Saturday
Where was Erica? AM: a couple of hours in the car park at Fell Foot (Newby Bridge; £1); PM: Conrad's house.
Weather: After heavy and persistent rain overnight on Friday, Saturday gave us sunny intervals with just a few hints of rain.
As much as I wanted to go to Fell Foot parkrun on Saturday morning, I was nearly put off by the uncertainty as to parking charges. Googling had suggested (via sources other than the horse's mouth) that the fee for the National Trust car park was £4 for 2 hours, but the National Trust website only referred to an 'entry fee' of £5 per person. Even employing a "We're on holiday!" attitude, paying £10 to attend a parkrun was not going to happen. My final decision was to trust the non-National Trust sources and thus expend the fuel in getting there. That we did, and were greeted at the gate by a volunteer asking us for a £1 donation in return for a 'parkrun special' 2-hour parking ticket. Bargain!
With his injury history, Mick no longer runs on consecutive days, so in view of the previous day's efforts, parkrun was to be a walking affair for him. Then, as we stood together at the start, he shed his jumper and declared that if I jogged around gently, he would accompany me. End result: he finished ahead of me*!
Taking a swim in the lake is a common occurence post-parkrun, but I wasn't suitably attired or equipped, so I stuck with the plan and ran another lap instead.
Back to Bertie, showers to make ourselves as fresh as daisies, then we were off the few miles down the road to Conrad's for lunch and a few hours of chat - my favourite activity when we're in this neck of the woods. Thanks are due to him not just for the tasty food and good company, but also for the use of his ailing washing machine. Our running gear (and thus Bertie's shower room) smells much better now!
(*In fairness we did go gently, and he only finished ahead of me because in the last half a kilometre I hung back to have a chat with a woman, running with her just-6-year-old daughter)
Sunday
Where was Erica? She had a quiet day, just taking us into Milnthorpe for a short while in the afternoon.
Weather: Neither of us can recall what it was like in the morning, but photos tell me we had sunny intervals in the afternoon.
After a lazy morning, it was somewhere between early- and mid-afternoon when we finally stirred ourselves to go for a short and gentle walk.
The only real downside we've found so far with this campsite is that it's at the end of a dead-end road, so to go anywhere on foot you're looking at a 1-mile each way, out-and-back road walk as a minimum, and it's not an interesting road. So, we called upon Erica to take us the short distance to Levens Bridge, from where we planned to take a walk through Levens Park, alongside the river.
Apparently we weren't the only people with that idea and the parking area was more than full. A quick change of plan had us drive to Milnthorpe instead, where Erica was left in the Market Square car park whilst we walked a short circuit around Dallam Tower Deer Park (where I'd been earlier in the week, but not with Mick).
I took a snap with Mick in it, but so badly framed that I'll include this one instead.
Other than tarrying in the car park whilst I took advantage of a more effective phone signal (my phone is showing a good signal here at the campsite, but the data connection is usually unusably slow), nowt else occurred on this quiet day.
Monday
Where was Erica? She had a little trip to Ambleside, spent quite a few hours in Coniston and the evening in Torver.
Weather: Some showers in the morning, improving to sunny intervals in the afternoon. Whilst out we only caught a few short and light bits of rain.
As we were going to be driving through Ambleside anyway, we thought we'd stop for a mosey around. That took us all of 30 minutes (including the walk from our edge-of-town free parking), although if we'd thought at the time about Erica's need for a new kettle we would have poked around a few shops and entertained ourselves for longer.
As it was we arrived in Coniston earlier than intended, which resulted in us having lunch at 11am, before heading out in our running gear just before noon.
Mick was to run a 15km figure of eight via Tilberthwaite (to take in the final 5km of the Lakeland 50 route) and Park Coppice. I needed another 10km on top of that, but figured I may as well go with him as far as Park Coppice, where he would peel off to return to Erica (for the second time; she was the middle point of the figure of eight), and I would continue on towards Torver.
With both of us back at Erica several hours later, we made no moves to return to Bertie. Instead we loitered for the rest of the afternoon, before moving to the Wilson Arms at Torver, to meet Ali and Adrian, who had walked in on the Cumbria Way. A good evening of food and catching up was had and the sun had long since set by the time we headed back to Milnthorpe.
Tuesday
Where was Erica? She spent a few hours in the Promenade car park in Grange-over-Sands (£1.20)
Weather: Sunny intervals, with the cloud decreasing as the day went on.
Having surveyed the local options for a couple of hours of exercise (for me) today, I decided on a return to Grange-over-Sands to do the circuit that Mick did last week. A good decision: what a fine route with interesting and varied views. In fact, so good were the views from Hampsfell Hospice that rather than adding on the extra distance I needed at low level, I opted to go up there twice.
Mid-run snaps
Meanwhile Mick had walked the Promenade, returned through the town, visited the pie shop and complimented a lady on her garden:
Other snaps from Mick's Prom/Town walk
Our stay in the car park was rounded off by watching a tractor, fitted with a 'grab', lifting some huge chunks of tree trunk into its trailer. It looked a skillful exercise, not just doing the lifting, but manoeuvring the tractor and trailer into the small space behind some parked cars. No photo of that, I'm afraid - I was too busy watching.
