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| Jackie, Brian and Pauline with the Old Man of Coniston in the background |
Our two week
housesit for Tim and family in Derby fell through after he ruptured a lung at
the gym so couldn’t fly, opting instead for a staycation (he’s going to be OK
apparently), Pauline (Jackie’s mum) had a positive meeting with her IFA, Jackie
got frustrated looking for last minute housesits with people not replying
(‘yes, we understand you are desperate as you’ve been let down by a housesitter
at the last minute, are going on holiday and need to find someone quick, but it
works both ways, we have also been let down at the last minute and need to know
where we are going to go, so if you’ve found someone else have the decency to
let us know after you’ve read our application, we don’t want to apply for lots,
get lots of offers and then have to let people down, so we’re waiting to hear
from you before applying for others!’ Moan over). In the absence of anything
positive, Pauline said ‘Why don’t we all go away for a few days, my treat! What
about the Lake District?’ Why not indeed!
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| The view from our lounge window of Coniston water |
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| Jackie and Pauline in the kitchen |
Sometimes
late breaking decisions work out well and our trip with Pauline to the Lake
District was one of those. Despite being in the middle of the main holiday
season where prices are usually very high and availability scarce, after a few
hours searching on the internet we found a really good deal: a two bedroom
self-catering cottage in Coniston village, high up on a hill with superb views
over Coniston water (they call them ‘water’ up there, not lakes), 3 minutes
walks from the famous Sun Inn pub and with walks straight from the cottage,
including one to the summit of the Old Man of Coniston. The owners had had a
late cancellation so offered us a very good discount for a 5 day break starting
the day after tomorrow, so on Sunday morning we packed and headed up the M6
motorway, arriving at 3:00pm.
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| Heading out for our Coniston Water cruise |
Coniston
Water and its surrounding are both very picturesque and historically interesting,
so here are a few facts:
- The lake is
the third largest in the English Lake District at 8km long, 800m wide, has a
maximum depth of 56m and is 44m above sea level
- The Old Man
of Coniston rises to a height of 803m, towering over the lake and immediately
to its west. It is a straightforward walk to the summit, usually starting from
the Coppermine valley, so named because of its history of copper mining in the
area and still littered with old mineworkings, slag heaps, rusting mining
equipment and gravel access roads and bridges in the valley and halfway up the
summit path route (See: Old_Man_of_Coniston).
- The
Victorian artist and philosopher John Ruskin owned Brantwood House on the
eastern shore of the lake and lived there from 1872 until his death in 1900.
The house is a Grade II listed building and is now a museum dedicated to John
Ruskin and is open to the public. Access to it is either by road, round the
lake from Coniston village or by taking the Coniston Cruises ferry, as we did
one day. (See: John Ruskin).
-
Arthur
Ransome lived in a cottage on the eastern shore of the lake and wrote his
novels Swallows and Amazons in the 1930’s, which were set in the area (see: Swallows and Amazons).
Near to his cottage in the lake is the small Peel Island with its secret
harbour, which has been identified as Wild Cat Island in his books. The Coniston
Cruise we went on took us past Peel Island, but we couldn’t land as the water
is too shallow. We could see a number of kayaks in the secret harbour and
youngsters scouting around the island though which all looked very exciting! A
new film of the same name has been made, filmed on location on Coniston Water
and Peel Island and is due for release on 19th August, perhaps we
should go and see it…. (see: swallowsandamazonsforever.co.uk)
-
The lake is
also infamously known as the place where Donald Campbell lost his life trying
to break the water speed record in his craft Bluebird K7. On 4th
January 1967, almost 50 years ago, approaching his goal of exceeding 300mph his
craft became airborne, somersaulted and smashed itself on the surface of the
lake killing him instantly and taking him and most of the craft to the bottom
of the lake. The main part of the fuselage was recovered by divers in March
2001 and Donald Campbell’s body was recovered in May 2001 and is now buried in
Coniston Cemetery. The body of the craft survived for 34 years underwater
mainly as the engine acted as sacrificial anode, meaning the engine corroded in
preference to the body due to its electropotential difference (See: Galvanic corrosion).
The craft is now being rebuilt using as
much of the original structure as possible and it is hoped that it will
eventually will be used on Coniston Water again for some speed trials (see: bluebirdk7.com).
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| Peel (Wild Cat) Island on Coniston Water |
The weather
in The Lake District can often be wet, sitting as it does in the North-West of
England surrounded by mountains, but we were fairly lucky, only having rain on
a couple of days, cool, cloudy weather on others and even some sunshine,
allowing us to get out and about exploring.
