Dear reader,
My apologies for not writing all these days. The truth is that I just did not feel that words could do justice to the amazing time I had on the last long weekend. I say long because I got an entire 4 days o holidays last week. Friday was off on account of it being a Good Friday, while Monday was off to compensate for Easter Sunday. As a result, I ended up doing some fantastic things to make it all worthwhile.
Friday, 25th March, 2016:
Early in the morning, I coordinated a visit to Rossall Beach to do some serious bird watching with Martin Lever. Actually, the beach visit was his idea, as he has been there several times. He assured me that we would definitely see new grassland and perhaps sea-birds on this visit. I caught up with him near where the 14 number bus takes passengers; we rode together to our destination, about half a km from Rossall Public school. From here, we set out among open fields to try and see birds. Initially, we saw some greenfinches, crows and starlings.
As we proceeded further, we were walking parallel to the sea shore. We saw many more birds and had a really good time. I will share more pictures in my next post.
Saturday, 26th March and Sunday, 27th March, 2016:
I spent the weekend exploring the Cumbria Lake District. I had planned some of the things I was going to do, but not everything. In the end, the unplanned things gave me an opportunity to do things which were out of the ordinary. On Saturday, I took a train to Preston, then changed to another one to Ormskirk, and finally, yet another one to reach Windermere at half past eleven. It was a wet morning, and as I had booked a hotel room at Ulverston, I would have no other choice than to wait for a bus that would take me there. However, I did something I had not planned: I took a short distance bus to the Windermere boat pier. There, I boarded a 45-minute "Islands cruise" and enjoyed my time on the lake. Returning to the pier, I then caught the same bus I was to take earlier from the station and arrived at The Sun Inn, Ulverston at about half-past two in the afternoon. I had booked a night's stay here through www.booking.com.
In the evening, I visited the nearby Laurel and Hardy Museum, located inside a cinema house (Roxy). This is the only museum of its kind in the whole world. It is located here in Ulverston because Stan Laurel grew up here. The museum was small but interesting. Additionally, it screened L & H movies all the day on their big screen.
While I had had a lunch within the inn, I went for dinner to an Indian restaurant located about 250 m away - the Naaz Restaurant. The food was good indeed. I had a simple dinner, though.
On Sunday, I first caught a bus to Haverthwaite station. Here, I boarded a steam-engine driven heritage train that took 18 minutes to take its passengers through a hilly route via tunnels and such, to Lakeside.
As Lakeside is on the other coast of the Windermere lake, I had to once again take a boat to Windermere pier, and from there, another boat to Brockhole. This place has a lot of activities at its Tourist Information Centre. The Brockhole TIC serves to highlight a lot of lake district activities, but for me, it served as a portal to have close encounters with different kinds of owls (with some of which I had photos taken) and to examine several garden birds through a bird-hide that was located here. It was an amazing experience, as there were volunteers here who helped identify bird species I had not seen earlier.
After this, I took a bus back to Windermere station, and then a return train journey that brought me back to Blackpool by six p.m. in the evening.
All in all, a very interesting three days indeed!
My apologies for not writing all these days. The truth is that I just did not feel that words could do justice to the amazing time I had on the last long weekend. I say long because I got an entire 4 days o holidays last week. Friday was off on account of it being a Good Friday, while Monday was off to compensate for Easter Sunday. As a result, I ended up doing some fantastic things to make it all worthwhile.
Friday, 25th March, 2016:
Early in the morning, I coordinated a visit to Rossall Beach to do some serious bird watching with Martin Lever. Actually, the beach visit was his idea, as he has been there several times. He assured me that we would definitely see new grassland and perhaps sea-birds on this visit. I caught up with him near where the 14 number bus takes passengers; we rode together to our destination, about half a km from Rossall Public school. From here, we set out among open fields to try and see birds. Initially, we saw some greenfinches, crows and starlings.
 |
| Common Starling |
 |
| Ringed Plover |
 |
| Sanderlings |
 |
| Common Kestrel |
Saturday, 26th March and Sunday, 27th March, 2016:
I spent the weekend exploring the Cumbria Lake District. I had planned some of the things I was going to do, but not everything. In the end, the unplanned things gave me an opportunity to do things which were out of the ordinary. On Saturday, I took a train to Preston, then changed to another one to Ormskirk, and finally, yet another one to reach Windermere at half past eleven. It was a wet morning, and as I had booked a hotel room at Ulverston, I would have no other choice than to wait for a bus that would take me there. However, I did something I had not planned: I took a short distance bus to the Windermere boat pier. There, I boarded a 45-minute "Islands cruise" and enjoyed my time on the lake. Returning to the pier, I then caught the same bus I was to take earlier from the station and arrived at The Sun Inn, Ulverston at about half-past two in the afternoon. I had booked a night's stay here through www.booking.com.
In the evening, I visited the nearby Laurel and Hardy Museum, located inside a cinema house (Roxy). This is the only museum of its kind in the whole world. It is located here in Ulverston because Stan Laurel grew up here. The museum was small but interesting. Additionally, it screened L & H movies all the day on their big screen.
While I had had a lunch within the inn, I went for dinner to an Indian restaurant located about 250 m away - the Naaz Restaurant. The food was good indeed. I had a simple dinner, though.
On Sunday, I first caught a bus to Haverthwaite station. Here, I boarded a steam-engine driven heritage train that took 18 minutes to take its passengers through a hilly route via tunnels and such, to Lakeside.
As Lakeside is on the other coast of the Windermere lake, I had to once again take a boat to Windermere pier, and from there, another boat to Brockhole. This place has a lot of activities at its Tourist Information Centre. The Brockhole TIC serves to highlight a lot of lake district activities, but for me, it served as a portal to have close encounters with different kinds of owls (with some of which I had photos taken) and to examine several garden birds through a bird-hide that was located here. It was an amazing experience, as there were volunteers here who helped identify bird species I had not seen earlier.
After this, I took a bus back to Windermere station, and then a return train journey that brought me back to Blackpool by six p.m. in the evening.
All in all, a very interesting three days indeed!
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