Eamont Bridge

After a fairly peaceful night at Chester, we set off this morning to visit John's daughter Dawn and her family, who live about half an hour's drive away. Dawn received a present of jewellery from John's late mother on what would have been her 96th birthday. We also descended upon them with gifts of empty water containers looking for a free refill. Before we left, we introduced them to our chemical toilet, also in need of refreshing!

Luckily Dawn welcomed the pooper into her home with open arms, and we left all set for another couple of days.

Descending into the Mersey Tunnel we were soon on our way. Our destination was Kendal cricket club, but when we arrived there was a match on. Sorry Marge, 'no room at the inn', as they say.

Never mind, with some research on the park4night website, John found a pub near Penrith that was happy for vans to stay in their car park overnight, as long as you partook of a meal. Right Marge, head for those mountains. After miles of bowling along, Marge was introduced to a new terrain.

Stop groaning Marge, this is Shap fell, look upon it as a taster for our onward journey. Thank goodness we had not replenished our onboard water tank. We could almost hear Marge puffing. The scenery however was lovely, sheep speckled the mountainside, and drystone walls cut through the lush wallpaper of green.

So tonight, we are at Eamont Bridge, just outside Penrith, and Marge is happy alongside some fellow vans in the car park of the Crown Hotel.

Eamont Bridge is a small village, most of which appears to have been built in the 1700's, and looked a little French. The Crown Hotel, specialised in Thai Cuisine, cooked by the owner Mike's, (yes, we were on first name terms from the get go) Thai wife. The hotel, was less hotel and more pub, still set in the seventies, with salmon pink sanitary wear, red paper tablecloths and lots of anaglypta wallpaper. When we ordered the food, the Scottish waiter wanted the accompanying numbers to the meals to avoid a communication problem in the kitchen. It was like a Thai Fawlty Towers. but the welcome was friendly and the food was absolutely fantastic! We would definitely stay here again if we passed this way.

Our plan tomorrow is to cross the border into Scotland. Another day another adventure. But not too adventurous please Marge!