Coniston

After two days of ‘getting mobile’ taking the very much scenic route north via Lincolnshire, we arrived in the Lake District for a couple of days of ‘leg stretch’ to ready ourselves for our planned amble across Hadrian’s Wall, starting Monday.

The route to Lincolnshire was frustrated by the M6 being closed east of Birmingham, although this led us to following the Fosse Way, so we got a bit of pleasant Deja Vu as we went past places that we’d walked by last year. We ended up stopping short of Lincoln in order to get a leg stretch and de-numb the bum, finding a campsite in Hickley close to Cropwell Bishop (of cheese fame). No sooner did we start a walk along the canal to Kinoulton, than we realised we’d been here before (more deja vu). No doubt also running late to Lincolnshire in a previous year, but couldn’t place when that had been.

Coniston Water and the surrounding hills are lovely, a part of the Lakes that I don’t know, although suspect I’ve been here a long time ago. There was a big trail running event going on on the edge of the town, and up into the hills around the nether regions of The Old Man, so we wandered along and watched the Lycra wobbling (it’s an all comers event now, I was later told, nothing elitist nowadays).

The weather was kind and 8 miles over hills seemed sufficient to get the legs going, and the evening was spent doing much needed laundry. Yep, we know how to live!