Scotland & Lake District pictures

[repiV]

Edit: ah, bollocks. Can someone please move this to the lounge? Ta.

At long last...

A selection of photos from my trip.

From the side of one of the main roads through the Lakes.

Lake Windermere. It's mahoosive. Biggest natural lake in England.

You can even cross it by ferry.

Some mountains.

Yes, this is a real road.

Hardknott Pass. It's as narrow as the one above, and very steep and bendy. Scary.

Atop Hardknott Pass.

Another scenic route.

Glen Coe

Glen Coe again.

Sinister Scottish weather.

Highest road in the UK.

At the top - you can see the Isle of Skye in the distance. Shame we didn't catch it on a clear day.

Cloud closing in fast.

Applecross - the other side of the pass.

The Applecross Inn.

The food at the Applecross Inn.

Glad to be indoors.

Pheer...

No, this isn't what you picture when you think of Scotland. But it really is Scotland.

A wider view.

Another coastal shot.

What a place.

Same place, different direction.

This is the biggest town in north-west Scotland.

Durness, in the far north-west of Scotland. The most remote place in Europe.

Very dramatic.

It deserves a third one.

Our accomodation that night.

What a place to stay.

Surreal.

No, this isn't Italy.

Honest.

Loch Eriboll, far northern Scotland.

Panning out...

That's one ginormous lake, and totally deserted.

This is the only road in the far north of Scotland.

There are miles upon miles of these amazing beaches, and absolutely noone anywhere near them.


Hope you enjoyed the pics. It's worth visiting.

 

[Evo]

Moved

Wow at all of those pics! Who knew that those gorgeous looking beaches were up there? God it does look pretty!

 

[repiV]

Cheers.

Yeah, it's the lack of people that makes it really special. We stayed at Loch Eriboll for about an hour and two cars passed by that whole time. On the only road up there.

It's a lot like north/mid Wales but on a much bigger scale and with far less people. And even more unpredictable weather.

 

[Sulkdodds]

No, this isn't what you picture when you think of Scotland.

It's always what I picture.

I wish there was a :scotlandsmiley:

 

[repiV]

Yeah, but you have an advantage - having lived there.

I couldn't live there. The weather would drive me insane. It's like Devon weather, but several times worse. I'm already sick of the grey skies, the wind and the damp air, when the skies are blue and it's 10-15 degrees warmer in the east in the height of summer.

But damn, what a place. I really want to go back.

 

[Rizzo]

That looks really awesome.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Yeah, there's no romanticising the place. It is wet and full of shit. And the locals can be incredibly surly. I AM ALLOWED TO SAY THIS BECAUSE I AM HALF LOCAL BY BLOOD OKAY LOTS OF MY FRIENDS ARE SCOTS

I'm glad that after getting your leg all ****ed up and shit you've gone out and toured around some of the most impressive scenery the UK has to offer.

 

[knut]

I love the Lake District. We've stayed at Coniston twice now in these big rented houses with a load of our family members and some friends of mine and they were both fantastic trips. The one thing I love about living in a shitty city is that as soon as I get out into the hills and lakes it's like the best thing ever. Been to Windermere twice when we there and it's also a dead nice place.

Cool photies.

 

[jverne]

for being the UK it's freaking deserted there. what do people live off?

 

[Solaris]

We live off political scandals and afternoon tea.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

I want to go skateboarding on them roads.

 

[Tyguy]

This is the biggest town in north-west Scotland.

we could totally take that town if we all ganged up on it...that would be awesome.

 

[Warped]

looks like a fun trip. i go to large cities with friends and thats about it for vacation these days

 

[Raziaar]

Jesus Christ I'm so ****ing jealous about how awesome that scenery is! It's ****ing amazing!

Here's what I have to look at.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Well that last one is quite greener. Get out of them plains though.

 

[Tyguy]

raziaar lives on the set of no country for old men.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Nice pics, looks like you had fun.

 

[Anthraxxx]

Wow! That looks like you had a great trip!

 

[repiV]

Yeah, there's no romanticising the place. It is wet and full of shit. And the locals can be incredibly surly. I AM ALLOWED TO SAY THIS BECAUSE I AM HALF LOCAL BY BLOOD OKAY LOTS OF MY FRIENDS ARE SCOTS

I dunno, I thought the locals were great. Some complete strangers had us over for a barbecue and much drunkenness and put us up for the night. Even in Glasgow the people were incredibly friendly. And the women in Inverness are very hot, very chatty and very up for it. It's not like down here where nobody talks to you. Now Cumbria, the locals are total ****ing weirdos there. Godforsaken place, aside from the scenery.

