Back in God's Country

[vin_petrol]

I'm back from Lad's Weekend away, and great fun it was too, even though it was on the wrong side of the Pennines. Very mellow, with lots of bad food. Trash is preparing me vegetables for tea, apparently. I didn't see much of Cumbria though. Two guys went to Barrow in Furness and came back looking a little shell shocked ("it's a grey industrial estate"). I did go for a walk on my own down to the sea yesterday.


We were a mile or two from the sea, with a high hills behind us and very low hills hiding the coast from us. Walking down to the sea I stopped, looked back, and took this picture of our cottage. It's the tiny white dot in the centre of the picture:


I then had to scramble down a narrow gully, with the wind in my face, to reach the sea. The wind was picking up sand so I was sandblasted as I descended - not pleasant.


The sea was somewhat grey and not at all pleased to see me:


This is the view to the south, with hills, beach and sea in view. In the far distance, through the murk, I could make out a wind farm, but that's not visible on this low res image.


Something on the beach did catch my eye. An area of it was clearly where all the detritus washed up from the sea gathered. It was a plastic container graveyard. I scoured around, wondering if I would come across something really interesting (like a body), but no such luck.



I didn't see a single other living soul on this walk. It was quite mellow, but sat by the sea, with no mobile phone signal, I realised that I don't really hanker for an isolated life, "away from it all". It really just isn't me. I happily returned to the warm cottage, where I had reasonable GPRS coverage. I'm even more happy to be sat now in front of my main computer with broadband, on the outskirts of a city where there are cobbled streets (not muddy tracks), and I can buy takeaway food till the early hours of the morning without problem [yes, this is a vague Pratchett paraphrase].

Comments

[kissmeforlonger.livejournal.com]

Scary!

I wonder if those plastic things are seafood containers.

I have strong memories of the Irish Sea around St Bees being brown... never blue.

[vin_petrol]

I wonder if those plastic things are seafood containers.

I think so. A lot of them had writing on them that said things like "Johnson and Son - Fishermen" (or words to that effect).

I have strong memories of the Irish Sea around St Bees being brown... never blue.

This sea was a dark, grim slate grey :-(

[andyguest.livejournal.com]

Where-abouts did you stay ?

We had a week in a cottage somewhere in that vicinity a couple of years ago.

[andyguest.livejournal.com]

Worked out where we stayed after a bit of digging. We stayed in Eskdale which is inland from Ravenglass and a little wouth of Whitehaven

[vin_petrol]

I recall being driven through Eskdale long ago, when I went on a walking weekend around Wast Water. My memory is off a valley, with very steep roads on either side.

Wast Water was cool 'cos that's where Sellafield gets all its cold, fresh water from. There's a pumping station at the West end of the lake, with huge pipes descending into the depths of the lake (deepest in England?) which are clearly sucking water out of those depths.

[vin_petrol]

Where-abouts did you stay ?

Hopefully, this link to Multimap will show you where we stayed. We were in Hillcrest cottage, which is the building on the West side of the road South of the red circle (which is the postcode where we stayed). My walk down to the sea was via Gutterby.

For future readers, when Multimap change their CGI, the place is Whitbeck on the A595.

[ex-wendles389.livejournal.com]

Very pretty - although Barrow is not somewhere I'd recommend for a day trip.

[vin_petrol]

Barrow is not somewhere I'd recommend for a day trip

I think it was curiosity (and knowledge that there was a Tesco there) that drew them to it. I don't think anyone will be rushing back there. I'm kinda sad I missed it, as it would probably make York look even more beautiful.

[kissmeforlonger.livejournal.com]

Barrow - you look at it and realise why so many people in Cumbria want Sellafield to stay open - there's no other work.

[green-amber.livejournal.com]

Barrow! Barrow, my ancestral home!! ( I lived there till I was 6.)

Ok it is a bit of a shithole. But it has Walney Island, and sand dunes :-)

[vin_petrol]

sand dunes

Ah yes. When you're six, sand dunes are fantastic. <wistful look> ah, sand dunes and an ice cream and I was happy as Larry when I was six...