accomodation on Saturday night! What turned out to be the original plan of camping in the open became.. well, just taking refuge in the rented car for the night. It was pathetic. Anyways we are now back in the comfort of our home and our beds (!!) -hooray- and as Eric always says "it's all good."
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| The white spots you see are sheep grazing on the grassland. |
So Friday night, we took Virgin Train from Euston station to Manchester, a 2h ride away and spent the night at a hostel near the station. [Bro, I found out for you how to go Old Trafford! Only 10min away from Manchester city centre via a tram ride and only GBP3 per ticket.] Saturday morning we took a train to Manchester airport to collect our car and started our journey to Pooley Bridge and then Penrith. Midway we went Asda to buy lots of BBQ stuff, hoping the weather would improve.
Shany was humming... "rain rain go away, come again another day" it was a dark and gloomy ride all the way.. sigh we stopped by Pooley Bridge Inn for lunch and then decided to go boating. It was drizzling and only us 7 at the pier (they must think we are crazy) and paid for a 30min boat ride. Quite fun "Row row row your boat, gently down the stream" sings Shany and Cynthia while JL and I rowed. *Rain came again* We tried so many places in between searching for a place to stay at night but everywhere was full, including this ultra ulu youth hostel up on a mountain. Camping sites are also all full. (We realised summer holidays are here, that's why the whole Lake District is so packed.)
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| Lunch at the pretty Pooley Bridge Inn |
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| Group shot |
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| By the river where we rowed the boat |
We picked a spot at a river bank for our BBQ dinner even though it was drizzling a bit (they were determined to defy the weather).. and pitched JL's tent just in case. Had some minor glitches but yay finally it worked and we were enjoying it when guess what, it poured like never before and we had to think of ways to make a temp shelter from what we had before scrambling into the tent. It was pathetically funny and someone made a comment like we were refugees. haha (seriously I thought of that too) well at least most of us were still optimistic about the whole affair, saying this would be a BBQ to remember for a long long time. It became pitch dark as time past and we had to shine our torch lights with the big dark mountain looming behind us, it was quite scary really. Our only other source of light was from cars which zoomed past us occassionally along the highway and obviously thinking how crazy these people are, BBQ-ing in the dark and rain. Eric, a new friend we got to know volunteered to be on guard duty and the funny thing was that our so-called enemy was this swan who swam onshore to find food and he kept making the sound of a barking dog trying to scare it away which was hilarious coz we were in the tent and we really thought a real dog was outside!
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| Short walk in the forest to see the waterfall |
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| Horn horn.. sheep crossing the road |
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| Getting ready the BBQ |
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| Right.. it's raining! |
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| Keeping spirits high in the leaking tent..! |
So then after our "lovely" BBQ, we got on the car and parked at this carpark with a toilet facility within metres and yea.. unwillingly (at least for me.. u know I am not the rough it out kind of person..) spent the night in the car. It rained throughout the night with strong winds and I swear I felt the car shake at one instance even though it was 7 of us plus a lot of food and barang barang. It was so difficult to sleep; so squashed up and it was worse than sitting in a plane. It took me so long to doze off, just as it was for the rest of us. Except! Miss Wihardja.. seriously she is good haha.. she managed to "stabilise" in a certain position and was gone within 5min!! Petite Shany curled up in a foetal position while Gin and Eric sat almost upright due to space constraints, and Marlene sitting beside the driver seat leaned forward on the dashboard in what Eric called a praying position which was soooo funny. And of coz JL our driver could only sit upright hindered by the big steering wheel. We all woke up at 6am when the sun rose and it was still raining (amazing this place) and one by one we all popped out from the car groaning in pain all over esp our knees. omg I swear I am not gonna do this again. Ever.
Nothing much we could do and after washing up, we decided to drive down towards Windermere and then to Grasmere where the famous gingerbread house is. Since it won't be opened till quite late we passed by the Beatrix Potter Attraction and I asked to go in coz this is where Peter Rabbit was born! haha yes the cutesy bunny and *ooh I miss my bunnies at home once again*
When we reached the gingerbread shop (
http://www.grasmeregingerbread.co.uk/theshop.htm), we were shocked at the crowd outside the tiny shop (in the rain may I stress) and we thought only Singaporans are kiasu? So being truly Singaporean, we joined in too. Well, verdict.. so-so only, maybe it's a local thing. Stopped by a tea room for cakes and tea before deciding to head back to London but JL suggested since we will pass by Birmingham, he can recommend a nice Italian restaurant known to him as "the restaurant which soccer guy Ronaldo has been to" for us to have dinner at.
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| The crowd or rather, the queue outside the gingerbread shop |
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| Tea in a tea room before we set off |
Oh did I mention the last time all of us bathed was on Friday night? eeeekksss -__-"
Mental note to self: Must go back and see the lake district properly with no rain!
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