In Sir Donald Campbell’s footsteps…

The morning started as expected.  It had been a rough night, weather-wise, and the heavy rain continued until lunch-time.  Sally texted with the excellent news that our son-in-law, Sean, had received official notification that he had gained a 2:1 in his university teaching degree after five years of hard work whilst working full time.  Congratulations Sean! 🙂

Again we decided not take to the road until the afternoon when the rain eased a little and we popped down the road to Keswick for some shopping.  It’s such an excellent country town and was particularly busy today, being a Saturday of course.  We paid a visit to our favourite butcher to get some steak and sausages, plus some Cornish pasties for our lunch.  The street market was in full swing and we bought some strawberries and veggies on the way back to Bessie. Luchini’s, the legendary Italian ice cream parlour, was the final stop and we came away clutching a large pot containing a mixture of home-made raspberry, chocolate and apple crumble ice cream.  Straight into the freezer for later – yum!!

Consulting our OS map, we decided to investigate Ullswater, from where Sir Donald Campbell famously launched his boat ‘Bluebird‘ in 1953.  The A5091 dives down in a crooked line, passing through the village of Matterdale End with this strange freestanding partial wall with its old GR postbox still attached:

We suddenly came across this delightful 16th century church at Matterdale and the inside wasn’t a disappointment either:

Lambs are never far away at this time of the year in the Lake District and who could resist this cute twosome? A wonderful landscape of green fields, filled with sheep and the steep sides of the fells gave way to a stretch of dark water in front of us with a backdrop of mist-cloaked hills – Ullswater.

We stopped at the National Trust carpark at Glencoyne Bay and ate our Cornish pasties and finished with the scrumptious ice cream:  After lunch we followed the lake down to Glenridding where there was a monument to Sir Donald Campbell and also the departure point for the Ullswater Steamers (see featured image) and several boatyards with boats for hire. The road started to climb steeply as we ascended the famous Kirkstone Pass: with the inn of the same name at the top: Travelling back down the Pass and re-tracing our footsteps we were able to photograph the fabulous view: We spotted the steamer on the lake.  It gives Ullswater a timeless appeal:  Driving onwards from where we had first joined the lake, we headed up to Pooley Bridge, passing many small boats on the way: We then retraced our footsteps but couldn’t resist one more photograph of Ullswater, now looking moody in the early evening light:

What had started off as a disappointing day turned out to be a fascinating one. What an enchanting place the Lake District is.