Ep 5: The One We Did By Bus

4 June Grasmere – rest day!

Well. After a number of days of fell climbing we luxuriated in our first rest day. After a sumptuous breakfast (‘full English’) at How Foot Lodge (photo above) the expeditionary party split into two to cover more territory.

Together, we boarded the wonderful Lake District double-decker bus with Val and Pete alighting in Ambleside and Adam and Barbie heading for an appointment with a yacht at Low Wood Bay on Lake Windermere.

The yacht hire was an effort to recreate the adventures from Swallows and Amazons, the evocative children’s books by Arthur Ransome. Despite the lack of wind and an unscheduled encounter with the rocky shoreline, Adam’s helming left a wake ‘as straight as a ruler’. The fells around Windermere provided a beautiful backdrop to the sailing day, with stately homes gracing the waterline. To sail in the same waters as Cap’n John of the good ship Swallow was an ambition four decades in the making – ticked off in great style.

The remainder of the day was spent in the village of Windermere (cute) and Bowness-on-Windermere (uncute) with rice pudding as a very English (and somewhat inappropriate) lunch.

Meanwhile, Peter and Val hopped on board  the Swift, a passenger boat that plies a regular service up and down the top half of lake Windermere. With such a lovely and sunny day, it  couldn’t have been better to be out on the water, the forests and hills around the blue lake looking picture-postcard perfect. We enjoyed the commentary and the ever-varied scenery. On the way back, we hopped off at Brockhole, the National Trust’s headquarters on Windermere. The visitor centre there – the UK’s first, in 1967 – was a wealth of fascinating information about the landscape, history and flora & fauna of the Lake District. One thing that stood out for us was the prominence of old Norse, Celtic and English words for so many of the landscape features – pikes, fells, meres, becks, and others.

Suitably informed, we boarded the bus back to Grasmere for a tasty icecream and a wander through the town.

The relaxing day was rounded off by a very nice meal at the restaurant attached to a local brewery – and we successfully managed  to avoid the usual fare of “everything with chips”.

Distance today: none officially!

Below: Grasmere