The Winter Month

Winter is now truly upon us here, and that means doing all things wintery for life in London – whether that’s normal for London or not...

It’s not normally this cold, with temperatures barely making it over 0C for the last few weeks. I’ve still been happily commuting by bike through it all. You may think this would be mad at temperatures reaching -13C, but after about 10mins of riding I’m quite toasty under a few layers. The anti-pollution mask has been great for keeping my face warm throughout, even if it does tend to fog the glasses when I’m stopped at the lights - which is where the photo at the bottom of the page is from.

The other tricky item to negotiate is snow. This also isn’t something that’s particularly normal for London. There’s been plenty of it about, as you can see, but funnily enough, it’s not been a problem to ride through. Sure, I’ve switched to the mountain bike with its wider knobbly tyres, but the simple fact that my commute is all along bus routes makes it a breeze (touch wood). The buses and traffic in general mean that the roads are wet, but both ice and snow are slushed up by the vehicles, and is pretty much found only at the edges in the gutter. Far more treacherous are the iced over footpaths...

Still, as long as you walk on the white stuff that crunches under your feet, you’re fine. This was the case when Sheryl and I ventured through Ravenscourt park on our way to the Natural History Museum for that other fun pastime found on the ice - skating. This very large park was literally covered in snow, making for a spectacular and picturesque walk (see the pic at the top). You did have to feel for the poor ducks and other water fowl wandering across the frozen lake in the middle (above right). The same goes for one small dog whose legs weren’t long enough to keep it above the snow! Both tennis courts were in their traditional whites - completely covered - as was the lawn bowls club further along the park.
Quite a few kids though. As Sheryl said, “kids will always play in a playground no matter what the weather.” and she was right. Just a fantastic wintery scene to walk through...

But back to the ice skating... We met up with Vanessa, Zara, Jarrett and some of Vanessa’s other friends for a session on the ice rink that sits outside the front of the incredible building that is the Natural History Museum (left).
None of us had skated since we were kids, so the start of our session was with much trepidation. Chaos also reigned supreme as there were plenty of small children there with their parents. I’m glad to say that we all stayed on our feet... erm... skates, despite the traffic hazard that all the kiddies presented. Great fun in the end as we all found some level of form and gained our confidence on the ice. Dinner in a nearby pub was just the ticket to finish off the late afternoon.

Finally, winter over here in the UK means one other thing: Christmas, and with that in mind, I again found myself enjoying another Santa Crawl. This time, I was joined by Sheryl and Vanessa for what was to be a fun night of visiting several pubs around the London Bridge area with over 250 other “Santas”. Again, it was all done in the name of fundraising and this year it was for the St Christopher’s Hospice. Raising almost £2,000 meant that we had paid for all in the hospice to enjoy a full on Christmas dinner with their families. Now that’s some Christmas Spirit coming from enjoying some Christmas spirits. Boom! Boom! ... I’ll get me coat...

Have a good (and safe) Christmas folks!

Trekking the Lakes District

On a chilly Wednesday night, we saw ourselves with Mark n Row at their ‘local’ pub, The Black Horse, enjoying the pub’s warm fire and large portioned meals. A great way to finish work and kick off what was to be our 4 day jaunt to the Lakes District.

The following frosty morning saw us begin the 5 hour drive up to Keswick in the Lakes District in the far northern reaches of England. The clouds and the constant drizzle and rain didn’t fill us with a great outlook for a four day weekend of trekking through this region.
We stopped off briefly in Keswick, to meet up with the other couple that were joining us, Arifa and Matthew. A short trip into the local supermarket for weekend supplies, and then we were making the short seven mile trip to the cottage where we were staying on the outskirts of the village of Seatoller. Unfortunately, Seatoller itself is so small that we had some trouble locating our lodgings in the misty rain and dark of night. Once found, we moved in, then headed back out to a nearby hotel and pub about two or three miles back up the road. An open fire and some great food rounded out the night.

