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With Bernie fully recovered from whatever it was that had him feeling crook last night we headed off to the Lakes District this morning after breakfast. On the way we decided that we should give the TomTom voice a name rather than continuing to call her TomTom. An iconic Australian woman’s name we thought. Bernie’s first suggestion was Priscilla, but I thought that the ‘Queen of the Desert’ didn’t seem quite right for touring around England?! The next iconic Australian woman who came to mind was ‘Edna’ so we settled on that!
We travelled straight through to Ambleside where we stopped to buy some sandwiches to take with us as we ventured over Hardknott Pass. We read in a guide book that this is one of Britain’s most spectacular roads so we were keen to check it out. It was a truly amazing experience! The road is so narrow it is quite alarming meeting oncoming traffic. There are lots of lay bys so there is generally a chance to pull in to allow passing, but a couple of times we had to back back to a lay by to let the oncoming traffic through. The narrowness of the road is
nothing compared with its steepness!! We have rarely experienced hairpin bends and switchbacks on a par with those traversing the Wrynrose and Hardknott passes!
Right at the top of the Hardknott Pass we found a nifty little spot to park so we enjoyed our sandwiches at around 393 feet! After eating we hiked over the brow of the hill to check out the views. Back in the car we drove just a mile or so further and found the ruins of the Roman fort that were also mentioned in the guide book. The ruins were pretty exposed but that didn’t stop us from slogging our way around them in the howling wind and taking some pretty spectacular photos looking down over Eskdale.
After the excitement of Hardknott pass we drove down into Eskdale. From there we meandered our way through Santon Bridge to Nether Wasdale where we drove along one of the lesser known lakes; Wast Water which is on the River Irt. From half way along Wast Water we headed for Gosforth where we were finally back on an A road for the first time since we passed through Skelwirth Bridge just out of Ambleside this morning!
We motored up the A595 to Whithaven where we went to the Tourist Information Centre to book a B&B. We found the TIC only to discover that it is being refurbished and has been relocated to The Beacon. All well and good, but there were no directions to The Beacon!! Fortunately a local thought we looked a bit lost and she pointed us in the right direction.
The poor TIC staff, they have one small desk in a corner at The Beacon and no computers!!! Talk about flying blind. Despite these difficulties they put us onto a really nice B&B, the only problem being that the room will not be available until 7.00pm due to the owner having to go to Newcastle unexpectedly today. We didn’t think we would have any trouble filling in the three hours to 7.00pm so we said we would take the room.
After walking back to the car we decided to cruise past the B&B to familiarize ourselves with its location for later on. Having worked out where we need to be at 7.00pm we drove up onto the headland to check out the view of Whitehaven and then down to the village
of St Bees. We walked up onto St Bees Head the 500 foot sandstone cliff just to the north of the village. From the bluff we took a photo of the caravan park for Wendy to prove to her that they are as desolate as Bernie has described. Not a tree or shrub in sight, just row upon row of vans!!
Next we walked down onto the beach and checked out the rock pools. We encountered some young girls who had been catching crabs in one of the rock pools. When they saw us taking photos they insisted that we had to take a photo of their ‘catch of the day’ a palm sized crab. All of their crabs had been caught on a catch and release basis and they were going to tip them all back into the pool when they were done.
We were almost ready to leave the beach when the sea rescue volunteers started backing their twin engine rubber ducky down onto the beach with a great big tractor. Bernie had to wait then to see what they were going to do with it. After a couple of minutes wait the tractor drove the
boat and trailer down the beach and out into the surf and off it went!! Bernie had the motor drive on the camera going so hopefully will have at least one action shot of the boat leaping through the waves!
And so, back to Whitehaven - which didn’t take nearly as long as expected. With still a bit more time to kill we went back down by the marina and took a stroll out along the sea wall. With the tide way out it was pretty tame, but the tide marks indicate that it must get pretty wild at times. The outgoing tide had left a boat stranded high and dry and the coast guard were there digging the rudder free we presume to assist with refloating it on tonight’s tide??? Just as Bernie took a photo I noted that the name of the boat was Helen Mary. What a coincidence - that’s Bernie’s Mum’s names!!!
We finally got ourselves checked in at Lowther House and very nice it is too!! The proprietor recommended ‘The Zest’ restaurant down at the harbor for dinner so we set off on foot back down to the harbor. After a very nice
meal we walked back up to the B&B where I have finally managed to bring my travel diary up-to-date!
Today would have been a very good day to be wearing the pedometer! I really must do something about getting that sorted out!
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Cathy
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Hardknott Pass
I think I am still traumatised from that drive over Hardknott Pass back in 1991! Steve of course thought it was great - from the comfort of the passenger seat. As driver, I was happy to finally reach the top, and even more happy to get onto flat ground some time later.