G & J away from home

Tuesday, 28 June 2016

Checking in from chilly Kendal - technically the Kendal Travelodge out on A591 where the internet runs like a dream, something of a relief after patchy internet for the last ... well, pretty much since we left Hong Kong.

Now on our own we set out on a half-day visit to Coniston (the village) and Coniston Water (the lake), doing a lake cruise which earned us a large book reference TICK for being one of the locations on which Arthur Ransome based his Swallows and Amazons series.  In this case we got to see the inspiration for Wild Cat Island (real name Peel Island) as well as hear about the fatal water speed record attempts on the lake in 1967 by Donald Campbell.

Not enjoying the cold

The boat was a little chugger - not like either the restored one of Lake Brienz of the modern one of Achensee, and it had very little space for people to stand out in the open - but we snagged a couple of the spots so we could take photos.

Village of Coniston

Reflections

Wave patterns from our wake

Finally we reached Wild Cat Island which was crowded to over-flowing with visitors; people waving from the rocks, kids paddling around into the secret harbour.

Wild Cat Island

Not-so-secret harbour (close up)

The secret harbour didn't look particularly difficult to discover to me, but I can accept that paddling and rowing into it might be a much easier job than approaching it under sail and then (I think) poling along until the boat was out of sight.  I'm sure Arthur Ransome made it better in the books - as a good author should!

Kanchenjunga or Coniston Old Man

By the time we arrived back at the wharf it was raining heavily (we thought) and so we stopped for lunch at the Bluebird Cafe.  I was asked if I wanted marshmallows on my hot chocolate, and of course I did, but hadn't quite expected this many:

Marshmallow overload

While negotiating the divided stretch of road which makes returning to our Travelodge difficult we ended up at the petrol station on the other side of the road and lo and behold, orange KitKats.  We have been searching (unsuccessfully) everywhere for them since we enjoyed them so much in Guernsey.

Discovery!

And they were very nice with our afternoon coffee, too.


(Once we could get inside the motel - the rain was determined to show us what heavy was and we refused to leave the car until it eased.  It was in no hurry to do so!)


Reading: The Lighthouse Stevensons by Bella Bathurst

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