We woke the next morning to see where we were in daylight to discover just why the Lakes District is rated as highly as it is. The window from our room resembled a postcard of stone fences, fields, sheep, trees, mountains and blue skies.
Not long after, we were all fed and packed, as well as suitably dressed for the cold, and on our way along the river that ran past our cottages. Over a small stone bridge and we were following the trails towards the hills and valleys of this incredible area. We passed by Seatoller itself, before heading upwards. Passing through a couple of gates, we soon found ourselves following alongside one of those amazing freestanding stone walls. Crossing small wooden bridges over running brooks, we took in the valleys of Borrowdale that opened up before us.
After a while we watched the the valley containing the Derwent Water (a large lake) literally appear in front of us as we crested a small rise. It got a little interesting as we then headed up the large hill known as “Castle Crag”. This path (once found) took us up through a zig-zagging trail through a large pile of shale - see if you can see the path... Nearing the top, we discovered many of the “monuments” of shale that people had left behind – basically this is just standing a large piece of it on its end. A small scramble, and we were then at the top to be greeted by incredible views all round. A perfect spot for lunch in the sun!

Once finished, we made our way back down through the shale to the valley floor and proceeded along until we reached the Derwent River. We followed this home as it took us around the base of Caslte Crag, and led us through the valleys until passing almost alongside our cottage! Remember that small stone bridge at the beginning of our trek? Well, that bridge crossed the Derwent river. The Derwent would have to be the clearest river I have ever seen. All up, a fantastic walk taking in the moss covered trees, the browns of autumn in the setting sun and the simplicity of this incredible countryside.

The evening was spent in a cozy little pub with an open fire, some pints, good food and even a small local dog to watch us eat. Fantastic homemade apple crumble too!

Day 2 had us heading off across the frosted paddocks in the opposite direction (above). This time, however, it was time to go up to and across the tops of the mountains. We headed across the base and along a river for a while before the trail we were following headed upwards... straight upwards. It was quite steep and certainly had us puffing. Not to be out done, the local sheep kept making appearances higher up - just to make us feel better about ourselves. Towards the top of this "climb", we were rewarded with more spectacular views, as well as large pieces of snow.
Hurling a large rock through the iced over lake up there was fun too - even if somewhat childish... but Mark and I were happy. Anyway, onwards we went, across the top of this part of the mountains, only to find that we needed to go further up to get "around" end of the valley we had just come out of.
That was our plan for the day - to head up one side of the valley, to head across the ridge at its end, then come down on the opposite side. All up it turned out to be just over 10kms walking and ascending over 650metres. But I digress...

We headed upwards again as we began to find our way across the end of the valley. It wasn't helped by the low cloud that we now found ourselves in. Visibility was quite low, so it was map reading and GPS "toys" that were then followed far more closely.
We stopped for lunch briefly, and after some "warming" hazelnut Cadburys to finish with, we were back moving again. It was very cold up there, and sitting about didn't exactly help in keeping warm.
As if someone was watching over us, we were given a peak through a break in the clouds that showed us the valley below and gave us our bearings in an instant. On track we were, so back off through the clouds we went. Again, we still saw sheep in the higher parts of these ridges. Amazing that with only hooves they somehow get through some of the rocky areas we traversed...
Not long after, and we had found the path we were looking for that was to take us back down to the valley floor. As we continued down this path, the more the valleys below opened up for us to see. Once again, the area was just postcards wherever you looked.
As we followed the path, we headed through trees and alongside the river that we had followed upwards (while on the other side of the valley some six hours earlier). Below, is arriving back at our cottages. Truly just a wonderful area to be walking through.

Finishing off the evening in the nearby town of Keswick, we dined in a different pub again. A warm atmosphere, good food and a few more pints polished off both the day and the weekend.

Our last morning was a final fry-up of all the remaining breakfast supplies before packing up and hitting the roads back to London. On the way up, we had been in the dark when going through this area, so to see it all in daylight was quite spectacular. A nice way to finish off the trip after our breakfast feast.

* PS: just click on the individual photos should you wish to see a bigger version of them.