Lancs & Cornwall 06
Day 6 - Lost, Grizedale Visitors Centre, Aquarium of the Lakes, Settle, Chris's and Jocky's

Wednesday, 20 Sep. 2006 -  After failing to find the Grizedale Forest Visitors Centre on Monday we thought we would try it again.  This time we took the sat-nav instead of relying on Andy's memory.  The drive to the lakes area was fairly simple as we took the highway most of the way.  We turned off the highway just before Newby Bridge as directed by the sat-nav.  Apparently we were suppose to make a turn onto a road but neither one of us noticed a road so we continued on the same road knowing the sat-nav would recalculate our route.  This is when things started to turn interesting!

We were driving along a proper 2 lane road when we were directed to turn off that one and onto a very narrow road that was suitable for one car but if you were careful and pulled over to the edge on-coming cars could squeeze past. We travelled along with a bit of caution until we received the next instruction: "please leave the main road and make a sharp right turn in tow hundred yards."

Now we were both wondering what it was talking about since it seemed to think we were on a "main road". We did miss the road it wanted us to turn up since we thought it was a farmers driveway but the sat-nav promptly told us to make a U-turn!  When I had backed the car up to make the "Sharp right" I really didn't expect the right turn to be as sharp as it was! I had to do a three-point turn to make it onto the smallest road I have ever seen! By this time were both laughing so hard that if another car magically found the trail we were one there would have been an accident.  With a lot of trepidation we slowly wound our way along the trail when our trusty sat-nav was getting ready to give our next instruction.  Both of us held our breath in fear of what was to come when were directed to "continue straight on at the intersection in two hundred yards." 

As we crept up to the next intersection we saw a decent road leading to the left and right but only two tracks leading through a field straight ahead.  At this point I lost complete faith in our previously trusted navigator! So we randomly decided which way to turn and were going to head back to Newby Bridge where we came to a T-junction with a sign pointing to Grizedale Forest Visitors Centre only Three miles away! Now that looked a lot more promising then the trek through the field! We decided the road signs were a little more reliable so we continued to find the visitors centre!

We had lunch at the visitors centre and looked around the gift shop. I picked up a couple books. Andy picked up a pack of playing cards with different fish on each card.

On the way to the visitor's centre we saw signs leading to a public aquarium called Aquarium of the Lake. Since it was still early in the day we decided to see if we could find the aquarium again so we headed towards it without the aid of the sat-nav!

The aquarium is located on Lake Windermere and is dedicated to fish and habitants around the lake district. It cost �7 each to get in and was definitely worth it! We took a lot of photos for the site of fish that we were hoping to find at the beach but weren't sure we would find them while in Cornwall.  There was also a steam powered train on the premises. I had never smelled burning coal before and now realize why they weren't used anymore! After leaving the aquarium we headed back towards Burnley.  Because it was getting late we decided to stop in at the chippy in Chatburn for super and then headed to Downham for a nice relaxing area to enjoy our meal.

Then we went to Chris's to see if he was in and stopped off for tea. I was able to hand feed his Koi and then we watched his puppy attempt to catch a swarm of flies.  After leaving Chris's, actually being kicked out of his place due to him needing to be off for work, we went in to see Andy's friend Ross (AKA Jocky) for another cup of tea!  Up until this point Ross has been known as a miser and very protective of his money so he completely amazed and surprised Andy by offering me a �1 Scottish note as a souvenir!

Click here to see more of today's photos.

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