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The Morning
The morning was characterised by some doing of not-very-much. Kas went for a run, I think, and took a few photos of Grasmere while she was doing it. The plan was to make a trip up to the far end of Bassenthwaite Lake, but before that we had some breakfasting to do.
Kas got back from her run in time for us to all have breakfast together. And then we jumped into the car to head off.
What’s at Bassenthwaite?
We had a couple of things planned to do, both of which were at the far end of Bassenthwaite. Well, if we’re honest, they were at the same place and one only exists because of the other.
The first place we were visiting was the Lakes Distillery, which is a very rare thing indeed. It’s rare because it’s a whiskey distillery, in England. The location at Bassenthwaite is apparently ideal, with just the right kind of water nearby. It’s in a pretty spot next to the River Derwent at it’s northern outflow from Bassenthwaite Lake.
We’d organised a tour round the distillery, which I found quite interesting but I don’t think the kids were especially bothered. It looked and smelled like a distillery, which was encouraging, I guess. Anyway, as it’s a new place, they currently only sell a few fairly early (young) types of whisky and have yet to start marketing their “proper” aged single malts. They are addressing the cashflow issue this causes by selling gin and vodka instead. Well, if you insist. It would be rude not to.
The Afternoon
There’s an alpaca farm more or less attached to the side of the distillery. It turns out that one of the major waste products from the distillery (the spent grain) is an ideal foodstuff for alpacas. So there you go.
It’s possible to arrange visits go feed the alpacas. I’m sure it’s primarily a tourist thing rather than “actual” feeding, but anyhow, it allows you to get close up to the creatures and discover quite how soft their fur is. It’s really, really soft. I mean they are fluffy. It’s like touching a cloud, only warmer. And without the obvious “falling to the ground afterwards” issues.
On to Keswick
After the alpacas we had a bunch of time left, so we decided to head into Keswick to see what we could see. Kas kindly drove us down to the lakeside so I could attempt some lab caches, and then we parked up in the town centre to go for a wander around. I was trying to find a few other caches of various types but I struggled with all the labs, essentially because I had no phone signal. That was kind of disappointing, but at least I managed to find a couple of traditional caches. I seem to remember also that it started raining, which kind of put a damper on things in general.
And that was about it for the day. I’m pretty sure we just ate in the hotel’s restaurant again.