We last left off before we arrived at the Lake District and I'm yet to describe our accommodation here, so freshly bathed with tired, not sore just tired, muscles I will write about our trip down and our accommodation.

Our journey from Glasgow to Lake District was rather uneventful, straight down the motorway a short pee break and then turning in towards Keswick. The hills slowly changed from the Scottish rolls to something more substantial and the roads were easy to drive along. least I fell asleep for a bit of the journey, I still don't seem to have a decent sleeping pattern so become tired fairly early in the evening, still no complaining just means I nap now and then.

From near Keswick we turned down a main throughway, we had by now entered true lake district country, you wouldn't have wanted to meet a truck on this majorish road because it was rather narrow. Winding our way down past Lake Thirlmere to Ambleside and following the confusing labrynth of one way streets in that town we turned towards Coniston, missed the hawkshead turn did a U turn and were back on track, racing to meet a 1700 deadline at the lakeland hideaways to pick up the keys. We would have made it as well, except, for a flat tyre... luckily not ours.

Just as I was thinking our timing was perfect traffic (four cars in front of us) all stopped, then one the road was a young asian man trying to talk to the now grumpy drivers, his car flashing orange danger lights in the middle of the road. Strangely no one stopped or pointed out he should reverse his car 10 meters to a small laneway/forrest entry way. So we stopped. Sushaki, was the young mans name and he had rented a car in Windemere, gotten to close to a stone wall or maybe a hedgehog and now had a very very flat tyre. From Tokyo he wasn't sure about changing tyres, and truth be told it wouldn't have mattered because no spare tyre in the car anyway.. who rents a car without a spare.. oh wait.. our car doesn't have a spare (or even space for one) what it has is a electiric pump and goo to blow into the flat... makes me wonder how good our tyres were but... anyway Sushaki also didn't have a phone with reception. So we got him safely off the road (after a bus, and truck passed us both, the truck was massive and came within centimeters of our car!!! I was in it at the time!

So lending him our phone he tried to call the car hire place. .no go... so I looked at his rental papers and rang the emergency recovery number. eventually spoke to someone who would send out someone to try fix the tyre. So we left Sushaki and went into town. The rental place was closed but the key was at the pub just across the way.

Pick up keys and head up the hill to our first disappointment.. We are NOT in stumbling distance to the pub... the nearest is the michelin starred drunken duck about 2 km up the road. Outgate is down the hill about the same and Hawkshead is the other way! However the views are amazing, we are high up on the hillside overlooking latterburrow, ambleside in the distance (about 10 mile) very picturesque. The other downside is the road is (while also one of the major ones) very narrow! single car wide at times.

Ok The tackroom
First the second disappointment... the ground floor has a slightly musty damp odour coming from somewhere... but it is old and had lots of wood. So the front door leads you into the kitchen dining area, big heavy wooden table, slate floors, newish cooktop, and victoria sponge on the table.

At the back of the room is a fairly narrow, stairs up to the first floor, Lounge room and bathroom, the lounge is essentially a cosy room which is open to the staircase and lined with book shelves, the books are a bit funny and possibly the source of the musty smell as some of them have been wet at one point (I know this because the book Exploring the Lakeland Fells is rather moldy!)

It has a comfy gandfather chair a more upright armed seat and a two seater sofa, wood flooring is nice under foot. The bathroom is tucked away and a rather small space with bath, shower over and sink huddled behind the door. Up another flight of creaky stairs are two bedrooms, the one on the left had two single beds and extends our under the eaves so is a large space. The one on the right is the double bedroom with a brass bed.. not sure about brass beds to be honest feels a bit like a prison when you wake up with bars around you. The room also has some creepy photos on the wall of ladies, I assume they may have been living here or something, initially I wanted to turn them to face the wall but thought this was a little silly and just left them where they were. It has two windows set into the roof, so when you wake up you can see the weather.

All in all it is a comfortable cottage, not quite what I was expecting but still nice!

We drove back down the hill an hour and a bit after arriving and checked on Sushaki who was asleep in his car, nearly two hours had gone by so he rang the rescue company again and was assured help was on the way. So we stayed and chatted until the two truck arrived. Sashuki and the car were given a lift back to his hotel.

That night we went to the outgate inn for dinner. but more later