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| Tarn Hows with the Old Man of Coniston (l) and Wetherlam (r) behind |
GETTING THERE - FRIDAY
I'm not yet sure how many parts this blog post will run to, but it's likely to be more than 1! There's a lot to catch up on from our week away in Grasmere in mid June, so without further ado...
I've never been to the Lake District. Well, strictly speaking that's not true. We passed through with an overnight stop at Penruddock near Ullswater in about 1971 on our way to Scotland on a touring holiday the first year my parents bought a small caravan. Them, three kids and and two dogs in a small tin can. Anyway, all I saw of the Lakes was a dusky Ullswater for an hour or two before we set off for Scotland the following day.
Anne has been, but it was a long time ago.
We've talked about going for a few years, but one thing and another - oh, and Covid. Anyway, I overcame my procrastination earlier this year, bugging my younger (but still old) brother about the best places as he's been a regular visitor over the years. He recommended his favourite place, Grasmere. After searching his recommended holiday cottage links we duly found a small cottage, for a reasonable price, slap bang in the middle of the village for a week in the middle of June, hoping for decent weather, although being the lakes, that could still mean snow, rain, gales and flash flooding at any time!
Suitably packed for all eventualities we set off, but as it's a long way, made a slight detour to break the journey overnight at my sister in-law's in Solihull. We met them on the Friday afternoon at Coughton Court National Trust and spent a pleasant afternoon wandering the grounds, and walking along the river.
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| Coughton Court, near Redditch |
STILL GETTING THERE - SATURDAY
After an early(ish) breakfast we pointed the car north (or rather east) before heading north up the M6 toll and thence to the M6. It was pretty much M6 all the way then until the final 30 mins or so. Again we broke our trip up just after turning off the M6 to visit Sizurgh Castle, another National Trust place. More gentle wanderings, and wa walk up a smallish hill to see a vista of the distant Cumbrian hills that were our eventual destination.
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| Sizurgh Castle, near Kendal |
Driving up past Windermere and through Ambleside, the traffic was heavy - turns out there was a Lak District Ultra Event going on the Saturday for fitness lunatics - 114km run anyone? Those of a less inclined nature could stick to any one of 14km, 25km or 50km events or some vast open water swimming and cycling craziness.
Arriving about 30 minutes before our allotted check in time, we found the place ready and waiting. It was lovely. Comfortable, well furnished.....but sadly lacking any outside space to sit. Partly I guess we were to blame for not reading the online info correctly (although it does mention an "outside courtyard" (ie parking area), and it was a shame given the continued outrageously hot forecast. Still the village green was about 20 seconds stroll away.
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| A view from near the centre of Grasmere |
Dumped the bags, had a quick wander around the small (but busy) village - it seems everywhere is busy in the Lakes, and pooped into the nearest hostelry for a thirst quencher (or two).
SUNDAY
We had a sort of plan of the places we wanted to go during our week, but it wasn't fixed in stone. I was recovering from some sort of injury to me knee the week before when it had swollen to almost twice it's normal size after a round of golf to climbing Helvellyn and Scafell wasn't going to happen, although stronger than usual anti-inflammatories had worked their magic.
Anne's not one for steep hills (or any hills for that matter), so gentler ambles were more on our radar. You'll see how that went out of the window in a later post....
With another glorious day in the making, we set off for Easdale Tarn, a relatively short walk on paper, and described in some guides as an easy walk, and in others "not pushchair friendly with some steeper sections). It's basically a follow the path route. Soon out of Grasmere we found the path and followed it for a while before it started ascending. As we rose the views impressed but in the heat the steeper sections meant several stops, and for those used to fairly flat walks, it was a bit of slog (Anne might want to call it something else!). Anyway, we made it. It's clearly a popular place as there were lots of people around. Some swimming, some picnicing , some walking through. We found a quiet spot, had our picnic and took our shoes off and dangles our feet in the wonderfully cool water, whereupon our feet were instantly set upon by myriads of small fish giving us an instant, and free pedicure.. The view up there were spectacular, even though we weren't that high at around 300m.
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| Easdale Tarn Panorama |
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| View from Easdale Tarn |
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| Easdale Tarn Fish Pedicure |
Luckily the walk back down was MUCH easier than the walk up, although by mid afternoon, very hot indeed and we were glad to get back to the cottage to get refreshed and find some shade. It was a pretty impressive start to our week, and although a good work out, very much worth the effort.
I think that'll do for this first post. Part 2 takes in Windermere, Tarn Hows, Coniston and some eat and drink recommendations.
Twitter: @Statto1927
The best of our Lakes Photo Album (Flickr)
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/people/simon_hiscocks/
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