The Geordie Tourist.

I honestly loved everything about Watergate. I loved how different the forest parts were to the main section with the lake. It was like being in two entirely different places.

You can check out my other post here.

I can't wait to go back and explore some more.

What's your favourite part of Watergate?

When you've been promising your best pal for the better half of the year that you’ll take her to Kielder Water and Forest Park, well there comes a point where you just have to suck it up and do it. So armed with her, my brother and pooch and a backpack full of goodies, we headed there on a nice little drive.

I drove, which let’s face it was going to be eventful from the start. I was constantly asking for directions, the dog barking in my ear and the remarks from my brother every five minutes of so only made matters worse. We got there in the end though, pretty unscathed, and by the time we were ready to head home, I had the driving thing down.

Kielder Water is the biggest man-made lake in Northern Europe and, at over 250 square miles, the largest working forest in England. There are many walks that surround the reservoir. Various trees and plants, flowers and shrubs that make you feel like you could be walking the grounds in some Canadian forest never mind a few miles up the road.

It is one of my all-time favourite places to go ever. It has this calming effect on me. I just love everything about the place. It’s also one of the reasons why I don’t like to go all of the time. I don’t want to take the shine away from it; I want it to be a special treat when I visit. That’s one of the reasons why I still haven’t ventured around everywhere. I don’t want to see all that it has to offer in one visit. I want to continue to go back again and again and always be filled with awe.

Autumn is fast approaching, but we still get those rare days of glorious sunshine. This was definitely one of those days. As soon as we got there we headed straight into the thick of it. I like how there are little pebbled bays where you can look across the water, or even dip your feet in for a paddle. I like being able to go right to the edge on the many cliffs and try and conquer my fear of heights. (It never happens.)

We settled down for a bit and devoured our picnic. (The dog included) Then set about exploring. If you stick to the path there are signposts going off in various directions. They tell you how many miles it will take to get to certain points. (If you do what we did, it’s not quite the same as that.)

For some reason we decided to do more of a rock climbing kind of activity. We basically went the same way as the paths but decided on the more dangerous grabbing at rocks and trying not to fall thing instead. It only lasted a little while and the dog was in no real danger so it was all good. I’m making it sound like we were so many feet in the air, but it wasn't like that. It was just three grownups acting like kids. 

Kielder has so much to offer. This is just a teeny tiny fraction of it. They have places to eat, events and attractions such as a castle. You know how excited I get over castles, so as you can imagine I'm dying to check it out. 

Also a little dream of mine is to get a little boat and go out on to the lake and just float around. It's great looking at the water from the land, but I reckon seeing the forest from out at sea (I'm a pirate) would be even better.

Kielder also have their Winter Wonderland celebration coming up too. I think it would be amazing for kids, even weird supposed grown ups like me too. I'm not sure if they still have tickets, but it's worth checking out.

Have any of you been to Kielder Water and Forest Park?

Back for May Bank Holiday, when I was going through my ‘must walk 4 miles a day phase’ (It didn't last; the blisters alone were enough to make me stop.) I went with Poppy my little lab for a walk on the paths that take you to Tanfield Railway. You can check that out here.

This time Instead of starting from home and being knackered before we had even really gotten onto new territory, I took the car and parked next to the entrance way and we managed to walk all of the way up. Well, not to the railway, but to the next cut which is enough in itself. I think I've cycled up there before, but I don’t think me or Poppy had it in us to walk that far. I’m really curious to go to the railways though and have a good look, so maybe that might be a future trip.

The surroundings were different to last time, gone were the bright yellow fields and the orange flowered bushes. It was a nice sunny day unlike last time though.

This walk to me will always be remembered as the ‘butterfly walk’. There were just so many flying about.  One of them was massive and brightly coloured. I saw brown ones and little white ones. (So descriptive I know) I’m not a butterfly expert so don’t know any of the names for them. It was just nice watching them flutter by.  Half of the time they fly off  before you can even get near them for a decent shot, so I was glad I managed to get a couple.

Poppy got reunited with her favourite bench too. It’s this lovely carved high bench with intricate details on it. It looked great against the backdrop of the golden hues in the fields. We may have stopped for a while and chilled. I may have added my name to the others that had been scratched into it. (Ever so lightly though, I’m no vandal.) 

On our way back down from reaching the cut I saw a rabbit/hare sitting in a bush. You know when you just hear rustling and your eyes are immediately directed to something. I think it was startled and trying to hide, as I could just see it's rear sticking out. I left it in peace though, and Poppy was none the wiser.

