Today we walked around the base of the Old Man of Coniston up to Levers Water. The weather was truly kind and although there was cloud on the summit we were given some spectacular views right across Coniston Water and once again we given a plethora of autumnal colours fifty shades of orange. This is how Mondays should be indeed…..
Wise words from a passing walker on the Coniston Fells this morning. In actual fact when you set off in the rain you get wet and you stay wet and that’s exactly what happened on today’s walk. I have talked a lot about colours on our walks and today the colour was orange it was beautiful. We walked across the fells towards the quarry where we could see a waterfall and then down in to Torver and then we followed the disused railway back to the van. It was a 5 mile walk in all so a couple of hours and we were rewarded with carrot and parsnip soup (homemade) more orange.
So we had an early start so we could arrive at our destination at a reasonable time to walk the dogs. So it was no suprise when we turned up that rather than set up we just walked straight out. We found ourselves in the village of Coniston and a lovely little pub with its own brewery, well the sun was shining and who doesn’t like to sit outside with a pint. If you know me and Tim you will also know that you always do things in pairs “you can’t have one without the other” so of course a second pint was on the cards. What we didn’t say was that Tim chose IPA at 6% which I only had the one pint off. Anyway we were enjoying the second pint outdoors and the heavens opened and so we ran indoors. It continued to rain for the next hour and so we had no choice but to remain in the pub. To be fair only three were consumed.
The walk home was non eventful until Mabel (who was allowed off the lead) chased a chicken, I don’t know to this day if said chicken survived but it was harrowing. It was in someone’s garden than backed on to the footpath, they were running free and there was no fence. I was traumatised!
We arrived back at the campsite and had to start the set up which was interesting to say the least but we managed it. But it was fueled by beer and not as smooth as normal and lots of laughter! Much later and many beers later Tim fell out of the van and bumped his head on the table, but luckily the table is ok!!
So the note to self is, always set up before you go to the pub!
Yesterday was just one of them days. We woke up to rain and it continued to pour down all day. I prepared and made dinner early and put it on to slow cook except it didnt. My mood just went downhill from there. But we woke this morning to it being dry with broken cloud and even a bit of blue sky and a barely any wind. So we set off caught a bus to Housesteads Roman fort, treated ourselves to coffee and cake and then walked the 11km back along Hadrians Wall to the campsite. We passed Crag Lough, Sycamore Gap, Windshield to Milestead 41a. The weather was really kind to us and we even had to take our coats off. It was busy to start bu once at the Sycamore Gap we pretty much had the walk to ourselves. Anyway we came back from the walk feeling much more happier and what’s more dinner was cooked – lamb stew!
Harry Potter was filmed here in 2000! Imagine Quidditch being played in the greens!
Did someone say pub lunch! A 15km walk along the beach and sand dunes from Beadnall to Low Newton by the sea. We were rewarded with a local handpicked crab Scottie and a pint at the Ship Inn.
The forecast is for high winds but sunshine so our plan was to walk to Holy Island but first we had to cross the border into England.
Sadly Holy Island (Lindesfarm) didn’t work out. Parking wasn’t great, information didn’t help and so we ended up driving onto the island. We arrived at the car park and there were so many cars and people we decided not to stay so we drove off. Stopping along the way for hot chocolate and a border slice!
We continued to Bamburgh where we parked and had a walk around the village, beach and castle.
We had a very rough night in the van with the wind, and so neither of us slept very well. When we got up at 7am we decided it would be better to being the roof down and sit out the wind. So our morning was spent after having our coffees, feeding the dog and having our breakfast – porridge checking the wind, making tomorrows dinner of spag bog, and today’s dinner ready for the slow cook of beef stew and a packed lunch. We had showers and then at about 2ish we headed out towards Dunbar. We walked alongside the golf course and it was so windy still.
We arrived in Dunbar and checked out the statue of John Muir, as this was the birthplace of him before he moved into the USA at the age of 11. Famous for instigating the development of the US national parks.
We then walked along to the harbour to take a look at the castle ruins.
And then we found the Station Yard micro brewery and had ourselves two pints of Peely Wally whilst talking to two locals and listening to a local folk band Brothers Sea.
We got back to the van and started on a decamp and tidied. I fed the dogs and a full house, reinstated the roof and made tomorrow’s packed lunch and a bottle of rose prosecco to celebrate our last day in Scotland. Its been an amazing 7 weeks
After a brief visit to the Royal Yacht Britannia in Leith we arrived in Dunbar. We set up our van and the awning in the knowledge that it is going to get very windy. The campsite is lovely (if not open), it’s situated just south of Dunbar the birthplace of John Muir. He emigrated to USA aged 11 and he became famous for helping to instigate USA National Parks. Tim and I first became aware of him when we cycled through the John Muir Woods in San Francisco on the last day of our 1500 -18 day cycle of Oregon and California in 2017. We brought some engraved driftwood with one of his quotes and it sits in our conservatory. ” The mountains are calling and I must go”. So I am very excited to be in his birthplace and hopefully tomorrow we will get to see his statue. But today we walked along to the lighthouse because as we all know I do love a lighthouse.
GoughAdventures 