Kiwi Roaming

Clear of Storm Bram we drove from Scotland south west to the Lake District where a massive weather bomb hit. I’ve mentioned before that Steve’s driving had been fantastic, well in the dark, torrential rain and on B roads or worse which are narrow with stone walls on either side – he had to step it up another notch. It was crazy.

One of our ambitions for this trip was to stay in a pub in a room upstairs, where we could enjoy a drink or two beside the fire on a cold evening. So thanks to a great Black Friday deal we selected the Coniston Inn located on the outskirts of a very cute village and near some of the chocolate box towns. After a slow drive we arrived at the pub and checked into our room before heading back downstairs for dinner.

The Inn is a big old stone building with about 40 rooms, half were dog friendly rooms and the others not for dogs (like ours of course), in the downstairs there is a room for folks without dogs (which we only discovered on our second day). We got chatting with the two bar tenders from Australia who were happy to hear a familiar accent so that helped pass the time. Little did we know we would be stuck here for two days so glad we chose such a great spot with lovely food, expensive drinks and a cosy bar. Pics above are all at the Inn.

Next morning we got up and could see the paddocks outside were now new lakes, our car was in about 1 foot of water – but we decided to drive the 15 mins to Ambleside (biggest town in the area) and get supplies. The drive there was a little harrowing, it started raining again so we thought we had better get back pronto before the road became impassable – which was an excellent decision as after only 30 mins much of the road was now a river. So the drive back was quite harrowing but Steve managed it very well. We then hunkered down and caught up on blogs and did not much for 2 days.

When we left Coniston Monday morning it was briefly no longer raining. We had seen lots of very wet dogs over the weekend and owners who were wearing their wellies to take them out. It would be fantastic here if not for the rain and flooding situation, lots of walking, picturesque lakes and rolling hills, livestock to encounter. We drove through the nearby towns on our way south but decided we would focus on returning to Milton Keynes rather than stopping much in this weather.

Here are a few pics from along the journey (and Sunday roast), driving conditions were challenging at times and all lakes in these pics were paddocks. The sheep here all have grey/black bodies and white heads and legs, I now know these are a breed specific to the Lake District called Herdwick and were one of Beatrix Potter’s favourites.