I'm glad that after getting your leg all ****ed up and shit you've gone out and toured around some of the most impressive scenery the UK has to offer.

Thanks. When a holiday involves some hard work I find it's much more rewarding.

Next time I want to go all the way up Sweden, cross over to Nordkapp and come all the way back down through Norway. Permanent daylight up there six weeks a year!

I love the Lake District. We've stayed at Coniston twice now in these big rented houses with a load of our family members and some friends of mine and they were both fantastic trips. The one thing I love about living in a shitty city is that as soon as I get out into the hills and lakes it's like the best thing ever. Been to Windermere twice when we there and it's also a dead nice place.

Cool photies.

It is very nice there. It's almost too scenic, it looks like a painting rather than a real place...like a natural theme park almost. If you go again, check out the northern Lakes. It's a lot more remote and rugged than the south of the Lake District. I found Windermere and all those sorts of places just far too touristy for my liking.

for being the UK it's freaking deserted there. what do people live off?

There's plenty of lamb and rainwater. I came face to face with a bull in northern Scotland, just on a track off the main road which turned out to be a road to someone's house. It's pretty untamed in places...

I want to go skateboarding on them roads.

This guy we met said one of his friends grew up in Applecross, and in the winter apparently they used to snowboard down the mountain pass. Loonies!

Jesus Christ I'm so ****ing jealous about how awesome that scenery is! It's ****ing amazing!

Here's what I have to look at.

I hate flat places. Unfortunately with hills and mountains you get rainfall, fog and changeable weather, so it's all swings and roundabouts.

What I would find quite interesting is how you get hundreds of miles of the same scenery over there. Because we're an island you get vastly different kinds of terrain all packed close together. The climate is even very different from south-west to south-east England and they're only 150 miles or so apart.

I live twenty miles or so away from an area of bleak, barren high moorland with a very cold, wet, misty, changeable and unforgiving climate (people get lost or stranded and die up there), and yet here it's green, pleasant rolling hills and a few miles the other way is the coast. The other side of the moor is the Atlantic. There's another area only thirty or so miles away where palm trees grow naturally.

Still it must be nice to have predictable weather and seasons where you are.

 

[Raziaar]

I hate flat places. Unfortunately with hills and mountains you get rainfall, fog and changeable weather, so it's all swings and roundabouts.

What I would find quite interesting is how you get hundreds of miles of the same scenery over there. Because we're an island you get vastly different kinds of terrain all packed close together. The climate is even very different from south-west to south-east England and they're only 150 miles or so apart.

I live twenty miles or so away from an area of bleak, barren high moorland with a very cold, wet, misty, changeable and unforgiving climate (people get lost or stranded and die up there), and yet here it's green, pleasant rolling hills and a few miles the other way is the coast. The other side of the moor is the Atlantic. There's another area only thirty or so miles away where palm trees grow naturally.

Still it must be nice to have predictable weather and seasons where you are.

Some areas of Texas are supposedly pretty cool with the scenery... but I've not seen them, and certainly don't live around them. Everything around here is just built on flat plains and hills.

I would blow my ****ing brains out if I lived further up north in the Great Plains... that's even more mind numbing.

That's what I loved about Alaska man... I could walk outside onto our street and look up and see Mount Baldy... something with elevation. And in the distance I could usually see other mountains. My eyes were getting a lot of visual feedback instead of just whatever is in front of me blocking whatever is behind it.

Here... I'll illustrate how it feels.

Here's a picture of a topless woman.

But since I live in such a shitty scenic locale... I never get to see glorious mountains!

 

[repiV]

You can't have it all I guess. Pretty much everywhere with good scenery has bad weather. The vast majority of days here are either overcast, rainy or threatening to rain, which is just as tedious. Especially as you can never, ever tell when the weather is going to suck, even a week in advance. This year we had awful weather for the whole of July and beach weather in late February. In late May we had a heatwave and it was like 26-28C every day for two weeks. Today it was 15C.

