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Friday 31 May 2013

Standing Room Only


Wednesday is spent walking around the Dentdale valley, all the time trying not to stray too far from a short cut home in case Doggo’s limp flared up. Not that the number of huge dog un-friendly stiles helped him much. We continually had to lift him over these.

The project was actually to find Dent train station, the highest mainline train station in England at 1150 feet above sea level. We found it eventually but it was right up the top of a big hill and we didn’t think it was worth pushing Doggo’s ageing limbs up there, so we just waved at it from a distance. It was also about 4 miles away from Dent itself, which is a hell of a long way to drag a suitcase.

Our evenings were spent alternating between the two pubs but we also popped in to the Dent museum aka the Heritage Centre, which had a lot of info and memorabilia on the Dalesfolk of times past. It also had a lot about knitting, so obviously L was in her element.

On Thursday we left the quiet tranquillity of the Yorkshire Dales and hopped across the M6 to the Lakes where we were due to meet up with L’s sister. Predictably for a school holiday week, it was standing room only. Our usual campsite at Great Langdale was packed; they were even camping in fields that I didn’t know you were allowed to camp in. L was a bit miffed at this invasion of ‘our’ campsite. I mean where were all these people in January? I think they should have a separate field just for regulars.

Bizarrely most of the campers appeared to be the sort of folk who once at a campsite prefer not to leave it and the Old Dungeon Ghyll pub was quieter than it usually is in winter. Truly bizarre but very welcome. Although we eat over at Chapel Stile in the Wainwright’s first before ending up there.

On Friday we break new ground and go for a walk near Coniston that takes us around the 'lake' at Tarn Hows. We start and finish our walk in near solitude but Tarn Hows itself is very much a tourist trap, as we discover as we pass through the area. Nice ice creams though.

In the evening we head to L’s sister's cottage in Ambleside which is on the road up to the Kirkstone Pass known as ‘The Struggle’. We head out for a meal and a drink with them at the Queens Hotel which has a decent range of beer but not as good as the Travellers Rest. Which we popped into post-walk, as we had a bit of time to kill, where the recently illusive Snecklifter was hiding. That had to be sampled of course and then re-sampled, just to be sure.

Tomorrow (Saturday) is race day because naturally no holiday is complete without a race.
 
(Friday 31st May)

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