Where was Erica? AM: a couple of hours in the car park at Fell Foot (Newby Bridge; £1); PM: Conrad's house.
Weather: After heavy and persistent rain overnight on Friday, Saturday gave us sunny intervals with just a few hints of rain.
As much as I wanted to go to Fell Foot parkrun on Saturday morning, I was nearly put off by the uncertainty as to parking charges. Googling had suggested (via sources other than the horse's mouth) that the fee for the National Trust car park was £4 for 2 hours, but the National Trust website only referred to an 'entry fee' of £5 per person. Even employing a "We're on holiday!" attitude, paying £10 to attend a parkrun was not going to happen. My final decision was to trust the non-National Trust sources and thus expend the fuel in getting there. That we did, and were greeted at the gate by a volunteer asking us for a £1 donation in return for a 'parkrun special' 2-hour parking ticket. Bargain!
With his injury history, Mick no longer runs on consecutive days, so in view of the previous day's efforts, parkrun was to be a walking affair for him. Then, as we stood together at the start, he shed his jumper and declared that if I jogged around gently, he would accompany me. End result: he finished ahead of me*!
Taking a swim in the lake is a common occurence post-parkrun, but I wasn't suitably attired or equipped, so I stuck with the plan and ran another lap instead.
Back to Bertie, showers to make ourselves as fresh as daisies, then we were off the few miles down the road to Conrad's for lunch and a few hours of chat - my favourite activity when we're in this neck of the woods. Thanks are due to him not just for the tasty food and good company, but also for the use of his ailing washing machine. Our running gear (and thus Bertie's shower room) smells much better now!
(*In fairness we did go gently, and he only finished ahead of me because in the last half a kilometre I hung back to have a chat with a woman, running with her just-6-year-old daughter)
Sunday
Where was Erica? She had a quiet day, just taking us into Milnthorpe for a short while in the afternoon.
Weather: Neither of us can recall what it was like in the morning, but photos tell me we had sunny intervals in the afternoon.
After a lazy morning, it was somewhere between early- and mid-afternoon when we finally stirred ourselves to go for a short and gentle walk.
The only real downside we've found so far with this campsite is that it's at the end of a dead-end road, so to go anywhere on foot you're looking at a 1-mile each way, out-and-back road walk as a minimum, and it's not an interesting road. So, we called upon Erica to take us the short distance to Levens Bridge, from where we planned to take a walk through Levens Park, alongside the river.
Apparently we weren't the only people with that idea and the parking area was more than full. A quick change of plan had us drive to Milnthorpe instead, where Erica was left in the Market Square car park whilst we walked a short circuit around Dallam Tower Deer Park (where I'd been earlier in the week, but not with Mick).
Other than tarrying in the car park whilst I took advantage of a more effective phone signal (my phone is showing a good signal here at the campsite, but the data connection is usually unusably slow), nowt else occurred on this quiet day.
Monday
Where was Erica? She had a little trip to Ambleside, spent quite a few hours in Coniston and the evening in Torver.
Weather: Some showers in the morning, improving to sunny intervals in the afternoon. Whilst out we only caught a few short and light bits of rain.
As we were going to be driving through Ambleside anyway, we thought we'd stop for a mosey around. That took us all of 30 minutes (including the walk from our edge-of-town free parking), although if we'd thought at the time about Erica's need for a new kettle we would have poked around a few shops and entertained ourselves for longer.
As it was we arrived in Coniston earlier than intended, which resulted in us having lunch at 11am, before heading out in our running gear just before noon.
Mick was to run a 15km figure of eight via Tilberthwaite (to take in the final 5km of the Lakeland 50 route) and Park Coppice. I needed another 10km on top of that, but figured I may as well go with him as far as Park Coppice, where he would peel off to return to Erica (for the second time; she was the middle point of the figure of eight), and I would continue on towards Torver.
Mid-run snaps
With both of us back at Erica several hours later, we made no moves to return to Bertie. Instead we loitered for the rest of the afternoon, before moving to the Wilson Arms at Torver, to meet Ali and Adrian, who had walked in on the Cumbria Way. A good evening of food and catching up was had and the sun had long since set by the time we headed back to Milnthorpe.
Tuesday
Where was Erica? She spent a few hours in the Promenade car park in Grange-over-Sands (£1.20)
Weather: Sunny intervals, with the cloud decreasing as the day went on.
Having surveyed the local options for a couple of hours of exercise (for me) today, I decided on a return to Grange-over-Sands to do the circuit that Mick did last week. A good decision: what a fine route with interesting and varied views. In fact, so good were the views from Hampsfell Hospice that rather than adding on the extra distance I needed at low level, I opted to go up there twice.
Meanwhile Mick had walked the Promenade, returned through the town, visited the pie shop and complimented a lady on her garden:
Our stay in the car park was rounded off by watching a tractor, fitted with a 'grab', lifting some huge chunks of tree trunk into its trailer. It looked a skillful exercise, not just doing the lifting, but manoeuvring the tractor and trailer into the small space behind some parked cars. No photo of that, I'm afraid - I was too busy watching.
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