Water Borne Toxins

We're off work today and this morning we head up to the Lake District for a weekend of fun and games involving lakes and seas.

After a decent journey up the M6, we set up camp at a nice campsite overlooking the coast at Grange Over Sands.

It seems a very laid back sort of site. In a reception is closed and there's no one around to pay sort of way. In fact hardly anyone is around at all. Eventually we bump into someone, who tells us his wife will catch up with us at some point. So we pitch up.

Then we travel up to Lake Windermere, where L has a 4pm start time in the Great North Swim 2 Mile event. We park up in an ‘interesting’ car park where your car is logged by ANPR cameras and a computer system works out how much you owe. Then you can either pay at the machine or online within 48 hours. It all sounds very technologically advanced but having done a lot of computer work myself with ANPR cameras I know how unreliable they are.

Up at the lake, L munches on a cheese sandwich before slipping into her wetsuit. As she starts the first of her two laps of the one mile course, the boys and I slip off to see if we can get a pint from the Low Water Hotel. No such luck. The Low Water never used to have any ale at all, then it started playing at it. Today one of its two beers are off, the second immediately goes off when I attempt to have a pint of it. With 10,000 swimmers and their friends/family expected over three days you’d think the hotel would have got their head around this potentially huge sales opportunity by now but no. I give up and go out to watch all the girls in rubber (and the boys of course) without a drink in my hand.

L puts in her usual flawless performance in the water and we head over to great her at the finish line. My turn tomorrow. Gulp.

Back at the car park, the ANPR camera logs the ‘V’ in my licence plate as a ‘W’, so we consider legging it without paying but then what if the camera logs the correct registration on the way out... The machine has an option to pay what you think you owe. So we ‘fess up’ and pay the right amount.

We head back to Grange before going for a drink and a meal at The Pheasant Inn at nearby Allithwaite.

L has advised that I ought to have diet coke on hand for after the swim, as this apparently is ideal for washing water borne toxins out of your system. It's all very technical.

Personally I believe something like Old Peculiar would be just as effective and thought it best to quaff some beforehand just to make sure. That's if we can find some, I’m not sure the South Lakes is known for such delicacies.

The Pheasant Inn is all a bit regimented and we feel a bit railroaded into eating. So it’s a good job that was our intention. The food is decent but not spectacular. The beer is decent but not spectacular. Sadly, there’s not sign of anything dark and strong. Those water borne toxins will probably take the p*ss out of me.

(Friday 14^th June)