Coast to Coast UK - Far From the Madding Crowd

If you have ever been to Daylesford on a weekend and experienced the sheer volume of visitors that transforms the peaceful country town into a level of hectic chaos that makes the locals want to evacuate, you will have some concept of what Windermere and Bowness were like today.

Add to the normal level of weekend  tourism in the Lake District - a marathon, a cycling race and an orienteering event for good measure, and you have both bedlam on the narrow country roads, and wall to wall people in the towns. Perhaps this is what Thomas Hardy, one of many authors, poets and artists who found inspiration in the Lake District had experienced when he titled one of his books 'Far From the Madding Crowd'.

Where we are staying on Lake Coniston is a little more immune to the hubbub, and certainly the view from the bedroom window at Bank Ground Farm is all peaceful serenity, but with knowledge of impending road closures due to the number of large-scale events, we knew we needed to be on the road to Bowness-on-Windermere early.

Today was the main event for the Alliance of Literary Societies weekend and the venue was the Windermere Jetty museum set on the lake. As we drove in, the traffic was already a slow crawl in the opposite direction heading to the start of the marathon at the northern end of England’s largest lake. The marathon would take an anti-clockwise direction, circumnavigating the lake.

We arrived before any roads closed and enjoyed a coffee overlooking the lake prior to the commencement of the day’s activities. There were to be various speakers from the hosts - The Arthur Ransome Society - raffles, lunch (of course) and an AGM. I decided to stay for the morning speakers and then bail after lunch to walk into Bowness and find an outfit to wear to tonight’s dinner.

The talks were interesting, if a little long, and the people friendly. Wallsy and I took the opportunity to wander through the very well-presented boat museum following lunch, and then, as planned, I jumped ship. As I walked down the hill into the town, there were marathon runners heading up the hill, running on the road with the traffic, and as I got closer to town, dodging in and out among the pedestrians. It seemed like a pretty chaotic event, and the 11 am start time, meant that not only were they running in the heat of the day, and it was a warm 20 degrees, but also vying for space with the tourists.

I nudged my way through the crowd to find the charity shops, eventually finding a dress and simple shoes to wear – hiking pants and shirt, just weren’t going to cut it for dinner at the Marina! I wandered back up the hill to meet Wallsy as the day’s events came to an end at 5 and we then had a couple of hours to fill before dinner, but not long enough to make the drive back to our accommodation in Coniston, a good half hour drive each way.

There is no shortage of places to enjoy Lake Windermere, so we found the Marina, which was fortunately out of town and away from the melee of people, parked the car, did battle with the Pay and Display machine to no avail (this was the second time, we have found these not to work), and went for a walk along the lakeshore before dinner.

The meal was lovely, and the company was good. At the end of the evening a member from each of the literary societies represented was invited to share  a reading from their author. This was quite entertaining, and Wallsy did the Arthur Ransome Society proud with his reading of the first chapter of Swallows and Amazons.

  

Open water swimmers in Lake Windermere - yes, the sun was out; no, it was not hot!

An inquisitive Robin joined us for lunch.

A flotilla of ducklings on Lake Coniston.

A lake at the bottom of the garden.