Ulverston to Coniston

May 16, 2013

Today was our first day on the Cumbria Way. After breakfast and saying farewell to John and Martin, it was nearly 10 am. But that didn’t bother us because this is a no-rushing holiday. We headed up the road to the car park where the Way starts, and where there was an interesting sculpture marking the start. It was an inverted metal cone which contained samples of the different types of rock found along the route.

The first part of the Way had us climbing quite steeply alongside the gill, beside a lovely forest which was carpeted with bluebells. Then we arrived at our first moment of confusion. The maps seemed to say that we should be going through a gate and across a grassy field. But we knew that there were several other walkers ahead of us, and the grass didn’t show any footsteps. But since all of the clues pointed that way, we opened the gate and headed through the field. Sure enough, soon we found a waymark.

For the next couple of hours we were crossing farm fields. This is a rather tedious way to walk, because every 100 meters you have to stop to climb a stile or wrench open a gate. And then you have to figure out which way to cross the field so as to arrive at the next stile or gate. But luckily we had good weather and the views were splendid. And the fields were full of little lambs and their mothers.

It seemed that we climbed and climbed, and as we did so the fields became larger and eventually gave way to open country. The walking was really lovely here, no need to watch your step. We stopped at about 2 pm for lunch, sitting beside the trail above Tottlebank in a pass filled with last year’s bracken. The views were great and with the aid of our guidebook and the Ordnance Survey map we could identify various hills. We could also look back to Morecambe Bay where we had started from.

After lunch was the best section of the day’s walk. No more pastures, just open fells. We walked through a boggy section by Beacon Tarn—no ducks to be seen here, but it was a pretty tarn—and then down into a dry valley. From here the trail led us over to the shore of Coniston Water and now our path was straightforward. We followed the shoreline for about 6 kilometers until we reached Coniston. Just before we got there we had a sprinkling of rain, the first of the day, but it didn’t really amount to anything significant.

Entering the village just before 6 pm we crossed Church Beck and found our B&B. Jean welcomed us and showed us our room, and we collected our bags which had been successfully delivered by Sherpavan. It felt very good to have a shower after the long walk. After sorting out our stuff a bit we headed out for dinner. We looked at a few places before deciding on the Black Bull Inn, standing where it had stood for the last 400 years. If it was good enough for Turner and Wordsworth it was certainly good enough for us! As usual the meals were huge, but we managed to finish them off.

Ulverston

Ulverston is the starting point of the Cumbria Way, so we based ourselves there for a couple of days before starting the walk. The B&B we stayed in was Church Walk House, with friendly and helpful hosts John and Martin.

May 13, 2013

We arrived in Ulverston by bus from Windermere in the early afternoon. After settling in at the B&B and having a cup of tea, we decided to go out for a walk. On John’s advice we headed up the hill to the Hoad Monument.

(The Hoad Monument is a 100-foot-high replica of a lighthouse which stands on top of the hill outside the town. It was built in honour of local boy Sir John Barrow, who directed much of the exploration of the Northwest Passage from his office in London.)

After walking up Church Street and following the signs to the base of the hill, we climbed up the path which took us through sheep fields and a few gates. Here there were gale-force winds from the west which almost blew us over at times. The views were quite good, at least to the south across Morecambe Bay. However towards the Lake District in the north we saw masses of black clouds which looked very threatening. Hopefully by the time we start the Cumbria Way the weather will improve.

From our viewpoint on the hill we had a good view over Ulverston, so we decided to continue on down the other side of the hill and head towards the canal. We had a good idea of where the canal was so with the help of the GPS and some guesswork we walked along a few streets before finding it. The canal was built in 1796, but once the railway arrived in the 1850′s the canal became obsolete. Today it is closed off from the sea and has a walking path on one side and a GlaxoSmithKline plant on the other.

It took us about half an hour to walk down to the bay, and from there we walked back through the industrial and residential areas to Ulverston. We had booked a table at the Rose and Crown pub for 6:30 pm, so we had time to have a look at the Laurel and Hardy statue. Dinner was really good and we had been warned that the servings were very large, which they were!

