Day 11 – Morecambe to Ambleside

Eric Morecambe waves us goodbye as we head off to the Lake District.

The heavy rain of yesterday evening had been replaced this morning by grey skies and strong winds. So strong that we hardly had to pedal for the first few miles, we were blown towards our destination. Easy cycling along Morecambe sea front and then along the Lancaster Canal to Carnforth. Things soon got hilly as we headed towards Bowness-on-Windermere and our legs once again felt the strain. They just don’t seem to be recovering properly from one day to the next. Maybe we need to get into the habit of stretching after each day’s cycling.

Over Windermere on the short ferry crossing and then along the unmade road on the north west shore and on to Ambleside and our hostel. The most dramatic scenery of the trip so far. 45 miles today and not a drop of rain. Well, not quite rain free, but compared to the last couple of days…

Did I mention that we’ve been joined by our friend Paul for a couple of days?

Highlights of the day:
While visiting Levens Hall, Paul asked the man in the cafe how much the shortbread was. ‘£1.90’ the man replied. ‘Would you take £1.50?’ Paul said. ‘OK’ said the man. It’s the first time I’ve seen a someone haggle over the price of shortbread in a stately home. In the end the nice man gave us the shortbread and a scone for free. I shall add the money to our donations page.

In Crosthwaite we popped into the ‘Exchange‘ – a once a week community cafe type thing, and ended up being given £22 and a round of applause. Amazing.

And last but not least, in Bowness-on-Windermere we visited the fantastic Cafe Latte. They were really lovely, wanted to know all about our bike ride and even gave us three free chocolate brownies. Delicious.