Buttermere, Lake District

I have spent the last few days in the Lake District. On Saturday I had a very lazy day. I drove from Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales to the Lake District, the long way round. Rather than considering carbon emissions I took the scenic route up the A591 and A592. I stopped in Windermere for lunch. Being a weekend it was packed, so I ate my lunch and then left. My compliments to Tesco where I bought a very good chicken sandwich for a reasonable £1.80. I stopped and looked at the Casterigg stone circle. It was built around around 3000 BC, possibly to assist with following the seasons or possibly to show off to the tribe down the road. I stopped in Keswick. Keswick is home to dozens of outdoors stores (with some very moody staff) and a pencil museum (graphite was discovered in Keswick). People tell me that the musem is actually very good; I didn't go. I arrived in Buttermere in the late afternoon. Buttermere is located in an isolated valley and is home to a pub, some B&Bs, the youth hostel (where I stayed) and not much else. The weather on Saturday morning was very nice. I set off with my ordinance survey map for High Stile, one of the mountains around Buttermere. High Stile is 807m, so not particularly high but it was a challenging walk. If you ever attempt it yourself, watch out for a low overhanging rock 2/3 of the way up, as it hurts if you hit your head on it. The view from the top was fantastic- see the photo, which shows Crummock Water and Lake Buttermere (at the bottom right corner). At about 2pm the rain started. I walked for a couple more hours and then decided that it was not much fun anymore and headed back to Buttermere.