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May 14, 2013

This morning after breakfast we set off for a day trip to Furness Abbey, down the road near Barrow-in-Furness. We caught the bus going to Barrow and got off at the bottom of the hill outside the Abbey House Hotel. This was built by the same architect who built Castle Drogo in Devon, and it did look remarkably similar. From behind the hotel a path took us downhill towards the Abbey.

Down in the grassy valley we first found a small ruined chapel and then, a bit farther along, the main part of the ruined abbey with the entrance building in front of it. The entrance building looked rather closed, and on closer inspection we found that it was indeed closed. At this time of year it was only open from Thursday to Monday, and here it was Tuesday.

But in the parking lot there was a man putting on his hard hat and reflective vest. He was one of English Heritage’s consulting archeologists who were working on an emergency restoration project to shore up the abbey’s foundations. Once we told him this was the only day we could be there, he proceeded to invite us into the site as long as we promised not to have an accident or fall into the beck. Some of the other workers looked surprised to see us, but he explained our presence and then took us closer to the ruins and told us a bit about the Abbey. It was built in 1123 by Stephen, count of Boulogne, who passed it to the Cistercian order in 1147. They upgraded it over the centuries and by the 15^th century it was one of the most powerful Cistercian abbeys in England. However it was destroyed in 1537 during the Reformation of Henry VIII.

After walking round the Abbey we exited through the chain-closed gate and made our way to the road which ran beside the Abbey grounds. We had found a walk in an AA book of British walks which started in Dalton and looped in a circle past the Abbey and back to Dalton, so we started at the Abbey and followed the loop. It led us on little-used public rights of way through pastures full of sheep and their lambs, through the small village of Newton, and along obscure country roads and even an old mine railway bed before arriving in Dalton. We walked to the end of the main street to see Dalton Castle, which turned out to be a large square building which looked nothing whatsoever like a castle. It was only open on Saturday afternoons, so we walked back to the main bus stop in town and caught the bus back to Ulverston.

Next stop was the Laurel and Hardy museum. Stan Laurel was actually born in Ulverston, under the name of Stanley Jefferson. The museum had furniture from the house he lived in as well as many photos and memorabilia. The centrepiece of the museum was a small area where all of the pair’s films were being shown. We watched two of them, laughing out loud. One was “Towed in the Hole” where they buy a fishing boat and manage to destroy it, and the other was “The Music Box”, where they try to deliver a piano up a very long flight of stairs. This was the only movie they made which earned them an Academy Award.

For dinner we went to Naaz, an Indian restaurant just down the road, on the recommendation of our host Martin. Rosemary ordered South Indian garlic chicken and Paul had a tandoori mixed grill, both of which were very good. And we shared a frozen coconut ice cream for dessert.

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May 15, 2013

The plan for today was to take the train to Silverdale, where the Leighton Moss RSPB site was located. We had to rather rush off after breakfast to catch the train, but as it turned out we were in plenty of time. The train ride was lovely as it went along the shore of Morecambe Bay to Arnside, then through some pastureland, then back to the water for a short time before reaching Silverdale. The walk to Leighton Moss took only about ten minutes.

Because we had arrived by public transport our admission to the reserve was free, which was a nice perk. The reserve is a wetland area with swaths of reedbeds, with very good trails and very fancy hides. All of the hides looked quite new and were built with pine interiors and double-glazed windows which opened easily. And luckily the weather was reasonably good, not as fine as yesterday but with only the occasional rain shower.

The commonest species was the Black-headed Gull, with noisy nesting flocks numbering in the hundreds, but the star species was the Marsh Harrier. We saw two of them, and one of them had caught something with long drooping legs which it carried around for quite a while. As for other star species, because of the cloudy weather neither the Bearded Tit nor the Bittern were anywhere to be seen or heard.

We walked to the more distant hides in the morning, then returned to the visitor centre where we had lunch at their café. We were supposed to meet Dave and Edith Brown (of the Wainwright’s Wanderings website) at 1 pm, but we gave up when they hadn’t arrived by 1:30. Later we discovered that he was waiting for a delivery which didn`t arrive until much later in the afternoon.

