Day 75 Cockermouth to Caldy via Kirkstone Pass

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The day began with the drive through Keswick to the turn-off onto the road that would take us up and over the 454m (1 489 feet) Kirkstone Pass, a mountain pass in the Lake District. In places it has a gradient of 1:4. We stopped numerous times to take in the scenery and to even walk into a few fields to take photos and enjoy the freshness of the mountains. We also stopped near the summit at the 3^rdhighest public house in England, Kirkstone Pass Inn. The road, as has been the case throughout the Lake District, was windy, narrow in many places, enclosed by stone fences and having steep, cliff like drop-offs, numerous blind corners that required 100%!f(MISSING)ocus when driving particularly when vehicles approached from the opposite direction.

Before hitting the M6 we came across Michelle's Coffee Shop, indulged, then hit the M6 and sped south to Knutsford where I convinced Jane to head into her childhood environment of Wilmslow where we found the 3 houses she had stayed as a child, her school and the church where her brothers were choir boys, the homes of her best friends, where she had learned to swim and play different sports and what was there that didn’t exist now. Jane did much reminiscing commentary as we explored various areas.

Back in Caldy to be welcomed cheerfully by Mary was the icing-on-the-cake of another great day. At the moment Rob is sailing his new yacht from Dartmouth to Caernarvon.

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