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Lake District |
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750 miles of drive in just 36 hours and still no sign of dullness or tiredness. "Yes, that's the magic in the air of Lake District! We decided to go to Lake District as Hem's friend (Shyam) was visiting UK for the first time and he wanted to explore the best of UK in best possible time. So Lake District was the obvious choice. Also, I was very much keen to visit this place, as I couldn't make it in the last trip. So, the destination was decided. |
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We were, now, looking for the transport. "Trains were out of question, as they don't go to interiors of the district. Going there by train and then hiring a bus was another option. But it was also ruled out, as it would have cost us a lot! Then Hem came-up with his suggestion to hire a car from London and drive all the way to Kendal and explore the whole area by car. This looked very difficult and I showed my reluctance clearly to him. "I was not doubting his driving skills, but driving in a region with new traffic culture and that too on Motorways looked very difficult initially. Also the total estimated journey was around 700 Miles and we had no back-up driver. But Hem looked very determined and confident. His confidence and the fact that he had driven in Scotland helped to boost my confidence in him and I joined the team. "One more guy, Riyaz from Silgate technologies, had already joined our group. So we four(Myself, Hem, Riyaz and Shyam), decided to explore Lake District by car. We booked the rooms in youth hostel at Kendal for Saturday, 29th June 2002. Initially, we had decided to leave London on Saturday Morning at around 5:00 AM. But because of all the blah, blah reasons, we couldn't make it. I reached Hem's place in Kingsbury on Saturday morning at 8:00 AM. He was about to get the car then. We were supposed to get "Vauxhall Corsa".
This car is something like Fiat Uno. But for our surprise, Hem drove-in in a brand new, sizzling blue, "Honda Civic!" We all cheered-up with joy. This had been a dream car for Riyaz and he had wallpaper of it on his computer. And for sure, it is worth it! |
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We started off from London Kingsbury at 10:30 AM. With initial hitch in finding the way out, we thought it would be a tough fight! But the maps downloaded from MSN came for our rescue. "Shyam (Hem's friend who had come from Italy) took the responsibility of Navigation. This included Map reading and reading traffic signs. We all felt a kind of thrill when our car came on the Motorway "M1" (UK Expressways) for the first time. |
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We all fastened our seat belts and the car zipped in with a terrific speed of 120 Miles/Hr. That's around 198 Km/hr. The speed that is just a dream in India! Enjoying the best tracks from Dil Chahta Hei and Lagaan, we kept moving towards northern UK. After a couple of Hours, we took our first break near Birmingham. It was a Kind of DHABA in India. Here it is called as Services. I mean it is the word used to indicate those DHABAS on the motorways. We grabbed some chips and drinks when Hem got the tank filled. |
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Gas (petrol) is rather expensive here. It is around 80 Pens (that is 56 Indian rupees) for a litre. All Gas stations are self-service. We used around 80 litres of Gas for the whole journey. Then we crossed Blackpool and reached the 36th exit on the M6 motorway. From there we caught A590 (this is how roads are numbered here) to Kendal. We reached Kendal and with little difficulty, found the Youth hostel. The guy at the reception looked very friendly and he gave us the tips to explore Lake District from there. We reached Kendal on Saturday 29th June 2002 at 2:30 PM. "We took a short break and headed for Windermere at 4:30 PM. We took many breaks on the way to see the scenic beauty of the place. It is surely worth seeing once. We feel like being there for years and years. We finally reached Windermere Lake. This place is like any other tourist place in UK. "We sat there for sometime and started-off for Ambleside. This is again like Windermere, but more towards north. The way to Ambleside was is fantastic. Lush green landscapes Green hills and Houses made with shiny brown slate-stone adds to the beauty of the place. I thanked Mother Nature for giving me opportunity to see this. It's really a place to fall in love with nature. We sat besides the lake for an hour and started back for Kendal as it was getting dark. On our way back we saw the Ambleside town. It is truly a brit town reflecting pure British culture. It is the first place in UK I saw untouched by any other culture. People in the town were watching us as if we were from Mars. We parked the car near a resort and took a walk in the town. It is a very little town like a very small village in India. We reached Kendal and had food and slept. Tired because of the hectic day and the travelling, we all fell asleep very soon. |
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I got up early in the morning at 7:00AM next day (Sunday, 30th Jun 2002). "Everyone was sleeping by then. I made my tea and took bath. When I reached the room back, I found Riyaz waiting for someone to go with him to buy cigarettes. I came out on Kendal road with him. It was drizzling and quite windy morning. I went to see if our car was all right. But the luck weren't with us this time. We had ticket for wrong parking. "This was the first thing that went wrong in our whole trip. Anyway, it wasn't much. We paid the fine after we came back to London. |
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I suggested going to extreme north i.e. Keswick town of Lake District and we were on our way to the same. But a small mistake on a round about, took us around 30 miles in the south. Shyam, then advised to visit Morebaycomb (I think I have spelt it wrongly). After reaching this place we found no sea. It was just sand and sand spread over kilometres. Then Shyam for our satisfaction (or his?) compared this place with San Francisco in US. But we all knew that it has been a flop show. |
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Then we decided to go back to north and see Keswick. "By this time I took the responsibility of a navigator as Shyam had proven to be a costly navigator running us into around 80 miles of navigation mistakes. "We went all the way back to Windermere and from there we took our way to Keswick. The road to Keswick was much more beautiful than what we had seen in the
first day. It was raining like cats and dogs that day. But, that only added to the beauty of the place. We reached Keswick Lake at 1:30 PM. After roaming around for some time, these guys decided to take a rowing boat. I took a ferry in a motorboat, as I wanted to see the whole lake. The ferry took me to all the tourist places on the lakeside. Keswick Lake is the second largest lake in the district after Windermere. But, this place has its uniqueness as it is situated at very high altitude. After coming back from ferry I found these guys waiting for me in the car. We then drove to Penirth and from there we caught M6 to London. We reached London in the
night at around 10:30. It was the boring life again. Tubes and buses and offices..
Yesterday Hem gave me the total of expenditures. It is less than any other tour I did in UK. That's al because we took car for transport. Also we had freedom of moving around on our wish because of the car only. But above all, it had been possible because we had Hem! |
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Thanks a lot Hem! And see u guys in the next mail.
So long
Rahul
(Wednesday, "July 3, 2002/London) |
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