That's what I loved about Alaska man... I could walk outside onto our street and look up and see Mount Baldy... something with elevation. And in the distance I could usually see other mountains. My eyes were getting a lot of visual feedback instead of just whatever is in front of me blocking whatever is behind it.

Yeah, Alaska looks great. But the weather!

 

[Raziaar]

You can't have it all I guess. Pretty much everywhere with good scenery has bad weather. The vast majority of days here are either overcast, rainy or threatening to rain, which is just as tedious. Especially as you can never, ever tell when the weather is going to suck, even a week in advance. This year we had awful weather for the whole of July and beach weather in late February. In late May we had a heatwave and it was like 26-28C every day for two weeks. Today it was 15C.



Yeah, Alaska looks great. But the weather!

The weather is ****ing fantastic! Cold, dark and snowy winters... warm sunny summers! At least where I lived which was just north of Anchorage.

 

[repiV]

The summers are pretty short and the winters are very long, aren't they?

 

[Raziaar]

The summers are pretty short and the winters are very long, aren't they?

This is ideal. I'm a guy who is romantically intertwined with cold weather. And the summers offer just enough respite.

I also loved the Land of the Midnight Sun aspect of living there too.

 

[Hazar]

looks like some amazing scenery and some amazing roads to drive/ride on.

here's what I get to look at every day:

and yes, I've climbed it.

 

[repiV]

I like being able to relax in the outdoors environment rather than having to battle it. It's awesome how in southern France they don't even have dining rooms, they have the dining area outside and they can just shelter it from the rain if needs be.

Plus, riding a motorbike over distance in minus temperatures is a pretty miserable experience. Even with electrically heated clothing you still freeze, and getting geared up to go anywhere becomes almost a ritual. Keeping on top of the cleaning and maintenance is a nightmare as the stuff they grit the roads with makes everything corrode. And I can't afford to have a car aswell. And then there's the dodgy experiences with icy roads. So naturally I hate the winter.

To be fair, snowy cold can be nice although it brings everything to a standstill because we don't get enough snow to prepare for it at all. Usually though we get bitter cold or windy, drizzly cold and that's not pleasant.

 

[repiV]

looks like some amazing scenery and some amazing roads to drive/ride on.

here's what I get to look at every day:

and yes, I've climbed it.

Sweet. I especially like the blue sky.

 

[Maestro]

Western US has great weather and scenery, Northern Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico. They all have dry, clean air that's so clear you can see for over 120 miles (seen with my own eyes). Also, skiing. I've got pics but I don't want to take away from the OP's pictures.

Only problem is it's so ****ing expensive to live in those states. I think if I had a choice to compromise it would be panhandle of Texas. Just go to Hueco Tanks or Big Bend Park on the weekends instead of having to drive for 8 hours.

Forserious Texas is ****ing ridiculously gigantic.

My family is planning to go hiking up in the Lake District of Scotland. To get back on topic, and I'm really looking forward to it.

 

[repiV]

You mean like the great weather in Seattle? :E

Actually Seattle's climate is very similar to the climate in western Britain, except the rainfall here is pretty similar all year round.

If I was going to live in the US it would probably be somewhere like Colorado. The bulk of the US seems to me to be little more than endless dreariness but there are some appealing spots. Oregon, California, or somewhere in the north-east.

I would definitely recommend Scotland over the Lake District. The Lake District is very nice, but Scotland is a lot more breathtaking, impressive, remote and wild. There are places we went to in Scotland that I just couldn't find the words to describe, I was so stricken by them. I can't say the same about the Lakes - and there are also a lot more people in the Lake District.

Plus, in Scotland you can legally camp in the wild anywhere you like. You can't do that in England (except for Dartmoor National Park in Devon). Don't go hiking/camping in Scotland in high summer though, the midges there are not to be underestimated.

Why don't you make a thread with your pics? I'd like to see them.

 

[Maestro]

Could you email me the full-size version of this? All the background requests reminded me mine is getting stale.

 

[repiV]

Could you email me the full-size version of this? All the background requests reminded me mine is getting stale.

Sure thing. Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you.

 

[Quixoticism]

Wow, that looks like an amazing trip!

These are my favorites!

Any chance I would be able to get the full size versions of these?

 

[repiV]

It was life-affirmingly brilliant, except for the weather. And the shock of being back at work the morning after getting home at gone midnight, that was pretty shite too.

Amazing how remote some places in the UK can be. It would take three long, solid days of driving to get from south-west England to north-west Scotland.

