Keswick Adventures

We visited the Lake District for two full days: to be honest, three might have been about perfect, I could have used one more day to explore Keswick. Any longer would require a change in locale, and I've heard Lake Windermere is a good place to go on a two-stop tour of the Lakes.

The first thing we went to in the Lakes was the Cumberland Pencil Museum. Wikipedia is probably more informative on this, but in the 1850's or so, graphite was discovered in Cumbria. One particular pencil compant, Derwent, is still in business today and has had a factory in Keswick since the beginning of the Cumbrian Pencil Industry. Next to the factory is a pencil museum, documenting the development of the pencil industry throughout the world and in particular in Keswick, with special attention to the technology of the pencil and its materials. The colored pencil section was really informative about how the color dyes are mixed to create colored graphite pencils.

I learned a lot about pencils.

Unfortunately the information was a little bit outdated. Signs referred to the 1960's as "25 years ago" (phrases like that are never a good idea for a museum display) and Russia as the USSR. But it was pretty cool too, the wood for the pencil is cedar, and comes from "the Great American states of Oregon and California", hah! Clay was originally mixed in with the graphite to help lower production costs and was soon found to help writing quality as well: it is the clay:graphite ratio that determines the hardness of the pencil.

Cool stuff.

Two long walks were accomplished in our two days as well. The first was up Walla Crags, located just south of Keswick, which had an absolutely perfect view of Derwent Water. The second was up Skiddaw, elevation of about 3000 ft or just under 1000 m, and consequently the smaller peaks of Little Man, and 'bump' of Latrigg. Skiddaw is the fourth-highest peak in the Lake District but 'just short of the tallest', though nothing ever told me what the margin of difference actually is. I'm pretty sure that Scotland was visible to the north, though I can't be positive it was actually Scotland I saw, and we could see a lot of the lakes and ridges in all surrounding areas. Climbing up Skiddaw was great, it helped create a sense of the geography and geology of the area, the farming areas, the lakes, the treeless mountains. I'm still not accustomed to such a profound lack of trees.

If anyone is ever planning a visit to Keswick, I highly recommend dining at Bella Roma, which also has excellent desserts, and coffee/drinks at 26. I highly discourage patronising Salsa, a Mexican place. I know, I know, I shouldn't expect good Mexican food in England, but even bad Mexican food usually tastes of something. This was just bland. Unimpressive.