Thursday 28th February 2013

And hello boys and girls, welcome aboard as we travel from the garden of England to almost as far away from here and remain in Blighty without crossing into Scotland as is possible.

Cumbria is the county above Lancashire in the worth west, and is ‘on the way to Scotland’ and it what you see from the M6 as you whizz along. It also contains the Lake District, in which, I believe, only one of the bodies of water in the Lake District is an actual lake, as most are ‘waters.’ Anyway, it is a mighty long way, some 460 miles, 411 as the crow flies, but as we’re not crows…….

And as Jools wanted to not only come along, but wanted to call in Lichfield on the way to visit a bead shop. So, we set off Sunday afternoon to head north. As usual the M25 was a nightmare, well, not nose to tail, but traffic very heavy, and it was a relief to get to Heathrow and then set off towards Oxford up the M40. And we kept our eyes peeled for any Red Kites either circling or swooping on prey. We were rewarded with seeing over 20, and one perched on the fence right beside the motorway as we headed north.



We went up the M42 turning off at Tamworth. Tamworth, on the face of it a typical west midland town, with the usual mix of housing estates, bypasses and the such. But also home to a fabulous castle, as the town was once the capital of the kingdom of Mercia, and full of history. Sadly, for us, we arrived at sunset, and we had to rush round getting our shots. But I got some outside of the castle and a few other interesting buildings and statues. The town centre was deserted, apart from gangs or skateboarders, who really seemed harmless.



Or, mostly harmless.

We were challenged as to why we were taking photographs, but seemed happy with the answer of #because we enjoy it.’ We headed back to the car and drove the 10 miles to Lichfield and our hotel for the night. We went to the pub next door for a meal, nothing fancy, but it did us well enough. And then it was back to the hotel to relax and wait for Match of the Day to come on.

Monday.

We were up with the lark the next morning, and back into the pub for a healthy breakfast of cereal and fruit at least for me. And then out into the centre of the city so we could wander round taking pictures before the shop opened and we could head north. We parked near the bead shop, and then set off into the city centre, where we found a fine mix of old and new buildings and a fine statue of Dr Johnson as well as the house he grew up in.



All roads lead to the cathedral, and so did we. It is a gothic masterpiece, built of red stone, and finely carved. But we heard voices from inside, and found the pews full of schoolchildren, so we made our way quietly back out. I snapped it good from the outside, and then it was time to head to the shop and hence to the car. On the way we were diverted into a tea shoppe and we treated ourselves to coffee and scones.



And why not.

Once Jools had got her beads, we headed off north to the M6 and ‘the north’. We had the radio on for traffic updates, and already we had bad news, the motorway was blocked and would remain so for hours. We carried on hoping it would be cleared by the time we got there. We headed north through Staffordshire, and up into Merseyside and Lancashire to Lancaster itself, at which point we had to turn off as our way was blocked. With little trouble we got to Carnforth, where had always planned to stop for lunch at the station.



Carnforth station is rather special, it holds a place in the arts as the location for the British wartime film, Brief Encounter. And there is a fine tea room on the platform, and as the station is quite interesting, I thought it well worth stopping off to snap. We had bacon butties and a brew and took in the surroundings. Well worth stopping for.



We got back in the car with the thought that we only had about 5 miles to go before we could turn off and head towards Barrow then up the coast. As it turned out, the traffic was solid just out of Carnforth, so we headed back into town and along the country lanes to try to get round it all. What we found were small towns along the coast, miles of saltflats, and somewhere to revisit as it was beautiful. We stopped off in Arnside to look at the view of the river Kent estuary and with the backdrop of the snow-capped peaks of the Lake District in the background.



At least the traffic on the A6 was moving, and we joined the stream of traffic and within a mile or so turned off onto the peninsular of Barrow in Furness and the Western Lake District. We made steady progress, and above the sun shone down from a clear blue sky, it was glorious. We headed up to the coast, and to the east we had views to the snow-capped peaks of mountains, with the land between deep green after a wonter of rain and now soaking up the sunshine.



We turned off the main coast road heading north to have a break by the shore at Seascale. Seascale is somewhat overshadowed by its northerly neighbour which used to be called Windscale, but is now called Sellafield and is where all Britain’s nuclear waste is processed and stored. Anyway, Seascale is lovely, and with a broad sandy beach, anyway at low tide. We walked a while, went onto the beach then thought about heading north to another such location to watch the sun set.



We headed north and followed a very narrow lane down over the railway and onto the beach. A row of huts had been built against the dunes and railway embankment, and looked over the wide beach down to the Solway Forth. We waited for the sun to go down, me hoping a train would come along, but as it was, seeing the birds fly by looking for a roost, and the sky turning an ever darker blue as the sun dipped towards the Galloway hills in the distance.

Bit by bit the sun slipped from view, until there was just an orange glow in the sky. I checked the timetable for a train to come by, and was rewarded with a trundling class 153 heading north to Carlisle in the gathering gloom.

We climbed back in the car and drove into Whitehaven and found our hotel for the next two nights, and a parking place; something that we came to learn is a bonus.

And after a wash, we headed out into the night to look for a place to eat.

You can tell a lot about a town by its shops and pubs: Whitehaven had very few places to eat, and no pubs did food, just sport and drinking. It is not as down on its heels as Barrow, but life is tough for those who runs shops in the town, I guess. The port still seems to be working, but it was pretty quiet, with us having the High Street to ourselves. And still nowhere to eat.

In the end we found an Italian place, and had a good meal. By the time we left, most tables were full, and the staff we rushed, which is a good thing. I tried to watch the final instalment of the program about the 100 years war, but could not keep my eyes open and so joined Jools in the land of nod.

Tuesday.

I was up early and put on my work things so to be ready after breakfast for work. I turned down the chance of a fry up and had scrambled eggs. Good Ian.

It was a ten mile drive to Workington; we mixed with the rush hour traffic, and once in the maze of roads around the docks, we found the office; Jools dropped me off and headed off for a day in the Lake District. So, I did the audit, all the while looking outside at the glorious sunshine beating down and imagining the wonderful things Jools would be seeing. I even had to work to four as I had mail to catch up on, so I worked away and the day grew old.



Jools picked me up and we decided to head back into the mountains to see the sunset at Buttermere. So, we drove along the A66 before turning off down the narrow lanes which wove between the high peaks of the mountains. The light was glorious, and I went camera crazy, stopping every 5 minutes as another vista had opened up for us.

We drove alongside the lake before ending up under a massive rock overhang. We parked up and climbed up as the sun slipped behind the mountains to the west. Darkness crept over the land and a chill quickly hit the air. We got in the car and took a road which leapt up the sie of the valley, high above us the peaks were still in bright sunlight. It was like driving towards heaven.



At the top of the pass, we found a parking place and so stopped to watch another sunset, this time with views over the mountain peaks and inbetween the valleys were plunged into deep shadow. And with a last twinkle, the sun slipped behind the mountain, and so we climbed back in the car for the long drive down the valley to Keswick. As we turned west, we were confronted once again by the disk of the sun, this time blood red, and as we drove on we saw what seemed like the third sunset of the day. Darkness quickly came, and it was night by the time we arrived back at the hotel, then we had to find somewhere to park.



That night we found a fine curryhouse beside the harbour, and so we had a fine meal and a couple of Kingfishers. And now all that was left was to drive back home on Wednesday…..