I had a brainwave last night,if I wanted to see a red squirrel then there can't be any better time then now to do so what with trees being bare of leaves and therefore easier to spot a squirrel so at 6am I set off to Cumbria and visit first Carlisle and then Keswick
Carlisle is a wonderful place,parked right next to the castle and just a stones throw from the cathedral and shopping area,what a fantastic thing it is to have a stunning castle right in the centre of town,its things like this that I love,had a walk around the shops and then stopped for a sandwich and a cup of tea,having spotted the tourist information centre I was disappointed to find it closed so went over to view the cathedral just around the corner,tbh I was slightly disappointed with it but that maybe because I was spoilt with Ely Cathedral last week,I would have loved to have spent longer in Carlisle but I was on a quest to spot a red squirrel so headed off to Keswick, i had spotted the signs for it on the A66 so I didn't bother setting the satnav and set off.....and ended up in Kendal,I didn't bloody realise until I noticed how many shops in 'Keswick' sold Kendal mint cake! Anyway I bought a couple of cakes to try (I highly suspect that they aren't cakes by how hard they feel) and set the satnav to Keswick, ii had no idea what Keswick would be like,I had visualize a small village with a wood with red squirrels in it and a pub,but no,what a great place it is and it was packed out with visitors, it was a lot larger than I had ever thought and a delight to see,after walking around I headed up to a nature path that was full of squirrels so I was told but I didn't spot a single one yet again, im beginning to think that they are a bit of a myth or maybe should have headed to Formby as Alf has suggested so many times in the past,never got to visit the pencil museum but would have liked to,twelve hours and 418 miles later and its been a great day out,I'm def going to pay Cumbria another visit but will stop overnight next time,its a great place Griff