35. Coniston and Windermere

Horrible drive from Morecambe. The AA Routefinder sent me

round the north end of Windermere for some reason, and I got stuck in traffic jams showing their support for the Great North Swim. Once I got past that, the drive down from Ambleside was vile along a spiteful serpentine road flanked by stone walls, of constantly varying width and with loads of traffic coming the other way. When I looked at the Caravan Club guide it said “Make every effort to approach the site from the south”. Pity I hadn't read that earlier. Doh!

The Old Man of Coniston (in the background)

The site is another one where the pitches are in clearings in a dense wood. This one slopes down to the lake and is enormous, 280 pitches and the first CC site I have seen with three toilet blocks. Snuggled-up close to the one nearest to the lake. Tomorrow I'll drive in to Kendal to meet Matt at Oxenholme station. I wonder what he eats?

Well, I watched England last night and I thought they did well. This is fulsome praise from me, believe me. They were watchable and I didn't fall asleep once even though the game extended well past my bed-time. I still think Rooney is useless, though. I'm quite enjoying this World Cup, as teams seem to be trying to win. A bit worried about the referees, though.

Picked Matt up when he arrived on the Euston to Glasgow train. It was great to have his company and we had three really pleasant days on and around the lake. The blighter made me walk to the village every day and one day we had a trip in a launch around the lake. This is where Donald Campbell was killed trying to break the world water speed record in his jet-propelled boat “Bluebird” in 1967. The boat and Campbell's body were recovered only in 2001; the boat is being re-built, with plans to use it for demonstration runs at 100mph on Coniston, while Campbell's body is buried in the churchyard in the village. His teddy bear mascot was also recovered.

 

We also had a couple of barbecues, the weather being hot and dry throughout Matt's stay. He was pleasantly surprised to see how friendly people on the site were (with the exception of Grumpy CycloWoman next door to us. She was amazing, and refused to do more than grunt grudgingly even when I fixed her with a wide smile and said “Hello” very loudly. On our last day a bloke arrived to cheer her up, but he wouldn't speak either. Some people are strange). Luckily, everyone else and their many dogs made up for her).

I had been fascinated by the unusual chimneys on Coniston Hall, which we passed on our walks to the village. We learned from the nice young lady who was steering the launch and doing the commentary that a family called the de Flemings were given mining rights in the area by William II Rufus (1087-1100) and made such a fortune that, when they built the house they gave it the biggest chimneys they could to show just how great they were. 



Coniston Hall, with big chimneys

 

After three days we set off up the Road Through Hell past Ambleside to Bowness on Windermere, a Caravanning and Camping Club site which used to be a Caravan Club site. Bowness and Windermere are pretty much joined and are quite big and busy; well, they are after Coniston anyway. Bowness was absolutely full of tourists and was probably a bit too busy for our liking. Unfortunately there was no TV signal at all, so we had to find a pub where we could watch the crucial England match. Well, we found a real corker, right on the lake, with lots of high-definition screens and excellent food. Then came the match. That's all I have to say about that.

Lovely old cinema in Bowness

 

I took a photo of a Morris 8 which, I think, is the same as the car we had when I was a child. Dad spent many happy hours working on it in Standing's Field at the top of New Street and we even went out in it a few times. The engine exploded going up Bury Hill when we were going on holiday to Hayling Island. I'm not sure it was ever mentioned in the family after that.