27-30 March 2026
Our third trip of the year, but first blog of the year. No excuse, just laziness. Our aim this year is to go away in the caravan at least once in every month and with this late March trip we are just about still on target to do this. We couldn't get away any earlier in March due to other commitments.
Friday
We last visited the Coniston CAMC site about two years ago. We have had many good trips here but a problem with the site is that we often have trouble selecting a pitch without arguing - there are too many to choose from. No arguments this time, though, we could see our favourite pitch 64 was free as we checked in.
A bit of a break with tradition after setting everything up. Instead of heading straight to the nearest pub after lunch we had a hot dinner in the caravan...and then headed straight to the nearest pub!
There are three in Coniston that we like and we had a pint in each of them. The Black Bull, the Sun and the Yewdale. There is now a fourth, but more of that later.
We didn't stay out late.
Saturday
The plan today was to get the launch from Coniston to Brantwood, then walk over the hill into Hawkshead and get a bus back.
We knew there were no buses running from Hawkshead to Coniston due to a road closure, so we would have to get a bus from Hawkshead into Ambleside and then another back to Coniston, but we went ahead anyay. Only to find when we turned up at the jetty that the launch wasn't stopping at Brantwood as the jetty was underwater. Undaunted, we walked around the end of the lake and found another route into Hawkshead, passing the new to us Coniston Inn on the way.
In Hawkshead we had an eye wateringly expensive sandwich in the newly refurbished Kings Arms, which we liked in spite of the expensiveness, and then had a couple of drinks in Kittchen, which is the only cat pub we know of. It stinks of cats and has more than its fair share of one star reviews but we really like it. Friendly cats, great beer and great music (think 60s garage rock)...what is not to like. We especially like the bar rules.
We would have stayed longer if we could have got a direct bus back to Coniston. We ended up with an hour and a half to kill in Ambleside, which is a bit too touristy for us, although the Lakes Brew taproom is a nice new addition.
We didn't stay out in Coniston and headed straight back to the caravan. After walking 10 miles that day we needed a quiet night in!
Sunday
The worst day, weatherwise. It rained all morning but we managed to get out in the afternoon and had a roast dinner in the Yewdale Inn.
Secret DJ is an app that allows you to control the music that is playing in some pubs, and we were quite excited to find that the Coniston Inn is one of them, so we decided to pay it a visit. It's a nice pub and we will return in the future, but we didn't get to select any music because it was too noisy and the app wouldn't work anyway!
CSI Ambleside
No crime here, thanks to McAlliog
Monday
We gave the caravan a clean before heading for home and discovered some dreaded damp around the front window. There is a crack near the corner of the window which we are hoping won't be too difficult to seal, it just depends how much damage has been done. We will have a look next trip.
Coming soon...
Castlerigg Hall, Keswick mid April.
No comments:
Post a Comment