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England Hiking Adventure - The Cumbria Way
A walk through the famous English Lake District
England Hiking Adventure - The Lake District in the North West of England is one of the most beautiful and mesmerizing travel spots on one of the most beautiful Islands in the world. Thought the Lake District is a very popular day out for a lot of English families it is still possible to lose yourself in this landscape of valleys, mountains and lakes.
The Cumbria Way makes its way through the heart of the region and is fairly easy as none of the summits in the area are actually scaled, as the walk stays within the valleys. As the walk makes you travel through other parts of the county of Cumbria, as well as the famous lakes, you will get the chance to experience the other side of the coin; working farmland, quaint little villages and very quiet paths.
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WALK FACT FILE
Length of Walk: 5 days, averaging 6 hours walking per day.
Start point: Ulverston
Finish point: Carlisle
Nearest town to walk: Carlisle, Ulverston
Transport: Buses from Barrow in Furness go to Ulverston as well as trains from Lancaster. Carlisle has regular trains and buses to the rest of England.
Accommodation: There are B&B’s throughout the walk and Hotels available in Keswick and Carlisle. There are campsites at most night stops apart from on day four.
Supplies: All supplies can be purchased in any town in the Lake District, as there are hiking shops everywhere due to the popularity of the area.
Best time to walk: As the English weather is very temperamental it Is hard to pick a perfect time to walk. The spring and autumn would probably be best as summer can get busy, though any holiday period will bring out the weekenders. Best weather will be between March and October.
Difficulty: ●●○○○
This walk is rated as a 2. It can be tough for some walkers as the average for hours of walk per day is six, but the going is pretty easy. There is a few tougher segments of the route but nothing to really try walkers.
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Day One
Your England Hiking adventure starts at the point of Ulverston, near Morecambe Bay, you will travel to the village of Coniston on Coniston Water. A footpath starts by the sculpture which represents the start of the Cumbria way; you will follow this, keeping the stream on the left hand side at all times. Soon you will come to a bridge which you will have to cross and then follow another pass which then joins up with a lane. You will not follow the lane, but rather pass through a small gap in the wall, known as a ‘squeezegate’ and then cross some fields to a farm.
From this farm you will pass through fields and more farmyards and then enter the small village of Broughton Beck. In the village you will have to follow a road with a ‘no throughway’ sign and just before you get to a stream you will have to turn left and north on to a path. When you get to Keldray farm you follow diagonally left uphill to the town of Gawthwaite, where the National Park starts proper.
Continuing through fields and some moorland you will pass the small lake of Beacon Tarn before going downhill and crossing the A road. It is here that you will get to the shores of Coniston Water. You will follow through some woodland that covers the western edge of the lake and will finally come across the campsite for Coniston. If you are staying in Coniston itself you will have to walk on for about another ten minutes. In Coniston there are two hostels that charge around £10 per night and a few more bed and breakfast hotels, which will set you back approximately £22 per night.
Day Two
The second day of this walk is not quite as long as the first, though it still is quite lengthy. The route today is not very hill, but does have some steep paths near the end of the day. The path starts at the eastern end of Coniston and after crossing a bridge will lead uphill to some meadows and in to woodland. The path then eases its way past some farm buildings and cottages and then follows a lane up to Tarn Hows, another small lake. The path then goes north westerly to a track that crosses another A road. Once crossed the path follows through some more wooded areas downhill and views of the Waterfall here can be seen which is very impressive when the river is up. When you get to the small settlement at Skelwith Bridge the path crosses through the yard of a factory that produces slate tiles. After Skelwith Bridge the trail goes along the north bank of the river to the attractive Elterwater Lake. The path then follows on to the village of Great Langdale for your overnight stop. Great Langdale has a campsite and a few B&B’s. The campsite is £4 per night and the hotels are around £30 per night.
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