After we had finished with the main section of the reserve, we decided to walk down to the other two hides which were located by the shore of the bay. Unfortunately this required a two-kilometer walk along the side of the road, but when we got there we found lots of Avocets! With chicks too! The chicks were little fluffy balls with long legs, but not with the long bills of their parents.

While we were in the brand-new Eric Morecambe hide (just opened last year) there was a short hailstorm with strong winds. So we waited that out in the hide before heading back up the road and catching the train back to Ulverston. This time the train was not very full, so we got seats on the left-hand side for a better view of the bay.

Back in Ulverston we went for dinner at the Rose and Crown again. Rosemary had her favourite lamb chops and Paul had a Thai red duck curry.

Ambleside

Ambleside in the Lake District was the first stop on this year’s British trip. We spent two nights there and did some walking in rather poor weather.

May 11, 2013

Our Air Transat flight left Vancouver at 6 pm yesterday and arrived in Manchester a bit ahead of schedule, at about 11 am today. We had a fairly good sleep and so we weren’t tired when we arrived. Several months earlier we had booked train tickets which took us to Windermere with two changes of train at 12:29 pm, but when we got through immigration and over to the train station we found there was actually a direct train leaving at noon. Fortunately we found out that our tickets would allow us on any route to Windermere, so we hurried over to platform 2A to catch the direct train.

The trip went through several towns, both large and small, and soon we were in Windermere. The weather was mostly cloudy with rain showers, but we weren’t surprised by that because it had been like that in the Lake District for weeks. But the skies were getting brighter so we were optimistic that we might have good weather. Outside the station the #599 bus for Grasmere was waiting, so we jumped aboard and off it went. It took about 15 minutes to Ambleside, where we got off at the Market Square in Kelsick Road. After a couple of wrong turns we finally found Amboseli Lodge, the B&B where we would be staying.

Our hosts Reg and Gwen were very welcoming and surprised that we had made such good time from Manchester. After a very welcome cup of tea we sorted out our packs and then decided to go for a walk. Gwen brought us a leaflet on a path around Loughrigg Fell, which would take us to Grasmere, so we decided to do that.

The path was reasonably easy to follow and took us around the fell rather than over the top. The weather was pretty good (i.e. not raining) so we had great views of Windermere and Helm Crag, and we saw a lot of small lambs frolicking in the pastures. But as we reached the shore of Grasmere Lake we realized we would have to leave the loop path so we could actually go into the village of Grasmere. Our goal was the famous gingerbread shop, but we knew it closed at 5:30 pm so we had to get going. So we set off at a fast pace towards the village and all the way through it to the far side. As we arrived at the shop the clock was striking half-past five and the girl was just popping out to take down the “Open” sign. “Let us in, let us in!” we pleaded. “Well, all right, but be quick” she replied. We knew exactly what we wanted so we were in and out in less than two minutes.

Job done, so then we went in search of a reasonably-priced restaurant for dinner. This was hard to come by in Grasmere, since it mostly had tea shops (no dinner) and hotels (expensive dinner). We finally found a pub offering fish and chips for £9.95, so in we went. We had thought of sitting outside to eat, but as we were placing the order a huge grey cloud came over, so we moved inside. The meal was okay, definitely not the best fish and chips we had had, but we were both very hungry so it was fine.

We had thought of taking the Coffin Route back to Ambleside, but we couldn’t find where it started in Grasmere so we headed back to the path around Loughrigg Fell. We made it back to the B&B about 8:15 pm with no rain en route.

May 12, 2013

After a good night’s sleep we woke up at 8 am and went down to breakfast. We were back to the land of the Full English Breakfast, with eggs, beans, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, and sausages. The sausages were too heavily laden with sage but everything else was very good. After breakfast we sat talking with another couple who had walked the Fairfield Horseshoe yesterday, so they gave us some advice on the trail.

First stop was at the deli just around the corner, which surprisingly was open on a Sunday morning. Here we got thick freshly-made sandwiches for our lunch at a very reasonable price. After picking up some Mars bars from Tesco we headed out of town and along the road towards Grasmere. After crossing Scandale Bridge we couldn’t find the path we were supposed to take, but then we saw another couple reading their guidebook and looking equally confused. So we teamed up with them and eventually we found a faded “Public Right of Way” sign hidden in a tree. It turned out that the paved road which we thought was someone’s driveway was the path we were supposed to follow.

