Hills and lakes, mountains and fjords

The last month has been, how can I put it, a succession of superlatives interspersed with the kind of peaceful gaps that somehow have left me feeling rested even after travelling for all but seven days out of thirty-two!

So first that England trip! (Yes, I have been travelling to England an awful lot lately... having in-laws in a country can do that!) It was some seriously warm weather that greeted us, and having visited with family for the weekend in the south of England we set off for the Lake District. For those not in the know, that means pretty much traversing the whole length of England. Luckily, it's a rather small island, so only took us a day :).

Having first been presented with the idea of spending a week in the Lake District, I had figured I wanted to do two things, go walking and see some castles! As it turned out, the trip was bookended by visits to Wray and Lowther Castles and packed with a lot of walking up and down hillsides in-between!

We'd found ourselves a bed-n-breakfast at a farm just south of Keswick, so that gave us the perfect starting point for walking to Cat Bells, Robinson, Hindscarth and Dale Head. (Those are all names of peaks :D. Awesome, aren't they?!!) With views of Derwent Water, Bassenthwait, Crummock Water, Loweswater and Buttermere. (Yup, now those are all lakes. What did I say about awesome names!?!) In some cases you could see all the way out to sea (which in this case I guess would be the bit of the Irish Sea stuck between England and Scotland?)!

Given that we had a car, we also made the most of it, driving around and exploring more valleys and passes in the area and climbing up yet more peaks for some truly spectacular views. Dodd, Red Pike, High Crag, High Stile and High Seat were all pretty proper hikes along a particularly high (hence the names I guess :)) and craggy ridge. But another day we also decided to take it easy and just walk up the much easier Rannerdale Knotts.

Now if you have never been to the Lake District and just read all that, you'd think we'd been walking non-stop or something! But that's the thing, a lot of the peaks were just along a ridge, so the hard work was getting up it, and then you just walking along, enjoying the ever changing view as new valleys and ridges came into view or disappeared! It actually got hot enough where we'd start off early and then find cover by early afternoon. Either by a cool river or freezing waterfall, or just back at the bnb or some cafe in a farm :).

For someone used to hiking in Norway there is much to be said about the experience you get in the Lake District! The views aren't nearly as awe-inspiring and rugged, but genuinely beautiful! And a lot more accessible :). You walk out in the morning and see a hilltop, or a few. At the end of the day you walk back down and looking back, point to several of said hilltops and say, yup, been there. Not quite what happens in Norway :).

And then there was the weather! Ten days, and it never rained on us once! Must be something of a record for me in England :). In the meantime Norway had been having record high temperatures! We were back home for a couple of days, and then off again! This time to the western part of Norway - Vestlandet! Primarily the areas of Møre og Romsdal and Sogn og Fjordane.

The trip had been somewhat hastily planned, and then even more hastily re-planned when we decided to visit some friends from Asker who were on holiday near Ålesund! Fortunately accommodation was available where we wanted and when we wanted it :). For a change we weren't trying to fit in a holiday into a set number of days whether for available holidays or booked flights! Once we'd put in all the bits we wanted to see, hike or drive, it came to a nice round two weeks.

If I were to give a full account of those spell-binding fourteen days, well... (Maybe I should actually, but then I'll have to split it up into a whole series of posts... But why not, not like I haven't done that in the past :). Hmmm.)

The vital statistics, however, stand thus: fourteen days, 2400 km, two proper hikes, eight different beds, ten ferries, many many waterfalls, lakes, mountains, fjords, tunnels and even a few dolphins and glaciers!! I would have added six of the eighteen Norwegian Scenic Routes, but we found several more bits of road that are at least as fabulous if not even better than those on the official list (and with significantly less tourist traffic!), so the number of particularly awesome stretches of road stands somwhat higher in my mind. More on that soon then. I hope.