Lake District - Day Five - 28th July

"Deep beneath Ingleborough Hill, in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, lies a hidden world which has been sculpted by nature over thousands of years. Imagine a subterranean landscape, beautifully lit, with gushing streams and waterfalls, exotic cave formations, and a huge ice-age cavern adorned with thousands of stalactites. This is White Scar Cave."

(taken from White Scar Cave brochure)

So technically we weren't in the Lake District on 28th July, but rather in the Yorkshire Dales. It was rather a grey, cold, drizzly and overcast day, but that didn't really matter for the activity we had chosen for the day...which was to visit the White Scar Cave which is reportedly "The Longest Show Cave in Britain".

We were advised to wear warm and wet weather clothing and were giving hard hats before venturing into the cave for our 80 minute tour through the cave which covers 1 mile. Thank goodness we were given the hard hats...there were a few times we had to crawl, crouch through a very low part of the cave and I'm sure I hit my head several times!

I only took the one photo as it was quite wet in the cave and it was difficult to capture the beauty of it on film anyway. However, more information can be found at their website which has some lovely photographs. http://www.whitescarcave.co.uk/

The first waterfall as you enter the cave.

The surrounding countryside is awesome and we drove to see Ribblehead Viaduct. Fortunately the rain had eased, although it was quite windy, but quite okay for going for a lovely walk.

Lake District - Day Four - 27th July

On Wednesday we went to Ambleside and had a really lovely day walking to waterfalls, Stock Ghyll Force, and around the little town before heading off on a longer walk up to Loughhrigg Fell and the spectacular views of the lakes. It was gorgeous, we could have stayed up there for a much longer time than we did as it was so peaceful.

I even took a couple of photos of old barns Jus! They were perfect, complete with worm holes in the wood - you would have loved them! :-)

I'd taken so many photos that I've put them in mosaic format otherwise it would have taken forever to go through them! Enjoy!

Lake District - Day Three - 26th July

Are you sitting comfortably with a nice hot, or cold drink and something to nibble on? You're going to need it as this is a very picture heavy post as we take a wander round the South Lakes Wild Animal Park.

I'll let the pictures do most of the 'talking', adding just a few comments here and there...

Mandrill

Motherhood...

Oi! How did you get here Mr Rat...I'm sure you're not supposed to be part of the Wild Animal Park!

Ring-tailed Lemur

Cotton-topped Tamarin

Capybara...I believe is a distant relation to the domestic guinea pig.

Jaguar...coming out for their evening meal...

Climbing the pole for their meat provides good exercise.

DS2 stroking a wallaby.

Who's this cheeky fellow?

It's a Prairie Dog. A very cute little fellow.

Scarlet Ibis

King Vulture

Andean Condor

Lioness

Which profile do you think is best?

Emu

We had a lovely day at the Wild Animal Park...spoilt somewhat towards the end by the boys having a rather major fallout...instigated by DS2 unfortunately...just as we thought things were going well!

On the way home we admired the scenery...

Stopped off at some Lakes...

No not another photo Mum!

Reflections...

Today was the last day that DS2 came out with us...preferring to stay at the cottage the rest of the time...Autism really can take it's toll...and can make holidays very difficult...because he is now at the age where we can leave him for short periods of time, it makes things easier for both us and him...Yes we would like to share all our adventures with him, but he doesn't seem to like taking part and as such can make life very miserable for us...Last year's holiday was complete nightmare...not so this holiday as the arrangements suited us both, and he enjoyed his 'holiday' albeit spent on a playstation, playing swingball or watching TV, whilst we enjoyed the gorgeous scenery and walks....