LEJOG Day 13
I left the camping ground and headed north on the eastern side of Lake Windermere. The weather was absolutely fantastic. Those of you that remember Derwent pencils, I think a picture of Lake Windermere was on the box.
I stopped a funny little café near a ferry that takes you from the eastern to the western side of the lake. I took the opportunity of a reasonable mobile WiFi signal to Skype old school mates. It is amazing what you can do with Skype. These conference calls are a bit of fun. One of my mates is working for a senior Liberal Politician. We were told that the latest thought is that the election will be at the end of November. It would appear that Rudd is going to try and be PM for as long as he can. It would also appear that our mate’s case of ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ is getting worse.
As we chatted, a Spitfire or Hurricane plane flew over the lake. Amazing stuff. Later in the day I saw a number of jet fighters flying overhead. It must be a buzz for the pilots to fly over that area.
After the call, I headed down to the ferry. As I waited for the ferry, a bloke rode up on a serious looking ‘adventure bike’. I chatted to him about the bike. It was a CCM (refer to link below). After a short time, a rather attractive girl turned up and started taking photos of the bloke and the bike. It turned out that she worked for a promotions company working from CCM. Their 450cc Adventure model has just been released on the market. My BMW owning mate in Canberra should look at this bike. It could be a better option than the BMW GS’s or Triumph Tigers.
The girl saw my bike and said: “cool, a BadBoy”. I said “ yes, and so is the bike”. She sort of laughed. I think I should act my age.
The ride along the lake was absolutely fantastic. Just look at the photos.
I stopped off at a bike shop at Ambleside at the northern end of the lake. It is a great village. The blokes in the shop, gave me advice on how to get to Hesket Newmarket, my target for my next stop.
The route took me on a long climb away from the Lake District. The last part of the route took me down a series of lanes across land that is not dissimilar the area between Jindabyne and Cooma. I final arrive at the Hesket Newmarket and found the Old Crown pub. This pub gets a big mention in the book I am reading on the trip. The locals claim that it is one of the best know pubs in Britain. One of the locals is Chris Bonington, the famous mountaineer. There is lot of his memorabilia in the pub. There are also picture of Charles Windsor and his second wife. He signed the visitors’ book as ‘Charlie’. What a pole polisher.
I had a great salmon meal. I know a bit about cooking salmon. After a long chat with some locals and the bar staff, and several pints of Doris’s 90th Birthday Ale (brewed on the premises), it was time for some sleep. I asked where the camping ground was. The rely was: “wherever you like”. I ended up in field behind the pub – my first experience of rough camping for ages.
Flickr Link
Garmin Link
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/340017918
CCM Bikes
billrider2013 