Tuesday 5th October dawned and the weather in Derbyshire was fair enough, but the forecast for the next few days for Grasmere was not promising. Biblical amounts of rain were forecast! No point in washing the car before setting off was my view. In fact it came home almost as clean as it went!
Nigel had suggested The Daffodil Hotel in Grasmere, having experience of it previously, and we were not disappointed. They looked after us very well, and the food and rooms were very good indeed.
Roger arranged a visit to the Windermere Jetty Museum, and most headed there, but Hartley & Rachel, together with Nigel and Sue decided to take the 'scenic route' to Grasmere via The Carding Shed for Coffee and then to Skipton for lunch at The Keelham Farm Shop Cafe and then on to Grasmere on the A65. Apparently the museum was very good and all enjoyed it. The scenic route group also enjoyed their trip, where the Carding Shed seemed to have many Jaguars in stock awaiting work, including a Mk1 XJ and a pink XJ Coupe which we glimpsed in the storage area when they were moving a '66 Mustang in there (see photo's below).
Dinner was taken after cocktails in the bar (well, that was how Geoff described it!). There were 12 of us staying in The Daffodil, and Mike and Julie Overend who have a cottage nearby also joined us for dinner. It was just as well that Lorraine Elliott wasn't with us otherwise some of the more salacious parts of Geoff's after dinner speech may have ended up in print in 'A Bird's Eye View'!
Wednesday dawned and Mike had prepared a run out route for us, but because of the impending rain forecast we decided to delay departure until mid day. This wasn't a problem because the afternoon route was subject to a road closure due to bad weather, so we could not have used it anyway. The route was very interesting but drivers had to be on the look out for stones/rocks on the road due to heavy rain and also not to be distracted by waterfalls exiting the walls alongside the roads! We arrived at the lunch stop minus Roger and Joan who apparently took a wrong turn shortly after leaving the hotel! Further questions on this matter were discouraged in order to avoid any ramifications!
Thursday dawned with much better weather and Nigel, Sue, Hartley and Rachel decided to walk (climb?) up to the tarn above Grasmere which according to a signpost at the start of the path was 'only' a mile away! It felt much further than that! On the way down we met Maurice and Terry who had set off after a more leisurely breakfast, and they were surrounded by what seemed like an entire year group from a school in Suffolk for company!
After the walk, Nigel, Sue, Rachel and I re-traced our steps back home via Skipton (shopping as well as eating this time!) before completing the rest of the journey.
Thanks are due to all involved in organising, including Nigel for suggesting the hotel, Geoff for liaison with the Daffodil, Roger for organising the visit to the museum amongst all the other co-ordinating duties he does, and finally Mike and Julie for planning the run out.
We will be planning some more trips away in 2023 and all suggestions are welcome.
