Camping in the rain...again!

We drove for what felt like all night to reach Coniston in the Lakes District on Friday night - it was a fair way and we only had the two days, so the tent went up in the dark for the second weekend in a row. Coniston was home to Donald Campbell, John Ruskin and Beatrix Potter.

We camped with Rod and Louise in a picturesque lakeside ground... which we weren't overly fussed about as it was REALLY busy and loud. Although, we did manage to put our tents right near the loudest, fight-iest, trashiest family in the entire country, so listening to them yelling at each other was fun.
On Saturday the four of us went for a bit of a walk. We headed out of Coniston towards the Monk Coniston Estate and Tarn How which were left to the National Trust by Beatrix Potter, who owned a lot of the land in the area. We saw a snake... although I wondered if it was a worm on steroids as it wasn't very big. Lunch was on a hill above the lake on what looked a bit like an old slate mine.

On Sunday we headed home via two of Beatrix Potter's houses. The first was the one that was used for the movie 'Miss Potter', that she owned, but never lived in. There was a farm shop and galley in it but it didn't open till 11am(!) so they didn’t get our money. We also had a quick visit to her real house, the one she owned and lived in for about 30 years. We were warned that since the movie, the wait to see the house can be hours long - so we decided a run up the garden path with the camera would do and left the hoardes of tourists to their waiting... here's her pad (and the rest of the photos):

We spotted a random car boot sale on the way back to Suffolk - Kent picked up one of those double saucepans that you melt chocolate in... a must, I'm sure!
From there we found ourselves in Morecambe on the Lancashire coast for lunch... and it has to be said, some extra-yummy local lamb - the first we've had here that's not been from NZ!
K & E x