Recently the Legend and I travelled to the North to the Lake District. All areas of the UK are designated areas of Low Flying but only some are activated. The Lake District is LFA 17.
I understand that within an LFA flying can be at 250 ft AGL and up to 450kts but sometimes faster is allowed. There are three Tactical Training Areas in the UK where flying may be down to 100ft AGL. These TTAs are the Mach Loop in Wales, RAF Spadeadam covering the England Scotland borders and somewhere up north west Scotland. These TTAs are where the good stuff happens and pilots train for more realistic warfare situations.
The trip started not more than thirty miles from Maidstone when the Legend and I experienced the best made Big Macs we had ever had. It was a curious experience because both of us realised we were eating a well made burger but it seemed silly to mention that because McDs. But it was worth mentioning. Then we drove up the M25, M11, A14, A1, A1(M) etc to Wetherby. Prior to this Wetherby was just a services on the Great North Road. We stopped near Wetherby and explored the town. Dinner was an excellent curry and the town itself is very pretty and the planning controls have been suitably employed to maintain the “look”.
Monday meant driving further north to Scotch Corner and then wanging a left to head over the Pennines. The journey was pleasant as was the weather and the company excellent. Before Penrith I noticed a radar station up on the moors and I needed to know what it was. A little bit of googling and searching and I found out it is Great Dun Fell Radar Station, it’s operated by NATS for civilian air traffic. The UK’s highest tarmacked road also goes to the summit – a height of 848m. Upon arrival at Keswick we went to buy emergency tea making equipment, climbed to the top of Latrigg, and visited Derwentwater. While atop Latrigg we saw some fighter aircraft doing their low level thing and also two Spitfires flying in close formation. An earlier plane which I couldn’t see was, according to trackers, a privately owned L-39 which I would have loved to see. I’m not sure what the rules are on civilians flying through the hills. Dinner was a breakfast at a Turkish restaurant and it was delicious. After we checked in to our room we watch F15s fly overhead and disappear off over Lake Bassenthwaite.
Activities completed on Tuesday included eating a massive breakfast, and driving over the Honsiter Pass towards Buttermere – the slate mine is something to do next time. We walked around Buttermere and had emergency tea, fizzy drinks and tea throughout the journey. It was absolutely glorious. Unfortunately you can’t control other people who disturbed the peace: a child by being a brat and two older men by talking loudly while they paddle boarded over the surface of the lake. The return to Keswick was via Newlands pass and a look at Moss Force. I then rowed us to St Herbert Island in Derwentwater and we had a picnic. I was worried this would ruin my back and arm muscles but it turned out I was ok. I must be in better condition than I thought I was. The last activity of the day was to see Ashness Bridge, drink emergency tea, and paddle in the (very cold) water.
Scotland or at least near enough was the plan for Wednesday. We had asked for a smaller breakfast in terms of the number of different items. This did not change the amount of actual food because we just got double each item instead. We visited the Herdy shop and I genuinely think I could kit out my whole house in that style. It’s gorgeous. We drove via Caldbeck and the fells to Birdoswald Fort. It was cloudy and really cold. This was strange as to the west of the M6 the weather was bloody gorgeous. We also went to a Roman Army Museum. There were a collection of coins there including what we think is the world’s largest gold coin. It was also cold and miserable so we left and drove back west. When we stopped in Penrith I bought a coat I had been that cold. During the golden hour we drove to see Thirlmere, Grasmere, Ambleside, Windermere, and then Ullswater via the Kirkstone Pass.
Do not upset the breakfast god. Thursday morning meant that we ate less but this made the breakfast god unhappy so it’s probably best to just eat it all. We walked into Keswick town via the railway path. Railway paths are nice but also a reminder of a lack of investment in our country and transporting people over the last seventy years. The learnt stuff at the Pencil Museum and they gave us new pencils for correctly completing the museum quiz – of course we were going to do that well. We did some souvenir shopping in the town centre and then walked back up to the B&B. We spent the afternoon drinking emergency tea and fighting off ginormous ants at Surprise View, past Ashness Bridge.
During the week we had decided to split the journey home and stay overnight somewhere about two thirds of the way back. This coincided with Lincolnshire which is an RAF base heaven so plans could be exciting. We departed Keswick and topped up the fuel at Penrith. We observed some pretty bad driving across the Pennines and so we found some google reviews of the company and added to the complaints on there. We weren’t the first to complain. There were roadworks at some point and we were not in a hurry so we pulled off the road and headed to the nearest town which was Pontefract. Apparently there’s a thing called a Pontefract cake and that sounded exciting. We found the castle and bought lunch and ate at the castle. The cake is apparent;y a little liquorice thing and that wasn’t necessary to try. The castle was pretty interesting. The town itself was less so. That night we were staying in Buckminster which was close to Newton’s birthplace of Woolsthorpe. We ate food at the overnight establishment and enjoyed the garden and birds.
The final day of this journey meant heading generally south east but only after we had visited the birthplace of Sir Isaac Newton. It is also where he discovered the “nature” of light, created his version of calculus and invented the cat flap. It was genuinely amazing to see the room where he worked during the Great Plague. There was graffiti on the wall and to actually touch the walls of his self-built library is quite something. I found it all very accessible and just a great experience. Before getting to the south east I drove a little through the Lincolnshire Fens just as a contrast to us seeing lots of mountains. It was very flat, I also saw my first hare in a field.