Well, not so much on this blog, but in real life we’ve or seen a few things!
The main ativity was a short break which involved closing the shop for a few days!
In mid September we went down to Windermere, which we hadn’t been to for years.
The train down was, if not a nightmare, at least annoying and a bit worrying as we’d be arrive much later than anticipated. The train was delayed as it left Edinburgh and then a broken rail much furthr south meant that all the trains were backed up and running very slowly, meaning we arrived at Oxenholme very late and had to wait for the local replacement bus service (apparently there never is a train connection at this time of night despite one being timetabled… ) And then the bus driver was told by radio that he couldn’t enter Windermere Station due to some trouble the Police were currently dealing with… Anyway, the problem was actually good for us, as the driver checked where we were going and dropped us off much closer to our accomodation! It was an unstaffed (at this time of night) appart-hotel and our entry keycode worked, fortunately!
Sadly, the room was not well equipped as hoped but we made do! We had booked a ‘Studio Plus’ so I really wouldn’t want to be in a plain Studio. Impressive building, very hanily placed though. And a real ale pub right acros the road – open late enough we managed a de-stressing pint before bed!
We only had three full days there, plus the Wednesday morning – the shop is a treadmill that can’t be paused for very long! – but we packed a fair amount into the time, despite the generally poor weather…
An evening cruise on the lake, trips to Grasmere and Coniston, good food, fascinating little museums and galleries, etc. But the highlight was on the Monday, when we took a bus to the South Lakes Safari Zoo near Barrow-in-Furness. It’s had it’s problems in the past, but we were impressed by the range of animals, their enclosures and the upbeat attitude of the staff. It’s much smaller than Edinburgh Zoo but is much flatter, with no mansion or formal gardens in the middle, and workshops, barns, the main restaurant, etc. mainly on the perimeter so everything felt much closer together…
White Rhinos, Giant Otters, a sloth, Capybaras, (sleeping) Tapirs, Giraffes, several walk-through areas with lemurs, kangaroos, & more, aviaries (although the one with Vultures had closed for the day before we reached it – wish we had known about it’s short hours)
And, of course there were annoyances with the travel there and back – going, the driver swore she was letting us off at the right stop – except it wasn’t, it was about 1/2 mile short of the one that actually said ‘alight here for zoo’ in big letters! And returning, we were at th right stop but the bus was extremely late (40 minutes?) because the driver had arrived for his shift but hadn’t brought his bus with him! It was still at the Garage! Fortunately, we were reassured by two other bus drivers who should have been behind him, had he laft on time! Apart from these problems, it was a nice drive in both directions. Anyway, still a good day!
I hadn’t been to Coniston Village since the whole family went to the Lakes every summer so I had remembered very little about it, but despite th rain, it ws a nice little place, with the Ruskin Museum as a highlight! The weather wasn’t really very conducive to our climbing anything, really.
Conniston Hillside in the Rain, with Waterfall in Spate
So, a few more-or-less relaxing days away from home and a much more restful trip back north (although we had thought we’d missed our connection at Carlisle!
We’ve done or seen some neat stuff since we got back, but maybe that’s for another post…