Put in some parking please

Tuna

Monday 17 June 2019

Today we planned to do a couple of walks in the Lakes District to see some awesome hills and lakes. I had picked a couple that sounded easy and not too difficult. I’ve worked out over here in Blighty, difficulty rating on a walk tends to correspond to time and distance, rather than how hard or steep that actual walk is.

Our first walk was Tarn Hows, rated as one of the pretty and popular walks. However, our sat nav decided it would be ‘quicker’ to take us through single lane back roads to the major road rather than the slightly longer route which was a nice two-way road. So, after a slightly terrifying 10 mins where The Albatross held tightly onto the passenger seat (yeah, good to be the one driving and in control) we got spat out on the A591. Hooning up to Ambleside and then down the A593 (not quite wide enough for two cars) we reached the car park. The small gravel car park is ‘administered’ by the National Trust and they charge you £5 for 2 hours of parking. Seemed a bit steep.

This walk was classed as easy, however the first part if going straight up (I swear it is 40% gradient) on a lumpy gravel track. Pretty views, but a bit steep.

A short stroll along the road and we get to Tarn Hows. It is quite lovely and we enjoyed just sitting and looking for a while. It was also quite a popular spot for sketchers to sit and draw.

Heading down the hill you come across a couple of small waterfalls, which were small but popular for people to stand in front of to take a picture.

Next, we headed off to Hawkshead for a wander around and some lunch. Looking online, Hawkshead sound like a nice quiet little village. It was nice, despite being full of tourists. We found a great little café for lunch that specialised in housing rescue cats. They taste better than you would think.

We decided to ditch the next walk as our legs were a bit tired after that last walk and the really stupid bit of 40% up. We heading into Ambleside which is another lovely town (a bit bigger than a village). But it was also full of tourist, these ones paying less attention to important things (like other people, cars) than the last place.

After a quick coffee we heading home to our nice little apartment in the countryside. Online it looked quite lovely, but it is only where you get here you realise it is part of a Country Park. Think a collection of about 10 onsite cabins around a small tarn down a skinny lane.

The sun is out and the sky is blue at 8pm at night.