Filed under: Travelogue
Grasmere Lake
12th Feb,2011, is a memorable day in my life not because I had my first trek in UK, but it was more of a journey towards my self discovery. It was in my school days when my teacher once said “Keep walking and you will be happy”. Since then I started enjoying the long walks. Walking gave me some time to fill my mind with newer ideas, I don’t know how it all started but very soon I started to enjoy thinking while walking. Whenever I used to feel upset I used to go for a long walk down the Ganges and the nearby paddy fields that used to relax my fears and inhibitions as a kid.
The Lake district trip on 12/2 was one of these trips which inspired me a lot. For those who are not familiar with Lake District – this was the abode of the famous English poet William Wordsworth, where he wrote the poem Daffodils
“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”
When after a busy day’s work 10 of us drove down for 6 hours to Ambleside Hostel in the early hours of morning, we had no idea of what was in store for us the next day. We were warmly greeted by David, our hostel in charge, during breakfast the next day morning, David suggested us to take the trek to Grasmere via Loughrigg and so off we set for a trek. Initially, it was hard convincing all of my friends who were not keen on a trek, but soon four of us took the lead. As we climbed higher and higher we started to find ourselves mesmerized by the beauty of the nature. The next day we visited the Airaforce Waterfall, followed by Pencil Museum and trip to Buttermere lake. Our journey was not complete until we offered our prayers to Lord Balaji at Balaji temple at Birmingham.
I returned from the trip with the thought in my mind which Thomas Szasz once said, “We often come across situations in which we realize that we have not found our true self. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates. Our journey to self discovery never ends”.