I realise a lot of posts on here recently are walks that I've took with Poppy. They usually consist of me going to some forest type area and dragging someone else with me for company. Then I walk around for a bit taking photos of plants and flowers and the odd bee/butterfly that I find. I also rope the dog into it too. I’m not talking putting her in funny outfits and making her dance, but still you know what I mean.

Anyways, I guess all of that was just a really long way of saying that this post is no different. I hopped in my mam’s jeep and my brother and I took Poppy out. (Shock)

It was about 6/7 o’clock and the sun was still shining. It wasn't really chilly or anything and it just seemed nice and calm. Across the road from where we parked you could see all of the sheep still out grazing in the fields.  It still surprises me how just five minutes away I can be totally in the countryside away from everything (I love it.)

We went around where we normally go, but this time we picked a different entrance. At the time I didn't know that it was going to lead us to the same paths that we normally take, but lo and behold it did.

It’s good in a way, because now I’m starting to find out where each little walk takes me to. I come across loads of little dirt paths, or openings in the trees and I’m beyond curious as to where they go. Now I can start finding out.

So we were walking and then we came across a pond/lake. I would say it was too big to be a pond, and maybe too small to be considered a lake, so I don’t really know where that leaves us. It was lovely just looking at the water. It wasn't the cleanest, but you couldn't really tell when you looked far out. There was a big tree trunk at the water’s edge and I felt like walking over it Dirty Dancing style. (I don’t have the balance for it though.)

Poppy went off by herself and got covered in mud. I had to keep throwing sticks into the water so she could go in for them and clean her muddy paws in the process.

There were fish too. You could just see the ripples in the water where they kept coming towards the surface. They were probably only tiny ones, but I’d definitely like to go back and have a little go at fishing. Maybe just putting a bucket in the water and seeing what happens. 

I think I'll check out a few other curious paths next time. Who knows, it might lead me on a familiar trail or somewhere else entirely...

Have any of you been walking anywhere nice recently?

When: 2007
Where: Centerparcs

For my 18^th birthday I got to go to Centerparcs (Whinfell Forest) with three of my closest mates. We left school early on the Friday (Christ I used to go to school) and my Step mam and dad took us to stay for a long weekend.

I love Centerparcs. As soon as you get out of the car you can feel a difference in the air. I love being surrounded by the trees and the little log cabins are beautiful.

The four of us had our own cabin and were left to our own devices for the whole trip basically. I remember going on random walks. We were studying Robert Frost poetry at the time and we took silly pictures where there were forks in the road. (If you don't have a clue what I'm going on about Google: The Road Not Taken.)

I remember bowling and playing pool. There were arcades and my friend Nic got her picture taken in one of those toy car rides designed for kids. We were just carefree 18-yr-olds. (Well they were all 17. I was the first one with a birthday.) We took stupid photos posing in the park. We took inappropriate ones around signs on the mini gold course. Just looking back at them has me giggling. We weren’t always acting like big kids though.

One day we got to go to the Spa. If you ever go to Centerparcs you can't leave without going to the spa. It is truly amazing. There are various saunas and steam rooms with a couple of pools chucked in for good measure. You can just spend as long as you want flitting between them all and having a good natter with your mates in the process.

For night life, they had a little club, it was more family oriented, but we still managed to have a good time. One night we met some young farmers and played a few games of pool and what not. To this day Farmer’s Weekly still crops up on someone's birthday or for a jokey Christmas present.

At the time I was doing a project for my art class, so tried to get some nature shots whilst we were there. I’m not like I am today when I take fifty pictures of the same bloomin’ tree. I managed to get a couple though. (It's a good job really because I couldn't put half of the photos we took on here, everyone would be mortified.)

They have this thing at Centerparcs called Badger Cam (Well at least they did eight years ago, I'm not sure if they still do) It was basically a channel on the TV that was hooked up to the cameras around the park. It would show you if there was any wildlife about such as badgers. We spent a good few days there trying to just spot one. We joked we would find where the cameras were so we could be on the telly. (How mature)

It was honestly one of the best times. We burnt pizzas, messed up some sausages, dropped jewellery down toilets and posed with tins of spam amongst other things. It was just all about being a teenager, about hanging out with you friends and not caring or worrying about anything. It was about watching A Walk to Remember on repeat and then leaving it in the dvd player by mistake. (Yes I'm talking to you Steph.)

Have any of you been to any of the Centerparcs villages?