Coniston - 30/7/09

OK weather for once so we had a kind of Super Strolls Thursday. First drove up to Tarn Hows, at the top of the Coniston valley. As mum said, it's a kind of mini-Lake District, a little wooded valley with an artificial lake. The best feature are the looming mountains of the actual Lake District all around. We took the inevitable walk around the lake, about two miles all told, with Christine setting Lorna a nature spotting test to distract her from her many – possible apocryphal – stitches. Sadly there wasn't all that much nature to see, with even ducks shunning the lake like it was poison. It started to rain as lunchtime approached, in a rather predictable way. But then it stopped and we got to have a picnic outside the car for once, in a spot with a very good view of Cumbria's Dead Sea. By now the girls were set on the Beatrix Potter Experience. Me, Bill, mum and dad, not wanting to experience that in any circumstances, split off from them. We weren't sure what we did want to do, but after lengthy discussion stayed at Tarn Hows for another stroll. This one was downhill through the woods, alongside another noisy and tempestuous beck. Unfortunately the path was a bit too Alpine for Bill so we soon had to turn back. I darted along a bit further until I got in sight of a road, seeing en route another decent little waterfall. Next we drove over the top into Langdale. This looked more like a proper Lakes valley to my eyes; Coniston is OK but it's a bit too borderland and civilised. Langdale has tiny slate villages, high hills on both sides and, at the head, the rocky and towering Langdale Peaks. We stopped about halfway down and strolled down a path supposedly leading alongside Eltenwater. It actually did everything it could to avoid the lake, though capitulated about three quarters of the way along to give us a trademark water-and-mountains view to photograph. Had tea at a weird café-cum-grocery-cum-outdoors centre, and got home just in time for our usual meal out. This was at the Red Lion, a small and lively pub just down the lane. Pub food too, which meant it was decently priced and concentrated on actually tasting nice, and a “folks from round here” landlord straight from Central Casting. He even had a West Country accent, which was a bit odd. Mum and dad insisted on breaking into a churchyard on the way back, but otherwise a good evening.