Lakes & dales

Work has taken me up north over the past two weeks. With a long weekend in the middle, I took the opportunity to do some sightseeing around the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, popular for cyclists, walkers and water enthusiasts.



I hired a car for the weekend and headed west. With the weather being cold, wet & windy in London, it was a great weekend to head north to the sunny skies. The gutsy little Punto navigated its way through the rolling hills of the Lake District pretty well. The Lakes is a great place to relax with plenty of activities taking place on Lake Windermere and Coniston Waters, and many small towns to visit and complete a little window shopping.

On the Sunday we stretched our legs on a half day hike before heading east to the north of the Yorkshire Dales and the quaint town of Hawes in the late afternoon.

In the morning I tasted the local produce at the Wensleydale cheese factory (yumm!) and followed this up with a stop at a chocolate factory on my journey back to the east coast.

Surf, sun & wonder

With an extended May Day long weekend, I jumped in a car with four fellow Aussies for a four-day road trip around the counties of Cornwall & Devon (south-west England).

Here is an overview of our journey:
Friday – After a long week at work we travelled to Okehampton, located on the north side of the Dartmoor National Park, via Stonehedge.

Saturday – After breakfast at a local bakery, we drove through the National Park stopping at the youngest castle in England, Castle Drogo. Our final destination was Land’s End, the most westerly point of England, where we enjoyed a pear cider as the sun set over the ocean.



Sunday – We drove to Penzance (the origin of the play, “the Pirate of Penzance”) and headed to St Michael’s Mount. The early morning haze lifted to a glorious day of sunshine. As it was low tide, we were able to walk along the causeway to the island, but we had to return to shore via one of the many small boats to avoid getting wet. After devouring a Sunday roast at the local, we drove along the north coast stopping at the seaside town of St Ives. As all Aussies are trained to do when the sun is shining & the blue water is glistening… we went for a dip!











There is no doubt that we stood out with no one else actually in the water – the “fresh” temperature may have had something to do with that. Afterwards, we continued north to the town of Tintagel. The YHA was located on the edge of the Glebe cliff, a beautiful section of the English coast. It was a beautiful outlook to view the sunset!! The long days are great for travelling with the sun setting around 8:30 in the evening.










Monday – After a traditional cream tea with scones, local raspberry jam & clotted cream for breakfast we spend the day wandering around the remains of King Arthur’s Tintagel castle, perched on the coastline and nibbled on a Cornish pasty on the way back to the car. Continuing north we stopped at Bude, before entering the Exmore National Park. The national parks are quite different to back home - there are no trees like home, rather there are rolling hills of low level shrubs known as “moor”.

Tuesday – While the remainder of the workforce returned to work, we enjoyed a leisurely morning in Exford with a full English breakfast before heading off to Cloud Farm for a horse ride along the local stream.

A superb weekend of being in the beautiful outdoors with plenty of sunshine, good views & great food!

From winter to spring

This weekend I had the joy of walking out of the house for the first time without my scarf, gloves & beanie… instead, with my sun hat & sunglasses. Yes, we have finally had a snippet of spring and warmth – it was a gorgeous day! I made the most of it by heading to the London Zoo and relaxing afterwards (with a little snooze under a tree) at Regents Park.

It has been a little while since my last blog, so what have I been up to? I have been staying local with a few day-trips to local sites in and around London. High points include:

• Eating a famous red velvet cupcake (ie. crimson red cupcake with crème cheese icing) from the Hummingbird café at the Portobello markets.



• Watching “the race that stops this nation” – the annual boat race between Cambridge and Oxford. It was a stereotypical cold, wet & windy day in London for the race, though that did not deter the revellers to watch the teams row past along the Thames. It was good fun to be a part of.



• And finally, my desire to see snow in London came to fruition a few weekends ago. On the Sunday morning, I woke up with the snow still falling down outside my window. I was surprised that it really did dump. There was even enough snow to build a snowman in the backyard. I was pretty impressed that he managed to live for four days following being built.

King of the Castle???

With four days of the Easter long weekend to enjoy, Jase & I headed on a road trip to North Wales. We stayed at youth hostels located within and around Snowdonia National Park. The landscape of North Wales is sensational - it is an adventurer’s paradise! I look forward to exploring the area further in the summer time.



Highlights of the weekend include:

• Exploring numerous castles built in the late 1200’s, including Caernarfon, Harlech & Conwy Castle;


• Attending a half Welsh/English Easter day church service;
  
• Visiting the longest officially recognised place in the UK. The name is Welsh for “St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave”;


• Riding the historic Snowdon Mountain Railway 5/8ths the way up the tallest mountain in Wales – Mt Snowdon (at 1085m, it’s shorter than I was expecting!). The train is the easy option for climbing to the summit, though it was restricted over the weekend due to the snow capped mountains; and


• Snowing at the hostel on Easter Sunday!!!

No friends on powder day...

Destination: Kirchberg, Austria
Purpose: Snow, snow and plenty of skiing
Summary: It was a perfectly scripted week of conditions for avid skiers and boarders alike, with the chalet accommodation conveniently located at the base of the Kitzbuhel ski resort – a great base for the full week of adventure…

I had a bizarre journey to Austria and here is a quick overview … The extremely turbulent and delayed BA flight from Heathrow was diverted to Zurich in Switzerland after Munich airport was closed with hurricane winds. I ended up jumping in a hire car with two fellow passengers - a random Scotsman & Finnish lady. We ended up driving four hours through Switzerland and Austria to meet our connecting transfers at Munich airport. A few hours later I was picked up by Shevy, the Aussie hostel manager who coincidently grew up in a neighbouring suburb from me. After travelling along the German autobarn at speeds up to 250km/hr, I safely arrived at the chalet almost 24 hours after leaving my house in London.

For the eager skiers out there, the conditions were fantastic! The week started off with beautiful sunshine, with slightly icy & moggly runs. This was followed by 48 hours of snow dumps, with over a foot of fresh powder across the slopes and across town. The rest of the week of skiing was amazing with superb weather, great runs and plenty of fresh powder to enjoy!! [Photo: green one day... white the next!]

There were plenty of other snow bunnies staying at the chalet to enjoy my week with. My main skiing buddy pushed my limits on the slopes and helped me with my technical ability along the way. The hard thing will be to remember it all for next year! By the end of our 7 days of skiing, we had pretty much covered every run of the Kitzbuhel resort - magnificant! After a hard day’s work on the slope, we finished the day relaxing in picnic chairs with a mug of gluvine (mulled wine) at one of the many slope-side pubs along our final homeward run.

Another activity for the week included a night time toboggan ride along a poorly lit track winding through the forest, stopping for a traditional meal along the track. The run had the potential for absolute carnage with the speed you can gain and the lack of ability to control the toboggans, but we all managed to walk away with only a few bruises despite a few crashes. All good fun!