Zzzz - time for bed!

So – you've come to the end of your tour of the Lake District – and now you need somewhere to have a good night’s sleep – zzzzz

As in many areas which cater for visitors and tourists, there’s a huge range of places to rest your head. You name it, you can find it!

From 5 star hotels, with swimming pools and spas

To bivouacking in the woods or on the fells

In between those two extremes, there are many other alternatives, and all within a very small area. You can stay in a hotel or guest house in one of the towns or villages, or you can choose a farmhouse out in the country. You can opt for having your meals provided for you, or you can self-cater. There are hundreds of cottages and converted barns which are available for families and small groups, and the Youth Hostels Association also has over a dozen properties in the Lake District, offering budget accommodation for individuals, groups and families.



You can hire a caravan, buy one on a site there, or take your own. Many’s the time I’ve been stuck behind a convey of caravans on the road between Windermere and Ambleside, or on the even narrower road to Hawkshead!

And, of course, there’s camping, which again ranges from the basic to the luxurious. Evidently the luxurious style is now known as glamping i.e. glamorous camping, and some site have luxury yurts where you can stay. But even the basic is much less basic than it used to be, with all the modern equipment available, and, of course, most sites now have flush toilets and showers.  

Those of you who have followed my A-Z know that we had a family caravan near Hawkshead for over 30 years. When we first went there in the 60’s, there were just 2 vans in our field. Later that was increased to 5. There were no ‘mod cons’ – no electricity so all cooking, heating and lighting were provided by a large canister of calor gas. No water either – we had to cross 2 fields to collect water in large plastic containers from an outside tap near the farmhouse. And no mains sewerage. There were a couple of flush toilets in a farm outbuilding, and we had a chemical toilet in a small wooden hut near our caravan – not ideal if you wanted to go in the middle of the night when it was pouring with rain! And I won’t even start to describe the worst job of all, which was emptying that toilet after lifting a manhole cover over a cesspit! Gradually things changed – we got electricity, so no more struggling to light the gas mantles, and we could also have a fridge – sheer luxury. We got water too, with a tap only a few yards from the caravan. No mains sewerage though – we still had to empty that damned toilet! Now, 20 years on, everything has changed. There are now 5 luxury lodges in ‘our’ field – and I bet they don’t have to empty their toilets down a manhole!

So - we reach the end of this year's A-Z April Blogging Challenge, and I'd like to thank everyone who has left comments for me. A special thank you, too, to all my friends from the Facebook GBE2 and Writers' Post groups, for your support. I love you guys!
I'm delighted that so many of you have enjoyed my tour around the Lake District.  As a result, I've decided to extend the tour, although not a daily basis! But I'll take a different letter each week, and tell you more about North West England in general. I think I'll make it my 'Thursday Tour'. Hope you'll join me!

Also, now that you know more about the Lake District, you might enjoy my two novels which are set there: Fragrance of Violets, available from Whiskey Creek Press and Amazon, and Changing the Future, which will be released on May 15th. 

Last, but definitely not least, very many thanks to Arlee Bird and all the A-Z team for setting up this annual challenge. It's been a intense month, but I've really enjoyed it! 

April, A-Z and Ambleside

It’s April 1st which means the start of the 2012 A-Z Blogging Challenge, and this year I’ve decided to have a theme: the English Lake District. It’s a beautiful area of lakes (as its name suggests!) and mountains which covers an area of almost 900 square miles in the county of Cumbria in North West England.

The southern part of the area is about 60 miles from where I live and I know it very well. I’ve been going up to ‘the Lakes’ since I was in my teens. My parents bought a caravan there, which I ‘took over’ from them in the 80’s and I went up there as much as I could, with my own two daughters (and often one or more of my friends or theirs).

I’ve also set several of my novels there: ‘Fragrance of Violets’, published in February 2012 (see left side panel), ‘Changing the Future’ (due for release in June 2012), and my current ‘work in progress’.

So come with me on a journey of discovery around this wonderful area in North West England. I’ll give you some interesting facts about many different places, as well as some personal reminiscences.

Today we start with: Ambleside, a small town with a population of about 2,600, situated at the head of Windermere, England’s largest lake.

To the south of the town are the remains of the Roman fort of Galava, dating from AD79, one of the small forts built to guard the Roman road to the coast. The name of the town, however, comes from the Norse “A-mel-saetr’ meaning river – sandbank – summer pasture.

In 1650 the town was granted a charter to hold a market, and it became a commercial centre for agriculture and the wool trade.

Nowadays, tourism is the lifeblood of the town, which provides a base for hikers and climbers, and it is usually very busy during the summer season. There are plenty of hotels, guest houses and restaurants, as well as 10 pubs or bars within a quarter-mile radius. In addition to the inevitable souvenir shops, there are also a number of shops dealing in specialist arts and crafts, and stores selling clothing and equipment for outdoor pursuits.

One of the most interesting buildings in the town is Bridge House, a small house built over the small river called Stock Ghyll. It’s said that at one time a family with six children lived here, with just one room downstairs and one room upstairs. Later it was used as an apple store, and in 1926 it was sold to the National Trust which now looks after it.

The photo of the right is an old postcard which I kept because the two people sitting near the Bridge House are myself and my friend and I think it was taken in the early 60’s. As the house is probably the most photographed place in Ambleside, we probably didn’t even realise at the time that we were being photographed, let alone that we were going to appear on a postcard! Artistic licence has changed the colours of our jackets to look like the modern, brightly coloured kagools.

We often used to go into Ambleside if it was raining (which it frequently does in the Lake District!) to do some shopping, have a pub lunch, and then spent half the afternoon in one of the coffee shops.

Find the other A-Z participants here