Had had plans to wake up at 5 on Saturday morning and leave by 6:00 but things got delayed by an hour...and we started from Edinburgh at 7 after having picked up Sapna(colleague of mine)from her home. This time again, it was only 4 of us - Myself, Srijith, Basu and Sapna. Vinay(who was there in our last road trip) could not join us as he was oncall for the weekend. So the poor guy had to stay back in edinburgh all alone. Felt bad for him. but then could not help it.
We started out from Edinburgh. Got into one of the "A" roads (similar to state highways in India). Srijith was driving the car. This time we had a Ford Fiesta - Black colour. Thought we would get a sedan but it was out of stock. anyway the start of a journey is always bright. The first stop we had was in a nearby petrol bunk. We had to fill in diesel. Basu got us all some breakfast from the services shop next to the bunk . Anyway then we continued our journey. We went via the place called Galashiels. There was nothing much to see there and so we continued on our journey and next stop point was Silkirk. We had not actually planned to stop there..but after a while we realised that we were going round n round in Silkirk and could not get out of the place. We were supposed to go to this place called Hawick (pronouced Hoik) and we were following the boards but somewhere some cranky guy had taken off one of the boards and we were going in circles.So finally we stopped the car, asked a couple of guys and they were not able to explain to us the way. Then we (the guys )felt nature's call and amazingly there was a "pay n pee" toilet:-) After relieving ourselves from such mundane tensions;-) We entered a bakery to gran on couple of muffins and the old granny there showed us our way out of Silkirk and into Hawick. We continued on the drive. In the car we were listening to CD's like "Bagpiper yaaron ka yaar", RDX-II, War of the DJ's etc etc..all remix versions of good lovely oldies. We then entered into M6 (England's longest motorway; similar to National highways)
and basu took over the car. His dream/ aim was to touch 100 miles per hour. Basu tried putting itpast 95 initially and the speedometer was not budging and we assumed since the car was small..that was the max speed it would take...ad then suddenly, i saw that we had crossed 100 mph and the happiness on his face was something to be seen. Then he was changing lanes and at the speed he was going we almost went and kissed another cars' butt. and that psyched him out of his wits. And he parked in the next available parking zone and handed over the wheel to me. Continued on the drive via Carlisle and into Penrith (courtesy me).At a particular point instead of driving into Kendal and into Lake district , i had taken a wrong turn and voila we were in the town of Penrith and not knowing where to go. and we were looking arnd and going slowly and i was in 3rd gear that car suddenly jumped n stopped (coz of the low speed obviously). and there were a fleet of cars behind us. The guys behind Honked (that the sybolic way of yellin here else Horns are rarely used in Britain, i guess. Only if you want to yell/abuse someone for wrong driving or delayin unnecessarily, will you honk at them). Anyway then me started the car and drove into a parking lot. I didnt find the drive that very comfortable. Somehow within city limits. just could not enjoy it.Srijith took over then There was nothing much to see or enjoy here other than for the drive part and picturesque beauty around. Once we got past Kendal we entered into Lake District. Our first stop was at RYdal n Grashmere lakes. These lakes are monitored by the Lake District National park authority. We got out from the car and walked a bit into the woods and then climbed a hill to see the view of the whole lake. There were a lot of ppl trekking n biking over there. took a lot of snaps...in between Basu climebed a tree..rather i propelled him onto it and i tried hanging from there and woof...i scratched my stomach in the process and Basu got stuck for some few moments on top. He could not jump down since it was a slope onto which he would have had to jump and there was risk of slippin n getting hurt. Anyway somehow he managed to get down. and we got back into the car and drove along. We reached this place Ambleside. We had planned to climb a hill which is abt 500 mts in vertical height but then we decided against it. since that would have taken abt an hour or 2 and all of us wanted to go on a cruise. So next stop was Ambleside where we paid £15 each to go on the Windermere lake Cruise.
This windermere lake is England's largest fresh water lake. We got on the cruise and the journey was for an hour or so..we went to the upper deck and then came to the front end of the boat. For a moment ,had this mind to stand on the railings (i dont know what the exact term is) and stretchj out my arms (the TITANIC way without my kate winselet) but then there were lot of tourists on board and the captains room was just overlookin to the front end. and i somehow didnt want the whole junta to be laughin at me for this;) anyway the cruise first stopped at this place called Bowness for abt 15 min where few got off and few other got in. Once Bowness was past, we went to the lower deck and it was splendid. This was the bar/ refreshments room of the ship and from the window we could see the water as if we were in water with just th head bobbing out....anyway finally reached Windermere. Here was a large underwatter tunnel aquarium. Went into it...amazing it was. you could see all sorts of fish big n small going all around you and at times felt like just holding them. then there was a asmall pond within the aquarium and there we saw the RAY fish. As in there were lots but there was one which was active and whenever it saw anyone taking a snap...it used to come half out of water and pose itself in front of the camer (it was not actually posing..but then u know how my imagination just goes)...tried getting a snap of its face but then just could not get it to pose long enough;-)
there was a gift shop there from which myself,basu and sapna picked up a few souveniers. Then we waited for the return boat. The return cruise took us to Broughness and from there we ahd to take another cruise back to Ambleside. Once in Ambleside Srijith took over the wheels and drove thru M6 to the travel lodge in Lancaster. The Lodge was too good..We 3 guys were put up in one room and Sapna in another room!! And to top it all there were all possible restaurants like Burger King, Little Chef, Mcdonalds, KFC etc..etc..and boy I had a dinner of XL DOUBLE Whopper meal from Burger King. yuuuuuuuuuummmmmmm........
After din,we all sat and talked till about 11:30 pm on one of the park benches generally talking abt sticking to one company and being loyal to your company FOREVER (sapna's view) while we argued that for our personal growth in career we needed to shift jobs if required and not stick on. anyway the discussions were getting heated up and things slowly started getting personal so then we wound up for the day and hit the sack ..hmmm...thats day 1!!
will be uploading the snaps tonight and you can check it out on Day 2 blog which i will be putting up today sometime later or tomo sometime...till then
Cheers:-)
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