Day 8: A Journey Foretold

A little sore today from yesterday’s extended hikes, but not too bad. I’ve been working on a couple of good blisters that encouraged me to take a more sedentary approach to seeing the Lake District today. So of course I started with a half-mile walk! Well, that got me to the Waterhead where I picked up the first of two boats that carried me 10 1/2 miles south to Lakeside. As boats are limited to 10 mph, this took just over an hour. The day was cloudier and cooler than yesterday, but still quite lovely. 

In Lakeside I boarded the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway, an old-fashioned steam-powered train, for a short round-trip through history and countryside. Before leaving, I wanted to take a picture of the steam. Only tonight when I was reviewing my photos did it occur to me that the steam had created something looking like an outline of the African continent. Cool — especially since I should be in Africa in just a few days!

After the train returned me to Lakeside I visited a nearby Motor Museum. The collection was small but fun to see. Then back to the boat to travel back north to Ambleside. A pretty quiet, relaxing, and thoroughly pleasant day. 

And now (drum roll, please): the daily LUGGAGE UPDATE: On returning from my journeys I found that my new battery charger for my camera had arrived, thanks be to Amazon! The luggage tracking site, however, still showed my primary bag lost in limbo. So off to town I hiked to purchase a few more items of clothing. After a quick bite at a local pub (soup and a fruit tart), I checked the tracking site once again (since I have obviously gotten a little obsessed with my luggage). Lo and behold! That which was lost has been found! This good news is tempered by the fact that for reasons too weird and long-winded to explain British Airways believes I’m still in London. So I’ve emailed the delivery company in the hopes they will bring me my two bags by the end of the day tomorrow so I can take them the following morning when I leave the Lake District. How will this saga conclude? Will I receive my stuff in the next 24 hours? Or will we merely turn the page and begin another chapter in the ongoing saga? Stay tuned, friends, stay tuned!