Lake District Part 1

Of I have no idea how many. I'd intended to do at least one post on walking from my travels last year, but going through my videos and photos I've got lots (as usual), so I'm going to do more. I know some of us may not be able to get out of doors as much right now and others may be in need of some of that beauty of the natural world in a difficult time, so I hope you'll take some walks with me and enjoy nature in this way.

Last year was my first time visiting the Lake District, and when I set my itinerary I forced myself to do something I'm not very good at, which is to slow down. I like to be out all day while I'm traveling, seeing things and doing things, and I usually set how long I'm going to stay in a place based on what there is to see and do. For the Lakes, though, I stayed several nights each in Far Sawrey, Hawkshead, and Chapel Stile. These places are all pretty close to one another so my goal was to get some walks in and spend time relaxing in pubs and inns, just enjoying myself.

I have a bad history of planned walking in the UK. When I'm in a town or village and just set out for a few hours' walk it works well, as does walking the grounds of the various country houses I've visited. But twice I've had grand visions of me spending lots of time striding across fields and over hills/clifftops: a la Poldark when I went to Cornwall some years ago and a la Outlander when I went to the Scottish Highlands in 2018. I travel in Britain at times of the year when the weather is usually pretty good, but in Cornwall my luck ran out and I got a week of dump buckets rain broken up with heavy fog.

Super foggy Land's End in Cornwall

 In the Scottish Highlands a winter storm struck (in September!) so it was more dump buckets rain. I put my raincoat on and tried to walk anyway, but when gale force winds started blowing my sopping wet pants against my legs I gave up and spent the rest of my time hunkered down in a warm pub.

Rainy Glencoe, in the Scottish Highlands

 I'd actually planned on setting part of A Generation's Secrets, the in-progress fourth book in my series, in Scotland but that experience left me feeling so uninspired I decided to try again in 2019 with the Lake District, and this time I had a winner (as a bonus, it's so much closer to Derbyshire it makes more sense anyway!). As you'll see the weather wasn't always perfect, but I did far more walking there than I've been able to do anywhere else, and that's why I've got so much to share.

Path through woodlands

 The three villages I stayed in were on the opposite side of Lake Windermere from Bowness, and I have to admit I was concerned as I came in on the train station and walked down to Bowness, because it was a touristy mess of people waiting around for boat tours. SO MANY BOAT TOURS. Once I took the ferry over to the other side of the lake, though, everything was calmer and on a slower and more natural pace.

Sunset at Far Sawrey village

 Far Sawrey was the first village I stayed in. You might have heard of Near Sawrey, home of Beatrix Potter's Hill Top, and I'll be sharing that in my next post. But the first thing I saw while I was there was some of its natural beauties. I set off for a brief walk before dinner, towards Moss Eccles tarn.

Moss Eccles tarn

One of the things I love about walking in England is you're usually rewarded if you hike up a hill, and this was definitely the case, for as I walked on I saw this:

Lakes and hills

There was just something about all of the elements that took my breath away and made me just want to stand there and admire it all day, and I knew even as I was standing there that Elizabeth and Darcy would be seeing the same view in my book and that it was a strong contender for my cover photograph. So you can enjoy the same moment, here is some 360 video from that spot:

Don't mind me, will be posting some 360 photos so I can re-post my old Austen Authors content on my personal blog. Or, alternately, enjoy this 360 from the Lake District!
Posted by Sophie Turner on Monday, July 20, 2020

I find as a traveler that if I'm going to like or love a place, I know pretty immediately, and from this moment I was in love with the Lake District. Even though the weather wasn't always as perfect as it was my first few days there, I was willing to cut it some slack. My stop there was towards the end of my trip and I was in pretty good walking shape from all the shoe leather I'd burned viewing country houses, so I decided the next day to walk over to Claife Viewing Station, a partial ruin that was built in the 1790s as a lookout point over Lake Windermere:

Claife Viewing Station

Windermere from Claife Viewing Station

Claife Viewing Station on Lake Windermere
Posted by Sophie Turner on Monday, July 20, 2020

One of the things I enjoyed about walking in the area was the different animals I saw, both wildlife and domesticated animals.

The Lake District's distinctive Herdwick sheep

These cows were enjoying Lake Windermere just as much as the people!

Some sort of game bird...possibly grouse?

A butterfly and a bee

There were some lovely man-made bits as well, like this cottage:

I love a cute cottage!

I'm going to leave you with two "walking" videos I shot, so you can join me for a little portion of my walks. I'm not really sure why I zoomed in on the first one...I think I was trying to show what the path was like up close? These videos are not in 360 as it's much easier for me to hold my regular camera and walk at the same time, and I didn't want to fall over while shooting these. There'll be more of these and lots more photos to come in future posts.