This place, the lakes, has captured my soul. It’s wet, to be sure, but there’s poetry on the peaks and fells, in the mists and on the waters. ‘I want to see mountains again, mountains Gandalf!’ (Bilbo Baggins, The Lord of the Rings). It draws you in, a place from another time, rip-stop nylon and Gore-Tex, become wool-tweed and leather, a pint of ale by a crackling fire after the vigours of the day, stone and timber, ancient hills, elemental, timeless.
“The fleeting hour of life of those who love the hills is quickly spent, but the hills are eternal.” Alfred Wainwright
We drove the full 30 minutes from Baycliff to the small town of Coniston this morning and parked under a rain cloud misty grey sky. The clouds will share their delights – but in their own good time….about ten minutes after we start walking.
A delightful walk, along the lake’s edge past the 16th century Le Flemming Manor house and hunting lodge, through the woods of Torver commons and then along an old abandoned railway track we happened upon, always with glimpses of old man Coniston and the steep rocky crags behind the town exerting their ancient looming presence over the landscape.
We pull up stumps at the Black Bull for a pint, admiring the photo mosaic of Donald Campbell on every wall. The lady at the museum tells us, almost like it’s her son, that Campbell was desperate for funds, that his supporters had ‘pulled the pin’ and that he had to break his own 300mph record to survive. He was determined, impatient. On the morning of his death, the Guinness World Record people had left, but the lake dealt up perfect conditions. On the first run (the time is based on the average of two runs, up and down), he made 297mph and turned, according to our host, without sufficient time for his own wake to subside. On the return, he exceeded 300mph, but the bow lifted, and the craft flipped, killing Campbell in 1967.
Bluebird K7, Campbell’s boat, is being renovated and will run on the Coniston waters again this year, in memoriam, piloted by Dave Warby, son of Ken Warby, the current water-speed record holder (317mph, 1978).
A lovely day on the lakes.