Sure, do you want to ping me your email address so I can send them over?

 

[CR0M]

Ah, the Three Sisters at the pass of Glencoe - the ultimate Highlander backdrop. Sounds like you had a great trip, I am most envious and pissed off that I can't afford another trip up there until next year as I have just got back from the lakes myself, had awesomely lucky weather for 2 days but the rest of the time it rained so hard the tent leaked. Your piccies make me miss it already.

The north lakes are indeed the finest, with the least tourists and the best mountains and scenery. These were at Castle Crag on the 22nd:

And this was the view from the top of Haystacks on the 24th:

All other days it rained, which apparently is to be expected up there, being the wettest place in England...

 

[repiV]

Ah, the Three Sisters at the pass of Glencoe - the ultimate Highlander backdrop. Sounds like you had a great trip, I am most envious and pissed off that I can't afford another trip up there until next year as I have just got back from the lakes myself, had awesomely lucky weather for 2 days but the rest of the time it rained so hard the tent leaked. Your piccies make me miss it already.

Yeah, we got lucky with the weather in the Lakes too. It was forecast to be heavy rain all weekend, but it was just cloudy (yet cold) and a few light showers. Which worked out great as it kept the place a lot less busy than it should have been.

That's amazing.

All other days it rained, which apparently is to be expected up there, being the wettest place in England...

I've noticed it also seems to rain all the time west of Dartmoor. Cloudy, wet and changeable weather is my least favourite of all (well, tropical would probably be worse) which is my biggest frustration with this country!

I took my Aussie relatives up to Dartmoor last weekend which turned out to be a huge waste of time as the whole moor was engulfed in mist and this horrible drizzle. Couldn't see anything. They found the mist fascinating though and we ate in this really good pub in Princetown, so it wasn't a total loss.

Is it just me, or are the locals in Cumbria really, really strange?

 

[CR0M]

I found them quite standoff-ish, a real surly bunch - they probably despise grockles in their neck of the woods as much as we do down here. The Scots however are the friendliest people i've met in the British Isles. You know courtesy isn't dead when truck drivers actually pull in to let you pass on a deserted road.

 

[repiV]

I found them quite standoff-ish, a real surly bunch - they probably despise grockles in their neck of the woods as much as we do down here. The Scots however are the friendliest people i've met in the British Isles. You know courtesy isn't dead when truck drivers actually pull in to let you pass on a deserted road.

I thought they were a bit deficient in mental faculties as well, it seemed like there was something wrong with half the people we spoke to and the others were just extremely odd. It didn't help that we stayed in this forgotten old mining town (Aspatria if you've heard of it, near Cockermouth). Real ****ed up place that was, so unlike anywhere I've ever been before as to be entirely foreign...and not in a good way. It really is another world up there. It's like the world had left this little town behind and the people there had never ventured outside it. One guy we spoke to didn't even know what the Lake District was FFS.

The Scots though, they are fantastic. I would definitely consider moving to Glasgow, in spite of the weather. It pisses me off how people don't talk to each other down here, it's great to meet people. I got the feeling that I could quite happily move to Scotland by myself and make a ton of friends very quickly. And having the Highlands close enough for a weekend trip is a big plus.

Also, the Scots accent sounds hot on the lassies.

 

[CR0M]

Towns just outside the lake district are a bit inbred. Hey, isn't the sellafield plant somewhere up there? The Hills Have Eyes. Mystery solved!

I too love the lasses with Scottish accents. Isla Traquair on Channel 5? OHH, suit you sir.

 

[repiV]

You could say it makes Tiverton seem genetically diverse.

Funnily enough, we got chatting to this oldish guy on a BMW motorbike (think Ewan and Charley) at the summit of Hardknott Pass. Apparently he lives in Cockermouth and works at the Sellafield plant, like most people around there as it's not far off being the only industry in the region.

Quite depressing actually. It's amazing how poor so much of the UK is. I was in Cornwall over the weekend, and while there are some nice spots (ie. the places where people go on holiday rather than where people live), the county as a whole is so bleak and grim. We passed through Truro and I was expecting a kind of noble, quaint place...but it was just a barren shithole with nothing going for it.

I wonder if the wealth is so centralised in such a small area in other countries.

 

[Maestro]

Hey repiv...could I have this one too? It will be next in my rotation.