A week in the Lakes - our last day

...so we had to make the most of it. The skies and the weather forecast told us in no uncertain terms that today was going to give us good weather. At least, that's how I saw it. Time to walk to Cautley Spout. There it is in the distance - see it? Much zoomed-in-on.

We met no more than a dozen other people on the whole there-and-back journey. And the horse being ridden by one of them. It was a beautiful, tranquil place. Even the sheep were quiet. Cuckoos, whinchats and stonechats competed with each other (and, no doubt, several other species I didn't spot) but that only contributed to the peacefulness.

We took out time. Others seemed to be in a bit of a hurry, but we had a lot to look at, and took hundreds of photos. We didn't go right up to the spout itself. The final climb looked rather too steep for us, and I don't think we would have gained much from it other than exhaustion. After clambering around the lower falls you see above, we strolled back to the car.

The car was parked right next to the 400-year-old Cross Keys Temperance Inn. There can't be many inns in the world that don't have a license to sell alcohol!

"Because we are a Temperance Inn we cannot sell you any alcohol. However, you are most welcome to bring along the drinks of your choice when you dine with us. We will provide corkscrews and glasses, but there is no corkage charge."

It's a very strange, fascinating, beautiful historic building. We enjoyed a good light lunch there before driving a couple of miles down the road to the 19th century St Mark's Church.

The former vicarage

And, finally, we found St Andrew's Church in Sedbergh accessible, though only after a funeral had finished.

And we arrived back at the farm in the same dry and mild weather. 

We weren't in a hurry to leave on Friday morning, though we were to wish later on in the day that we'd started the journey at around 6:00. The first hour or so was fine, both with regard to traffic and weather, but the rain did come, sometimes very heavily, and, with it, the traffic. A lot of water on the roads, spray on windscreens, a shunt and a lorry's burst tyre all contributed to the 250-mile journey taking seven hours, but the week's holiday had been well worth it.