I haven’t had the luxury of a car for more than 18 months – and I do now consider it a luxury. For a long time I thought of it as a necessity, and for where I was living it probably was. I got my first car when I got my licence – the day I turned 17 and could legally drive on my own. Since then there was rarely a day I didn’t use it. Sometimes I would drive the 800m to go to the gym, only to run 6km. Surely I could have made that 5.2km and just walked there (although to be fair, the return walk, post-workout, was up a REALLY steep hill). Looking back, it all seems pretty ridiculous.
I didn’t bother buying a car in Vancouver. There was no point when there was a bus stop right outside my house and my work, and besides, parking would eat up a lot of cash. When I moved to England, I considered it, but ruled it out due to cost and a desire to see if I could survive without one. Coniston isn’t remote by Lake District standards and there’s buses to the nearby larger towns. But the bus is expensive (£7-£10 for a day outing) and not very frequent at this time of year. If I want to get somewhere I either have to hand over more than an hours pay for the bus, or I walk.
When a cafe at Skelwith Bridge was recommended to me, I wanted to check it out. Chesters was only 5 miles from Coniston, but unfortunately not on the bus route from the village. It is possible to get there by bus, but the poor connections mean it takes about 2 hours, with one of those hours spent waiting in Ambleside. So if I wanted to check out Chesters, I was going to have to walk. Ahhh the efforts I will go to for food!
The 16km return walk was worth it – not only because the steak and rocket sandwich followed by a slice of banana and walnut cake was delicious – but also for views like this:
As usual I found a few friends on the way:
I walked by a house once owned by Beatrix Potter called Yew Tree Cottage. It featured in the movie Miss Potter, but they pretended it was another property of her’s called Hill Top, which they couldn’t film at.
All this effort was to get here, Chesters by the River. It’s a great cafe with incredible homemade foods and a shop filled with all kinds of things attached. I wish now I’d taken a photo to show youjust how good it was inside, but come on! I’d just walked 8km to get here. I was hungry.
When I finally put my book down and accepted if I didn’t leave soon, I’d be walking back in the dark, it was drizzling, so the return walk was in the rain. Still gorgeous though.
