June 11, 2013 - Tuesday
We had our cooked breakfast
with double yolked eggs, sausages and or bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms. After breakfast, we left for our drive up to
the Lake District. We passed a sheep
farm and the farmer was letting his sheep out of their pen for the day. You could not really tell how noisy they were
from inside the car until we opened the windows to take photos. Boy, were they ever loud! We drove through Ruthin, another pretty
typical English village. The plan was to go to Coniston Water via Newby Bridge
and take the steam yacht gondola around the lake. The sailing times were 11 am,
12 noon and 1 pm and the trip would last 45 minutes. But, we got stuck behind a
lorry which had shed its load of wood across the motorway and were delayed for
about an hour. By the time traffic
started moving again, I figured that we would not have enough time to catch the
1 pm sailing. So, we altered our plans for the day – originally, we had planned
on visiting Coniston Water, Windermere, Grasmere, Elterwater, Whinlatter Pass,
Buttermere and Honister Pass before checking into our b&b at Keswick. Our revised plan saw us going to Windermere
via the car ferry from Bowness, Grasmere, Elterwater, Buttermere, Whinlatter
Pass and on to the b&b.
Coniston-Tarn Hows; 1.5
mile path around the tarn; Coniston Water-steam yacht
gondola (11 am, 12 noon, 1 pm-45 mins GBP 10.50). We drove though Coniston village, passed Monk Coniston, a Victorian
garden skipped Coniston Water and drove
to Bowness to take the ferry across to Windermere. Along the way, we stopped at
Bowland Bridge and had lunch at the pub in the Hare and Hounds Country
Inn. We had actually driven past the inn,
but decided to turn around and have lunch there as it looked so pretty. Petros
and I place our lunch order at the bar. We had the Navarin of Spring lamb, beef
pie, We bought a bottle of cider and a bottle of ale at the Bowland Bridge
Store across the road from the pub.
Windermere-largest natural
lake in England; ribbon lake formed in glacial trough; 1.5 miles long and 219
ft deep; We did not have to wait very
long for the ferry and once at Windermere, we parked the car and walked around
the village a bit. It was a bit windy
that day but sunny.
Grasmere-tourist town; Lake
south of village with gentle walks; craggy peaks of the Scafell Pikes,
Helvelllyn, Skiddaw and Langale Pikes nearby; home of William Woodsworth;
Woodsworth Daffodil Garden between church and river; From Windermere, we drove to Grasmere, which
is quite pretty with its houses with gables and rhododendrons on the
hillside.
Elterwater-Walk starting
from pub in Elterwater lead along the northern and eastern shores of the lake
and down to River Brathay. We drove to
Elterwater and then to Buttermere. The
road to Buttermere was lined with hedgerows of yellow flowers. Yellow flowers also dotted the surrounding
hillsides. It was a pretty drive with
sheep and lambs everywhere, including the single track road. It was drizzling a bit by now but it was
pretty light so did not hamper our sightseeing efforts.
Buttermere-lake by the
dairy pastures; footpath running around the perimeter of lake (2-3 hrs) and
walks to summits of Haystacks & Red Pike. National Trust; Crummock Water
& Loweswater nearby; From
Buttermere, we made our way back towards Keswick. Along the way, we drove through the forest
and Whinlatter Pass.
Whinlatter-England's only
mountain forest; lots of trails
It took us a little while
to get to Swinside Farm but we had no trouble locating the b&b. We parked behind the house and then went to
check in. The owner looked a little
harassed but she was very nice. She has
a young daughter who wanted to be helpful and told us where the lounge was. We
were shown to our bedrooms and after that, we decided to go over to the pub at
Swinside Inn to have our dinner before they closed as it was quite late. We left our unpacking of the car to later.
Dinner at Pub across street
was okay. After dinner, Irene and I
unloaded our suitcases and went to our room while Florine and Petros decided to
check out a couple of the footpaths in the area.
Where we stayed: Swinside Farm House,
Newlands, Keswick, CA12 5UE; 44 17687 78363; Jo
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