We were rather startled to find ourselves in the Lake District for the first time (at least since childhood). It's such a famous area, and so much our sort of thing, it's hard to understand why we've not visited before. The main reason, of course, is that it's a long boring drive from Cardiff. We arranged this visit months ago, planning to make it part of a longer visit to the area, to travel north in easy stages or to combine it with a visit to Scotland. As it turned out we had to dash from vet to Lakes and back to the vet as if we were still working and it was a normal Bank Holiday weekend.
The point of this trip was to meet up with our friends in the north, who we see all too rarely. Everyone had a great time eating, drinking, walking, paddling and sleeping under pub tables (only Scooby).
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| L to R : Richard, Michaela, Steve, Tony, Stella and Jane (Scooby out of shot. He took the photo) |
After a couple of weeks in South Wales we headed north again, and east, visiting Stella's parents in Nottingham and friends in County Durham. At Denise and Andrew's house, Scooby was delighted to be able to meet new people, play in the garden with Alexander and sleep on sofas. He also did his party piece for Alexander (turning a cheap plastic football into a handy swimming cap). Alexander was so pleased with that.
From County Durham we continued up the Northumbrian coast, sharing camping fields with lapwings and hares, watching seabirds hunting in the surf, eating Apricot Melbas, watching grey seals following the tide past Lindisfarne and visiting fantastic beaches.
On our way we got some sad news about Stella's much loved aunt Kath Beaman. She had a bad stroke at home, and never regained consciousness. We were so pleased we'd visited her a few weeks ago, found her to be her normal lively, generous, good humoured self. Our vague plans to make a big loop through the north of Britain will have to be scaled back a little for us to attend her funeral in Pontefract. Yorkshire's never seemed so far south.
But today, after circumnavigating Berwick on Tweed's town walls, we finally made it to Scotland. We're currently parked up near North Berwick on the Firth of Forth. It's quite exciting – I (Richard) haven't set foot in Scotland since 1986.
