Back to the Cave!

H was on holiday in Malaysia recently and one of our holiday destinations this year was Sarwak (East Malaysia, located in Borneo Island). Mulu National Park is Sarawak's biggest national park and is known for it huge and impressive caves.Wind Cave and Clearwater Cave were two of the famous caves that we visited while at Mulu National Park. Each cave has its own unique features. Wind Cave was so named because of the cool breeze that can be felt at the narrow parts of the cave. It also has many impresive stalactites, stalagmites, flowrocks, helitites and rock cords. While the Clearwater Cave is Asia's longest cave, i.e. 107 km.

Beauty is in the eye of beholder

Beautiful 'passiflora foetida' or wild maracuja flower (in my language we called it 'bunga letup' or 'leletup') that I came accross during my morning walk today. This vine bear edible orange color fruit/berry that I used to eat when I was small :) 

Before the flower open:

 

Slightly open:

 

Fully open!! :)

 

And these tendrils of passiflora foetida have also caught my eyes:

 

 

Are you out there ...?

 

I want your sun to reach my rain drops,

so your heat can raise my soul upward like a cloud.

[Rumi]

 

Side Farm camping site

I can't decide which one I like best between Side Farm, Patterdale or Syke Farm, Buttermere campsite. Side Farm campsite located on the higher area gave better view of the surrounding especially Ullswater.

Side Farm Camping is situated in Patterdale at the southern end of Ullswater and provides an excellent base for fell walking, watersports and mountain biking. Overlooked by the Place Fell and with stunning views towards the Helvellyn range, this site is a spectacular location for exploring this beautiful area of the Lake District.

1. The location of this camp site was a bonus :)

 

2. A short walk after we put up the tent

  

3. A cold morning that made you feel like not leaving the tent :)

Our first visitor on a cold wet morning

Nature presents its best!

It's fun watching this guy!! :)

4. While waiting for breakfast at glenridding we played .....

5. Aira Force, one of the most famous waterfalls in the Lake District.  Aira Force drops an impressive 65 feet and is surrounded by pretty woodland.

 

6. Ullswater at night

7. Our next destintion was Hartsop Valley and it was a wet and cloudy morning

Met fellows walkers and H help them checking their route on his GPS

We walked until Hayeswater, but the weather getting worst and we decided to leave.

8. One of the things that I like about this camp site is that there's a yellow field :) - a field of buttercup - that we have to pass through each time we drive in/out the camp site.

Not just Buttercup, there're also Forget-me-Not

9. But what I don't enjoy is having to open/close the gate especially when it's raining :) (there are 2 gates to get to our camp site!) . But I do feel honored when I can open the gate for other cars behind us to pass through :D

10. We caught the one who steal our bread on our last day.

 

11. It's sunny and blue sky on the the we're leaving Ullswater!!!

But we have to be fast and beat the rush hour in the Lake District so that we can reach our next camp site, Syke Farm at Buttermere on time ;)

The most memorable day in England (Summer 2011)

Speechless. That would be the best word to describe my situation when H told me there's a field of red poppies on our left (it was hidden by some trees and I have fallen asleep  while H was driving). We were driving back from Oxford, already exited the motorway and driving through Cotswold to our next destination Bourton on the Water. I always seen picture of beautiful poppy field in Spain on flickr and I always dream of seeing poppy field while holiday in Spain. Alas it never comes true  . It never occurs to me that my dream would be fulfilled in England

This is what we saw from far

 

 

A dream comes true ......

Thank you to my driver cum the love of my life for not falling asleep while driving, otherwise we would have missed the poppy field