A boat trip
on the lake was high on our list, but first we had an afternoon in Coniston
village followed by an evening out in the Sun Inn on Sunday and then a trip to
Ambleside on Monday, followed by a drive over a small part of Wynrose mountain
pass. Ambleside is famous for its outdoor gear shops and with our forthcoming
year long trip to South America rapidly approaching we have plenty of outdoor
gear to buy, so it was a perfect opportunity, but perhaps not for Pauline who
we dragged along as well! New approach shoes for Jackie and lots of looking at
backpacking rucksacks, but there’s a lot more work to be done on that!
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| A little robin sitting on the fence at Brantwood House |
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| Old mine workings on the Old Man of Coniston walk |
Tuesday was
our day on the lake with Coniston Cruises, which has about 5 stops at various
points where you can get off and on, waiting for the next one to continue, plus
a close encounter with Peel (Wild Cat) Island. We made just one stop and that
was at the Brantwood House stop, not to visit the house (we’re not really John
Ruskin fans), but to stop at the café for lunch and enjoy the superb views of
the lake framed by the Old Man of Coniston in the(brief) sunshine. A nice amble
along part of the lake edge afterwards and then back for afternoon tea and cake
at our cottage!
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| View of Low and Levers Waters from near the summit of the Old Man |
On Wednesday
we left Pauline to explore locally while Jackie and I took a walk to the summit
of the Old Man of Coniston. It was pleasant but relatively steep walking in
partly sunshine (but no rain) and always good views, particularly as we
approached the summit to enjoy expansive views across the Lake District with
views of Scafell and Coniston and Windermere waters. It’s a popular walk for
people of all nationalities and we heard many different languages from people
going up that we passed (and passed us) and people on their way down.
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| On the summit of the Old Man of Coniston |
Not far
from the top, on a particularly steep part above a small lake Jackie stopped a
couple on their way down as they were about to pass us ‘Are you Wendy’ she
said, ‘yes’ came the reply ‘and you must be Sion’ Jackie said to her partner, ‘yes’
he said. It turns out she is ‘friends’ with them on Facebook but has never met
them, Abi (Sooty’s owner in Hall Green) having suggested she ‘friended’ them
sometime ago. An amazing coincidence, but even more amazing that Jackie
recognised someone she had never met. Nice couple and a welcome break on our
steep uphill section.
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| The summit shelter |
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| The final moments of Bluebird K7 |
It only took
us 3 hours door to door to do it and we were back down before the forecasted
afternoon rain, to settle down to do the 1000 piece jigsaw Pauline had brought.
With the 3 of us working at it we had it done in 3 hours in time for wine and
dinner, not bad eh!
Thursday was
wet so we went into Coniston village to the John Ruskin museum which featured
not only John Ruskin but a section on Swallows and Amazons and a whole wing
devoted to Donald Campbell and the Bluebird K7, with one section of a crushed
air intake and the corroded engine on display. I remember the original crash in
January 1967 as an 11 year old and can remember my mum waking up my brother
Tony and I with the news that Donald Campbell had been killed. I was only dimly
aware of him at the time but can remember those images of the caterpulting
craft and feeling quite shocked at seeing someone killed in that way and it
brought all those memories back to me. We finished the day off with a drive
round the lake, returning home the following day down a very busy and slow M6
back to Pauline’s house in Alvechurch for the night.
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| A photo from the John Ruskin museum of the recovered Bluebird K7 in March 2001 |
It’s now
Sunday afternoon and we’re now back in Hall Green in Birmingham looking after
Sooty the cat, having taken Abi off to the airport yesterday afternoon for her
holiday in Jersey.
We’re here
for a few weeks now, probably until we head off for our South American trip. We
are now in the final stages of planning that and will be booking flights within
the next few days, probably heading out of the UK around 14th
September and expecting to be away for about a year. Exciting times!!
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| This crushed component is an actual air intake from Bluebird K7 and was too corroded to use for the rebuild. Apparently it originally extended as far as the beam by the person in the white jacket. The impact with the water crushed it to this length |
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| This is the original engine from Bluebird K7 and is heavily corroded. It saved the body by being the sacrificial anode |
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| Walking up to the Claife panoramic viewing station on Windermere |
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| View through one of the stainglass edged opening in the viewing station |
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| Back with little Sooty in Hall Green.... |
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| She seems quite happy her staff are back! |