This path was actually the Coffin Route, which we had failed to find yesterday in Grasmere, and now that we knew it was a road we could see why we failed. Anyway it led us to Rydal Hall, a large 15^th-century mansion which is nowadays used as a Christian conference centre. It was a very lovely place with well-maintained gardens. From here our route went very steeply up the hill to join a footpath which would take us up Nab Scar.

So far the views were good, but the clouds seemed to be getting lower on the ridges. By the time we got to Nab Scar the wind had picked up and the rain showers were closer together, so we stopped by a stone wall to put on our rain gear. We were dubious about carrying on in the rain with no views, but it was still too early to quit. So we continued onwards and upwards, going by Lord Crag and Heron Pike. By now we were walking in the clouds with strong winds and rain which at times felt like hail. We soldiered on until we were near the top of Great Rigg, the next peak on the trail, and there we stopped to have a snack and discuss what to do next.

We could push on and do the rest of the Horseshoe in rain and mist, or we could turn around and go back. Going back might be almost as far as carrying on, but we weren’t really sure about that. But going back had less elevation gain. So eventually we decided to turn back. We still hadn’t had lunch, but we postponed that until we were back at Rydal Hall. The trail by now was very wet and the bogs we had walked around on the way up were a lot bigger on the way down.

It was about 4:15 pm when we got back to Rydal Hall. We sat by the beck and ate our sandwiches, which were very welcome and very tasty. We also had a flask of tea which Reg had made for us that morning. Once back in Ambleside we headed straight back to the B&B to get things dried off. Rosemary’s pack cover from MEC hadn’t worked properly, so the bottom of her pack and the things in it were quite wet. And Paul’s Gore-Tex shell hadn’t quite worked right either, as there were puddles of water in the pockets.

Neither of us was especially hungry at this point, so we just went over to Tesco and bought some bananas to eat for our dinner.

May 13, 2013

Today we were planning to head down to Ulverston about mid-day, so we had a morning to fill in. We started out with a short walk up to Stockghyll Force. It was a lovely walk through a beech forest with bluebells and wild garlic just starting to bloom. Daffodils and narcissus were still in bloom because of the late cold spring. And the river was rushing along so that when we got to the waterfalls they were spectacular. The weather was very changeable while we were walking, sometimes blue sky and sunshine and then the next moment we would be pelted by hail.

The trail was not very long, so we were soon back in town, where we decided to look in the shops. Ambleside is well supplied with outdoor stores, and many of them were having sales. The first one we found had 50% off most items, so in we went. We bought a new Karrimor pack cover to replace Rosemary’s suspect MEC cover, on sale for £4.99. We also bought the Ordnance Survey OL-5 map, which we hadn’t brought from home, and a proper plastic case to carry Ordnance Survey maps in.

Once our shopping was done we decided to walk down to Rothay Park and look around. There was still alternating spells of hail and sunshine, so fairly soon we headed back to buy some lunch—two sausage rolls for Rosemary and beef-and-kidney pie for Paul. After sitting on a bench and eating them while watching three men on the sodden lawn-bowling pitch, we collected our bags from the B&B and went over to the Market Square to wait for the bus.

Costa Rica

Back in February and March we spent about 5 weeks in Costa Rica, travelling around the country mostly looking for birds. Our photos and diaries are now published in the web pages section; start at Costa Rica 2013 and follow the links from there.

Festival of the Cranes

Last month we spent 11 days in New Mexico, attending the 25th annual Festival of the Cranes in Socorro. Our photos and diaries are now published in the web pages section; start at New Mexico 2012 and follow the links from there.

New pages on maps for Slovenia

We just posted a couple of pages about Slovenia, especially about maps for planning trips there. First there’s a page about the geopedia.si web pages and the maps you can see there:

on-line-trail-maps-for-slovenia

And second, there’s a page about the GPS data we collected while walking three stages of the Via Alpina:

google-maps-and-gps-tracks

We found specific information about the Via Alpina wasn’t always easy to find, particularly for the part in Italy, so we’re publishing the results of our research here.