England Diaries - Part VII

We're in the Lake District in England, climbing Cats Bell. It rains something like 275 days a year in the Lake District but the day we've set aside to go hiking, we have sun. We're psyched.

We start the climb to the top of this tall peak. Except when we get to the top, we see another taller peak just up the trail. Fine. We climb that. Then--hey! There's another peak. We climb that. You can see how this went...it was us against the  mountain.  Care to guess who won?

At some point as we were climbing--oh, let's say the 3rd peak--it started misting. By the 4th peak it was a steady rain and by the time we reached the last peak (the last we were willing to climb, that is) it was windy enough to almost blow me over and there was hail.  

It was worth it for the view though. This photo isn't even all the way on top of the climb but given the hail, those photos are a bit dark so you get this one instead. 

We climbed down which was a heck of a lot harder than climbing up had been. Wet, slippery rocks. It was so steep at crumbly at some points that we just scooted down on our butts at some places.  And again--no warning or danger signs! Just nature.  It was great.

So we climb down and realize the whole climb up and back took under 2 hours.  Now what? I'll tell you now what. This is the part of the trip where my husband turned on me and took me on a forced 7-mile walk around the lake.  See the lake in the picture? That's what we circumvented.  And the picture doesn't begin to show the full scope of the lake. It was a very looong lake.

Things didn't get bad until the last mile or two. My feet were tired by then. And I never was convinced Blair actually knew where we were going. He told me "just a little further," about an hour and half before we came anywhere near the end of the trail, so I remained suspicious.

But the lake walk was some of the prettiest hiking we did. Once off Cats Bell, we came into full sun. We tied our jackets around our waist, snacked on nuts and just walked. Here are some pictures from our walk:

 

   

      

A Moment to Reflect

I don't blog much on the war in Iraq. Namely because I'm poorly informed, unsure what I think about a lot of it, and I like to keep this blog more lighthearted. However, my yoga instructor shared something with me the other week that has stuck in my mind. So much, that I've decided to share it here.

 

Her brother is career military--I want to say Army or Marines. He's on his third tour of duty in Iraq. She said he's been lucky that he hasn't had to shoot anyone, but he has been shot at several times.

 

The other week two of the men in this man's unit--friends--were in some big truck or Army vehicle and a grenade went off and they were quite literally blown up. The vehicle was still in tact though and my friend's brother had the job of cleaning up the truck.

 

Having to perform a task like that is beyond my comprehension. Can you imagine what that must be like? The smell? The look of it? Knowing what it is that you're wiping off the equipment? I told Blair the other night that I guess I could do it if I had to, but I don't know that I could do it and keep sane.  

 

I'm sure this is one of the "tamer" stories of what's going on in Iraq, but I haven't been able to shake the mental imagery from my mind. I don't have any family or friends or know anyone over in Iraq and the war is a bit distant for me.  It's good sometimes to be reminded of the sacrifices being made by others. 

Scotland Diaries - Part III / England Diaries VI

We're old. That was my thought on waking up the next day. There was one walking loop to Loch Ness from our hotel that we hadn't explored the day before, so we told ourselves we'd get up early before breakfast and walk it. That's what we do. We don't like to leave things incomplete. We're probably never going to be in this hotel again, so it was essential we hit every path available to us, just to say we'd done it.

At least, that would  have been the case in our youth. As it stands, we woke up, looked at each other, discussed that it was cold out and it probably wouldn't be a smart idea to walk around out there with that breeze in our ears (wouldn't want to get sick) and so decided to just sleep in.  It's what I wanted to do and yet... we're old.

But it really was the right choice because I'd had a mild sore throat for the past 2 days and this morning added a light nausea to that.  We piled our stuff in the rental car and drove the A82 through the Highlands to Glasgow.  

I know I said at the beginning of these logs I would limit the use of words like "stunning" and "breathtaking," but really, that's all I know to say. Huge, rugged hills with bright yellow flowers everywhere, long-haired cows grazing at heights that seemed way to high for a cow, mountain ranges that went on and on. No billboards, no homes, no litter. Just miles and miles of hills and sky. 

Unfortunately, I was only awake for half of it. My stomach was churning as we drove the narrow windy roads and I curled up in the passenger seat and slept.

We passed a bicyclist, laden with supplies, going the opposite direction. To what, I don't know. We'd been driving 50 minutes and passed only a few small homes. We had been commenting on how the road was so narrow and winding it was like death at every turn, and that's in a car. I can't fathom what biking that must have been like.  No thanks.

We returned our rental car in Glasgow and took a taxi to the airport where we caught the train to Carlisle in the Lake District in England.

This was our first day of being ready to go home. In my case, probably brought about by not feeling well. But if someone had offered to cancel the rest of our trip and put me on a plane home, I would have taken them up on it.  It was raining at the station as we pulled out, and I did perk up enough to notice how romantic it looked, with water dripping down the train windows as we pulled away from the station.

In Carlisle we went to Enterprise Car Rental and gave them everything but a urine sample before they handed over the keys. We drove to Keswick and stayed in what was probably my favorite hotel - the Highfield. It was big, worn and elegant--just what an English hotel should look like. We stayed in East Turret room which had a view of the lake.

We got up early the next morning and toured Keswick before any of the shops open.  This is my favorite time to shop. We got a feel for the town and saw the stores, but didn't have to fight the crowds and weren't interested in buying anything.

We took the ferry across the Lake and climbed Cats Bell. More about the wind, rain and hail that greeted us there tomorrow.

June 6, 2006 -- There's More...

You know the media is doing their whole "It's 6-6-06 (666) today. Does it mean anything? If so, what?" bit to garner attention. So I'm just finishing an assignment for a Message On Hold company I write for and I do a Word Count check and guess what the final tally is? That's right - 666. C'mon! What are the chances? The script was for a NY dental care, so maybe the numbers and date are fitting. (Dentists are scary).  Anyway, I got a chuckle out of it and thought I'd pass it along. Hope everyone has been enjoying a lovely day.