Day 43: Wednesday 30 April - Arnside and Loweswater, by Ken

The weather today was a complete contrast to yesterday, it was overcast with light rain and decidedly cool.

We ate breakfast at Ye Olde Fighting Cocks. opting for the same as yesterday feeling the sooner we get Mabel the sooner the temptation of eating a full English breakfast (included in the price of the room) would be removed.

After breakfast I phoned DVLA hoping they would have good news about Mabel’s registration. The recorded voice gave me seven options, none of which seemed to match my need for information on a registration number for a vehicle to be exported. I listened again and selected the number that seemed most appropriate and was then given another three choices that also weren’t ideal. Chris answered my call and tried to be helpful saying it wasn’t his area of expertise, but he read me a pamphlet setting out the process and forms required to obtain a number. Having already filled out the forms, I was keen to know when we would be advised of a number. Chris provided the proforma DVLA response that it could take up to 10 working days and to ring back if I hadn’t heard by then! So I tried again – Options 3 and 7 got me Sian who did deal with export registrations. After putting me on hold for a while she was sorry to say (in a lilting Wesh accent) there was nothing on the system regarding my application, but the good news was I wasn’t on the list of rejected applications! There was nothing more she could add as the main system only shows applications once they have been approved!

Disappointed, I went to see James, the manager, and booked two more nights at the Cocks.

Next was a trip into nearby Milnthorpe to visit a Post Office to get a new registration disc for Smarty. The parking arrangements in Milnthorpe are interesting in that it’s free for two hours but the car has to display a “parking time disc” showing the time of arrival. A parking warden told me I could obtain such a disc from a nearby shop. The disc was free, but it did seem a bit of a palava in order to get free parking. Obtaining the new tax disc was painless, although we only needed 7 months which wouldn’t be a problem in New Zealand, but in the UK the choice is either 6 or 12 months. However, at £30 (NZ$60) for a year I wasn’t too unhappy.  As I understand it the charge is based on vehicle emissions and Smarty's three cylinders are not doing too much damage to the environment.

Back in Arnside we walked down to the pier to await the incoming bore. We were early and after an hour of waiting we were cold in spite of our puffer jackets.

A Cold Wait For The Bore

However, the sight of the approaching bore made the wait very worthwhile. It’s arrival was signaled by a siren sounding 40 and 20 minutes beforehand and the first sign was a small standing wave in the distance. The wave was much wider than that we saw in Morecambe Bay yesterday, broadening the channel of the River Kent significantly as it approached. It was only as it neared the pier that we gained an impression of the speed and volume of the advancing water, there was no way anyone could outrun it. Three kayaks travelling on the current shot past us – an easy way of travelling upstream, but impossible to get back. It took no time at all for the river bed to fill and the channel under the southern end of the railway viaduct to be transformed into violent rapids.

River Kent - Bore Approaching In Distance

Bore

River Kent After Bore Passed (Kayakers Riding The Bore)

We were pleased to get into Smarty and get warm again. We decided to go to Loweswater for the afternoon which was about 50 miles away. In Milnthorpe we stopped at the Booth’s supermarket (Harry’s favourite place for food while in Settle) to buy some lunch which we ate in a park just outside Windermere. Jane was driving and had set the satnav to take us on the shortest route which she felt would be more interesting than main roads. It turned out to be very “interesting”. Often we were on single track lanes and glad we were in Smarty and not Mabel. It rained on and off and climbing through a pass we found ourselves in cloud. Soon after that we were on a narrow gated road and had to stop twice to open gates.

Cottage En-Route

One Of The Gates We Passed Through 

By the time we parked at the western end of Loweswater, the rain had stopped and the sun was breaking through. We had selected a 7km walk around the lake from a book we bought yesterday. Initially, we had a fairly steep climb to an old fell road that gave us good views over the lake below. As the road descended we passed many small fields with traditional dry stone walls. Most fields contained sheep with their new born lambs some of which seemed to be very new judging by their wobbly legs.

Jane On Old Fell Road

Mother And Lamb

Twins

The weather improved significantly during the course of the two hour walk which took us through farmland and a wood. We passed a Pinfold - animals that escaped, grazed common land when the owner's didn't have commoner's rights or got out of control on the way to market were put in the Pinfold by the Pinder, a local constable. To get them back the owner had to pay a fine.

Pinfold

Loweswater

I drove back, this time selecting the quickest route which shaved half an hour off the journey even though it was 10 miles longer. The journey took us through the Kirkstone Pass which has a pub at its summit.

Kirkstone Pass

Pub At The Summit Of Kirkstone Pass

Mother And Lamb At Roadside In Kirkstone Pass

It was getting late and we stopped for dinner at the Ship Inn at Sandside, not far from Arnside. It was a mistake! Jane was ignored by the waitress who watched her take a seat in the dining area and I nearly tripped over a young boy playing on a rug directly outside the toilets. We found that we had to order our meals at the bar. My Chicken Korma (sauce out of a tin) and Jane’s Lamb Henrie (a minted lamb shoulder) took well over 30 minutes to arrive. While we were waiting, the boy continued to play on the rug and even ate his desert there. Jane and I had mixed views on the acceptability of this, Jane blamed the parents for ignoring the boy, I blamed the waitress for serving him food on the rug!

The Ship Inn

Back at Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, Wednesday night is quiz night. We joined forces with Chris and Gretchen from Sheffield. Chris writes books on reptiles for a living and has a trip to New Zealand to see Tuatara in the wild on his to-do list. I’ve not been to a pub quiz before, but this one seemed to be out of the norm with the quiz-master having a full DJ set up and playing music before, during and after the quiz. The Tuataras, as Gretchen named our team, took third place which we thought was a good effort considering a lot of the questions centred on topical English news and pop music. We were all out of our depth on the latter once the music progressed beyond the seventies.