While, very pretty, the pass we stayed at the top of, was very windy in the night and a bit cold. Nothing a good egg sarnie and a cup of tea couldn’t fix.
We stopped in Windermere on the way south to wander around Aimi’s nostalgia and enjoy being a tourist for a day. It is a very pretty town but spoiled slightly by the processions of japanese/chinese tour groups marching around. It must be their tourism culture, but they always stuck so close together and rudely took up the entire sidewalk so in places we were evicted from our side of the road entirely.
Renting an electric boat we headed out on the water and escaped the thronged masses. The weather opened up and bathed us in warm sunshine. It was very peaceful humming and bubbling along the surface of the lake. I’m terrible in boats, not usually lasting longer than 20 mins before feeding the seagulls my breakfast. But this time even with some small waves I was fine. I’ve come to the conclusion that the smell of boat diesel is one of the major factors making me vomitty. This electric boat was so much more pleasant, I can’t wait for the mass electrification of vehicles, maybe I will get to be a boater after all?
Finally the time had come for the drive south. Canoe straps checked, luggage stowed, kayto removed from hugging the brake pedal, we were off. It had taken an overnight stop on the way up so we expected one on the way down too, aiming for the peak district and a remote corner I’d not been to before.
Near Wigtwizzle – excellent name for a village – we found the start of a green lane with a flat-ish parking area. It was a bit lumpy getting up the lane to the spot, but was well worth it for the leg stretching walk out onto the moors. This was one of the only times we were able to let kayto of the lead and run around. He’s got crap recall and likes chasing and fighting bigger animals than him like other dogs, sheep and horses. He’s such a git but plenty of character it’s hard not to love him. We snuggled down for our last holiday night together, wrapped up and warm, enjoying the freedom of campervanning.