Day Twelve. The Lakes District.

Today was one of the greatest days yet in Europe. We first drove to Lake Windermere. Driving through the Lakes District is absolutely beautiful. So green and rolling hills and beautiful homey homesteads. I decided to not do the morning optional cruise on Lake Windermere, opting for the tourist office. These have become my greatest friend when travelling. I grabbed a free map and checked out walking tracks in the area. I only had 2 and a half hours, so power walked a bit of a longer track. It was so beautiful and so worth it. It stopped raining a I was starting, so even though it was windy, I took my rain jacket off.

The walk started pretty much on someone's private land. I almost missed the turn off, it was through a farm gate. Then the track took you down through some forest along the water. Eventually I found a small boardwalk. It was sitting just on top of the water, so when a big boat would go past, water would roll up along the board and through it, like someone was ripping out the boards from underneath. The scenery was amazing. 

I then walked back up to a lookout with an amazing view, called Orrest Head Viewpoint.

I traipsed back into town and grabbed lunch at a cafe/bakery and then we headed to Keswick. The afternoon was spent either doing archery, rock climbing or high ropes. Again, I opted to not do any of them and to go walking. There were a few of us who didn't do an activity, so we did a trip in the town of Keswick.

At Keswick, there's kind of a mini stone henge which dates back to 4,500 years ago, called Castlerigg stone circle. Apparently it's lucky to hug it.

Haha I went to the pencil museum! The area is famous for graphite, so is the home of Derwent pencils. The worlds first pencils were made here, and were of graphite wrapped in sheep skin. It was pretty interesting to see how pencils are made. It's a pretty lengthy process to make them, but to test the colours, there are 1000 'standard' pencils, some dating back to 1937! Derwent can also paint 16,000 pencils per hour, and they're painted twice before being glossed. They had some amazing pigments there.

Afterwards, we headed to Carlisle where we were staying, and I had a siesta. There we headed to a karaoke bar for the night.

Oh and there are sheep actually everywhere here! And with tails! I've never seen a sheep with a tail before!!!

On the edge of Lake Windermere

Beginning of the walk

From Orrest Hill Viewpoint

On the way to Keswick, with a small waterfall in the background

Castlerigg stone circle

Lucky!

So many sheep!

Keswick pencil museum