'ere we go...
Today's route leads south towards Cockermouth and Keswick before I get side-tracked and turn right, away from the Lake District and out to the west coast. Less traffic and clear views right across the Irish Sea to the Isle of Man and way over in the distance, the Mourne Mountains in County Down.
What's all that then?
That there is Sellafield Nuclear Plant aka Windscale aka Calder Hall. The first nuclear power plant in the world!
The west coast of Cumbria is laughingly branding itself as The Energy Coast. Theres a long history of coal mining in the area which began in the 1700s and led to some of the worlds deepest undersea coal mines. Commercial coal mining ended in 1986 but the energy coast moniker is really a reference to the nuclear industry. In 1956 the worlds first nuclear power plant, Calder Hall, started supplying a small amount power, a slightly larger amount of weapons grade plutonium and really large amounts of radiation to an unsuspecting world. It's now called Sellafield, still there, still doing some sort of nuclear job.
Turning my back on the nuclear future, Im heading towards the central hub of the Lake District.
Looking towards Wasdale from Eskdale Green
The road (there's only one) leads through picturesque Eskdale up towards the village of Boot and beyond to Hardknott Pass. Its hard terrain, which makes it more surprising that the Romans used this as a main trading route from Ambleside (Galava) to the port of Ravenglass (Glannaventa). They built a fort (Mediobogdum) on Hardknott Pass to safeguard what was a major route.
[/url][It's a great time of year when the hedge banks are full of bluebells, cranesbill, etc.
The local sheep - a Herdwick. These tough mountain sheep usually live up on the high fells but are brought down for lambing and shearing.
Hardknott Pass (you can make out the road if you look closely)
The top of Hardknott looking west to the Irish Sea. You can see the Roman fort just off the back of the bike.
Hardknott Roman Fort
Its hard to make progress here. The roads are tight and theres a view around every corner. Hardknott and Wrynose passes dispensed with I turned north through Ambleside and Grasmere. Dunmail Raise has only just reopened after being washed away in the winter floods and theyve done a great job, resurfacing the entire stretch from the top of the pass down to the northern end of Thirlmere. Ten miles of super smooth twisty tarmac and a great way to end this mini ride report!
Edited by Jim, 04 September 2016 - 10:23 pm.
