Day 3 - Coniston

Distance Walked: 18.6km, Estimated Time: 5h 30m, Actual Time: 4h 20m
Ascent: 518m, Descent: 521m, # Times Lost: 0
G&Ts: 0, Beer: 1/2 pint Wainwrights Amber Ale (You Can Drink It), 1 pint Coniston Brewery Old Man Ale (You Can Drink It), 1/2 pint Cumbria Way Ale (Not Very Good)

 

Today's walk was a moderately gentle introduction to hiking in the Lake District.  The distance was relatively short and the amount of up and down the least of all the days.  I ended up reaching Coniston way too early and had to spend an hour at the pub before going to my B&B (its a hard life).  The weather was perfect too.  It was overcast and drizzly when I got up.  Some of the peaks nearby were covered by cloud, but by the time I started walking it had improved.  The clouds were still there but higher than any peak I'd be climbing today.  The temperature was mild (high teens) and there was no wind.  I was lugging around all sorts of wet weather and cold weather gear and needed none of it.

Walking around here is ridiculously popular.  I met people coming the other way around every 10 minutes.  In fact, there was one stretch of path along a river bank, which joined two pretty villages, that was wall to wall people.  It was practically like walking down Lygon St in terms of the numbers.  Once up on the fells it was better.  Fewer people and truly stunningly beautiful scenery.

Nothing much to report on the walking front.  It was lovely to do but not interesting to read about.  I walked, I admired the scenery, I walked some more.  Just outside of Coniston I meet up with two German women who are also doing a walk with Contours (who are managing this trip for me).  We had come to a junction and had differing views on which way to go.  We each went our preferred way.  I haven't seen them since (which sounds more ominous than I intend).  I'm not sure if they are staying at the same B&B as me.  I guess I'll find out at breakfast.

Breakfast at my B&B in Ambleside this morning gets a You Can Eat It rating.  I started with granola with yoghurt & fruit, then a Mostly Complete English - it had everything but black pudding and the hash brown was from a packet, and finished it off with toast with butter & marmelade.  The coffee was decent.  I bought a Cornish (!) pasty for lunch from a bakery in Ambleside before setting off, but I really didn't need it.  I might just buy some fruit tomorrow and have that and my Haggis flavoured chips for lunch tomorrow.

I had dinner at the poshest of the three pubs here in Coniston.  One pub, the Black Bull Inn, has an attached brewery and brews excellent beer, but I wasn't tempted by their food menu.  The second pub is clearly the one that is the favourite with families as it serves pizza as well as standard pub grub.  I naturally gave that a miss.  Hence ended up at the third, the Crown Inn.  Its only claim to poshness is that it has table service rather than ordering at the bar.  Otherwise its decor and food is all standard pub - although their beer was dreadful and all their gins were mainstream brands, nothing local.  I had a steak & ale pie with steamed veg and chips.  It was Harmless.  I briefly contemplated their sticky toffee pudding but just couldn't fit it in.  I'll definitely skip lunch tomorrow as my dinner stop is highly rated.  It would be a crime to miss out on dessert there.