It was time to get back to nature and so I headed to the lake district of England as my last stop.  Famous for being the setting of several famous English stories from the likes of Beatrix potter who is famous for the tale of Peter Rabbit.  It also contains all of the land area over 3000M which is the reason I was visiting.  I was really excited to get back into the hiking game and so heading into the rural areas of England sounded like a great idea.

I took a train from Manchester to Penrith station and then jumped on a bus headed for the lake district.  There was not a whole lot of options when it came to hostels but the one I stayed in was perfect as it was a bus ride away from Scafell Pike, the highest peak in England as well as plenty of other nearby hikes as well as a small town.  After arriving in Penrith, I had a little bit of time to kill and right across the street from the train station was a castle ruin which warranted some exploration.  The grounds were beautiful and it was a great way to kill some time.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hqKaTTsiL1zTbfL76

The bus ride out to Keswick was full of narrow roads and super cute houses.  I am surprised the bus could fit along some of those turns between two houses situated very close to each other.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/s7ah4RbBSRsQMa957

After arriving at the hostel, I did not waste much time getting back into the nature as I didn’t have a ton of time there and wanted to get a few cool hikes in.  There was a trail accessible from the hostel via a wuick walk, so I set out towards Skiddaw which is the 4^th highest peak in England at 931M.  As is true with most of my hikes so far, the weather was not ideal and there was a decent ammount of fog surrounding the hills, which made it difficult to see the views.

The walk up was still pretty full of views of sheep and sometimes the fog did clear up, but in general it was pretty foggy most of the time.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1Woygmv1FB35Z3vz5

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DgRQGxeLgfr4bqNg9

After a few hours on the trail, I eventually made it to the top which was cold, windy and full of fog.  As I always do, I made the best of it with a small photoshoot courtesy of another couple that were on the summit.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/HeRZi84h23oruC886

As I got a bit lower things started to clear and I was greeted with a great view over Keswick.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/j6djUCugeufKxYRLA

I actually ended up sitting on this bench for quiet a while contemplating life and thinking about stuff.  It was a great zen moment and reminiscing about it makes me happy.

After descending the hill a different way from which I came, while listening to a planet money podcast about liqour and premium vodkas, I headed into town grabbed some food from the supermarket then chilled at the hostel for the rest of the night.  I had a big day ahead of me and there didn’t really appear to be much of a nightlife anyways.  I really enjoyed this tea mug though, so I am including it here.

The next morning was the big day to conquer the tallest peak in England.  As is customary in that part of England, apparently it rains a lot and that day was just a normal day I guess.  It was actively raining, was foggy and pretty wet and I was planning on a 20+km hike.  It was not ideal, but I said I was going to do it, so I trudged on over to the bus stop to catch the bus that would take me there.

I arrived at the beginning of the trail and started my trudge up to the pike.  It started in the fields of a farm and then continued up into the hills.  There were tons of sheep everywhere and the hills were beautiful.  There were several ways to get to the top, so i picked one that looked interesting on the map and then set off up the hill.

The climb up was beautiful with plenty of scenery and sometimes walls of fog.  I will let the photos do the talking.

After three hours in the rain heading up, I finally reached the top and was greeted with this amazing view! It seems that my hiking views always tend to be the same no matter what country i am in.

After a few photos on the summit, it was time to take my soggy but back down so i can get back to a warm place to dry off.

The views continued to be awesome all the way down the mountain, but there were sheep!

I jumped on the bus towards town and stopped off at the fish and chip place recommended to me by a local and then headed back to the hostel for a nice evening of rest and relaxation.

The next morning I decided to go for a run around the lake, but was unsure how far i would actually end up going.  It started as a 10km then turned into 16km and then I eventually decided to run all the way around the lake which was over 20km.

I had to finish my run before 11am so I could shower, pack and get out of the hostel before the 11am check out.  I managed to be out of there by 11:30am and was on the bus towards SCOTLAND shortly after!