School holidays, day off work, nice weather….perfect for a day out with the kids round Bassenthwaite. James (9) is keen to see the Ospreys again this year and would love to go all the way around Bassenthwaite so I pack a picnic and off we set.
We get an explorer ticket on the X4 bus from Threlkeld, and head through Keswick to Dodd Wood. Although it’s a road we know well you always see more from a bus, with great views over the lake. From Dodd Wood we headed up the steep path beside a rushing waterfall, I used quick-fire quiz questions along the way keep the kids interested!
The lovely Ospreywatch people help us with the telescope when we get there and with their help spot the osprey nest. I even see a young one stretching its wings and adult keeping watch above. The kids are also fascinated by Jays, chaffinches and red squirrels. We encountered a group of visitors to the area who got very excited about the red squirrels and said ‘they are really rare’, to which my daughter replied ‘no they are not, we see them all the time!’. It’s hard to explain to a 4 year old how lucky we are sometimes.
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Ospreys at Bassenthwaite
After our wildlife encounter we headed down into the grounds of Mirehouse, a privately owned historic property, for a play in the adventure playground. I would have been happy to leave it at that, but James insisted on going round the lake and Hannah insisted we had to go swimming in it. We hopped on the next bus to Ouse Bridge, where we walked along the lake shore and found a quiet shallow bay far away from the fast flowing river outlet for a little swim.
We then walked (partly on roads which were a bit busy) to Dubwath Silver Meadows nature reserve. This is a lovely wetland reserve with boardwalks and interesting hides. We spotted loads of butterflies and Matthew swears he saw a Snipe.
Happy but tired, the children played with a caterpillar while we waited at the bus stop for the X5 to take us home. To extent the adventure a little longer we watched over the lake for fishing Osprey’s as we travelled back but no sign today. Lovely views over the lake though.
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Friendly Caterpillar
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
