Mountain Lakes

The "Lake District" sounds all very mild and bucolic, but those lakes are there because there's mountains holding them up.  The roads were all a bit too narrow, making the district the most dangerous so far in terms of driving - a good deal harder than the single lane roads, where people drive a little more cautiously rather than madly cut corners around blind turns.

Our holiday let this time was a little south of Ullswater, and just north of Kirkstone Pass, and a good base for walks.

Aira Force (a well known waterfall) was a short drive (and a...number of stairs) away.

One of my favourite walks was right from our door and down to the nearby lake of Brotherswater late in the afternoon. It was a very still evening, and the lake very reflective.

The weather for most of the time we were there was "sunny periods" which basically meant clouds with beams of sunlight breaking through - nice to look at but hard to photograph.  These two pics are from the same walk - up to a small lake tucked high up in the mountains near our holiday let.  This was a very vertical climb in parts, and featured a great many sheep and views of other mountains.

And, of course, an obligatory garden visit - Holehird Gardens down by Windermere, which had a nice walled area and a very extensive rock garden.

Finishing up, we detoured through the Yorkshire Dales (dodging millions of motorcyclists) to visit York, and then headed down to the Peak District.