What's up, guys? You're watching Vagabrothers.
Welcome back to our road trip across the north of England.
In this episode, we're exploring the Lake District,
climbing its highest peaks, fishing its
lakes and rivers,
and sampling the best of Cumbrian cuisine.
Let's go.
All right. Well first up we're at Honister Pass.
We're at Honister Mine, and we're going to be
doing some pretty fun stuff today.
It's the last functioning slate mine in England.
So we're going to the climbing technique
of Via Ferrata to go along the face
of the mountain and then into the mines.
Supposedly, it could get kind of hairy up there
I think we're going to be walking along a tight rope
over a huge crevasse
We're meeting up with Adam,
and he's going to be our guide for the day.
Let's do it.
The mining here dates back 800 years.
800 years? 800 years.
My name is Adam, and we're here to do the Via Ferrata,
which is Latin for "the iron way."
It's basically metal rungs
that are stapled into the rock face.
If you have vertigo, this is definitely not
the sport for you. Let's go.
You all right back there, Bro? I'm good, yeah.
If you've been watching our channel for a while,
you might know I have a massive fear of heights,
and now we're looking at this bridge,
which looks like a telephone wire.
We're going to have to walk on that, over this valley.
Yes.
This is our path right here. This one right there..
No. Yeah, we're about to go down there.
Oh my god.
How you doing down there, Bro?
Big section just waiting for you.
Oh wow.
This is so cool.
We're literally hanging off a rock precipice
thousands of feet above the Lake District
You guys, that was just the warm up,
believe it or not.
Here comes the grand finale.
We're going to cross this suspension bridge.
This is called what? The Burma Bridge
The Burma Bridge. And why's that?
It originates from Burma from the military
for access over the large ravines there.
Well, you're up first. Okay.
I'm trying not to look down.
I just looked down.
This is the most spectacular place.
I'm just standing on a little metal wire.
This is nuts. Check this out.
So we're at the tunnel entrance for climbing the mine.
We're going to walk in through this tunnel
for about 300 metres into Mordor
into the depths.
Let's go for it.
Not claustrophobic
This is crazy.
Pretty incredible, guys.
Right now we're inside a cavern.
This big opening.
We followed what was once a little railroad track,
which they would have used to ferry out these
big slabs of slate.
But, I cannot imagine what it would have been like
to live down here...to spend your entire
life down here.... to be an eight year old kid
working in a mine like this and then
living and dying here.
Pretty grim existence.
Apparently, this is more physical
than what we did outside.
So here goes nothing.
Adam, thank you man.
That was so cool. My pleasure.
Well we made it out of the caves.
It's a beautiful day, and now we're
heading down to Ambleside
Look at them come.
Come little duckies. Come.
Quack quack. What's up?
I'm Marko. This is Alex
We're the Vagabrothers
And right now we're at the Lake District.
It has been a long, extremely fun day,
but I've worked up an appetite.
Now we're in Ambleside
where we're going to be staying for the night.
We're going to have dinner at the Old Stamp House.
This place is the former office of the
romantic poet, William Wordsworth.
The chefs inside are doing some really cool stuff
with some local food. So, let's check it out.
With pleasure
We aim to provide an experience
of the food and the food culture of Cumbria
so we use native, local ingredients
and try to offer visitors to the area
an experience of what Cumbria has to offer.
Man, last night's dinner was so good.
It's a really good way to sample the region.
Yeah. It was really good.
So today, on the plate, we are going from
Ambleside here into Grasmere and Rydall
It's our last day here in the Lake District,
so we're going to get in in heart of it
and see how much we can do. Let's roll.
Okay guys. We've just got to
Rydall Mount
It's in the village of Rydall,
which is right next to Ambleside.
And this was the home of William Wordsworth.
Wordsworth was part of the romantic poets
who developed in reaction to the Industrial Revolution.
Although that movement brought a lot of prosperity,
it also brought a lot of negative things:
dense cities, pollution, economic inequality.
So being out here, in nature,
was basically seen as a virtue.
We're going to go into his house
with the curator of the museum
and find out a bit more about this fine English poet.
My name is Peter Elkington,
and I live here at Rydall Mount,
the home of William Wordsworth
where he lived for 37 years and died here.
The romantics really like to be part of nature.
They observed nature
and looked at nature as an inspiration
to some of their poetry.
And Wordsworth, especially, loved to be
even as a young boy loved to be out walking
amongst all the fowls and
the countryside of the Lake District.
Here we are
walking through Wordsworth's garden.
Let's see if we can be inspired ourselves
with some extemporaneous verse.
Here in this district
beside the lake
beauty of nature.
I shall not forsake.
And in the morning
I won't have cornflake.
I shall have
sausage and beans.
Because we are in England,
and an English breakfast
is ever so full
with no greens
but it's never that dull.
No no. With bacon and sausge
and eggs just poached
with a bit of toast.
You must not be coached.
English breakfast, you inspire me
with energy for the day.
I do believe that English breakfast
is the way.
Ok. That's the end of our rhyming.
To wrap things up here in the Lake District,
we've come to Esthwaite Water where we're going to
try our hand at fishing.
We're going to have a fly rod
to try to catch some trout,
and we're going to have a spinning rod
to try to catch a pike.
They've been referred to as a "f..ing great white shark"
of the lake.
I'm picturing this as starting off like
"The River Runs Through It"
and ending like "Jaws."
We're going to hop in one of these little boats,
paddle out there, and spend a bit of time on the water.
While Alex has been fishing,
I've been taking a page from Wordsworth
writing some verses.
Oh really? What do you have?
Oh blessed day upon the lake
Though not a single fish we take
Tis but the latest day
That we seize since dawn
Feasting our eyes until the sun is gone.
In the fork of the road where most turn south
We traveled north from Celtic stones to Roman walls
From lonesome abbeys to Viking halls
From factories that once spewed smoke
To the lakes and fells where Wordsworth wrote
And now the end draws nigh
So brief our time
I almost cried.
These two vagabonds must journey on
So don't forget to like this video,
share it with your friends,
and subscribe to Vagabrothers for more travel videos
every Tuesday.
In the meantime, remember to stay curious,
keep exploring, and we'll see you guys
in Liverpool and Manchester.
So stay tuned. Peace.