Woke to a fantastic start to the day, not quite the longest day but with the sun full on the fells at 5am it felt like it.
I decided to navigate today and take us across to the Western lakes as we wanted to visit a Twitter pal @RareBreedGoats in Wasdale.
I thought a nice trip up and down the Wrynose and Hardknot Passes would be a bit of fun. Didn't I ever end up in the dog house by scaring my husband half to death with the pretty 'interesting' roads. 30% or 1:3 is a little on the steep side and severe bends, all right, hairpins and narrowness didn't exactly help! Ahh well it's all character building. I might just add, we didn't come back the same way!
Some cracking scenery on our approach to the Wrynose Pass
Looking back down the pass, only halfway up.
Looking up the pass
Nearly down, just a small case of gripping the steering wheel!
Got a good shot of a Common Sandpiper poking about in the rocks by the stream.
Had a bit of time to spare before the farm visit so we checked out Wast Water for an hour. The dogs really enjoyed the stream.
Some really nice views around Wast Water. We will have to come back to this area for a bit more exploring on another holiday.
Next came the visit to see the Rare Breed Goats. Apart from seeing and meeting the animals, walking through fields of golden buttercups and hearing how Richard is a great advocate for conservation in his farming methods we came away with some delicious home produced sausages.
Here come the girls, they had gone for a wander in the woods and Coriander the collie had to go find them for us. It was lovely to hear the sound of the bells drifting through the trees. There are only 150 (breeding?) female Bagot goats in the country and Richard owns 60 of them.
The goats are wearing different colour collars to help Richard identify the different bloodlines, it's a small gene pool and it really matters!
Next came the Highland cattle, who can resist these guys.
We met a few of the Herdwicks that are kept down at the farm for school visit purposes, all the others are up on the fells. The cattle had to get a look in too.
Next came the boy Bagots. The were mighty impressive with their huge horns. The one to the right is actually scratching his back.
A good close up of the impressive head gear.
The 5 Billy goats gruff....who's that trip trapping over my bridge!
Now the little guy on the right, Jorvik, made the headlines a few months ago when he was born too early and was very small. Richard posted photos of him living in the house and he eventually had his 15 minutes of fame on the regional news. Richard tells me he has caught up with the other kids now.
Jorvik!
Well that was the last day of our holiday, the dogs had their last walk up the path to Place Fell. The weather had been amazing, the walking and cycling great and to meet up with 4 Twitter pals topped it right off.
All packed and ready to go....perhaps see you next year!
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