Easter Excursion Day 3 - Wisdom Sits in Places

The scenes that inspired the imaginations of such luminaries as William Wordsworth, Beatrix Potter, and Arthur Ransome left us underwhelmed. We would probably have preferred the more desolate Yorkshire Dales and the wilds around Hadrian’s Wall to England’s most mountainous region anyway, but thanks to the Lake District’s celebrity authors, the place is now crawling with people—and we generally shun tourist destinations. Part of the problem was that we spent most of the day trying to avoid scratching the sides of our rental car as we hurried down narrow one-way lanes with two-way traffic, alternating between Google Maps and our road atlas, getting lost more than once in the process.

Our afternoon’s ordeal was locating a place to view the “Wild Cat” Island on Coniston Water that features in Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons:

On the left, the Old Man of Coniston:

Pictures taken, we straggled down to the genuine British Royal Oak Pub in Spark Bridge where I had booked a room for the night. There we left our navigator to take some much-needed rest, ventured out for a stroll, and discovered that the beauty of the scenery sinks in when you walk around in it—preferably off the beaten path.

If we had spent more time in the Lake District, we may have found out the easy way that the existence of a public bridle path does not mean it is necessarily safe to walk on. But enter we did, being careful to shut the gate behind us to prevent the egress of the curious cows in the pasture within:

Heading toward an outcropping of flint rock:

How does this selfie thing work?

A shadow selfie works better:

On our return, we discovered that the cows who had at first acknowledged us warily, now seemed prepared to prevent our escape, with two cows stationed at the gate ...

... and another group bunched together, ruminating nervously as we approached. To be safe, we climbed a nearby hillock where I stood and faced the herd and uttered my most menacing Moo. When that did not have the desired effect, we retreated nonchalantly to a corner of the pasture, with the cows, more curious than anything, hot on our trail:

Over one wall, a bog, over the other, a muddy sheep pasture:

Eventually, we climbed along the wall and made our escape. How long the cows stayed at their posts in the corner of the pasture is anyone’s guess:

We made our way back to the Royal Oak for a genuine British pub supper:

Bangers and Mash for me:

s. actually ate (most of) her French fries!