Lake District

In spite of being born in Barrow, I've done surprisingly little sightseeing in the area. Most of the time I've spent here has been visiting relatives.

It made a pleasant change to do some proper sight-seeing! Our first day was wet and miserable but we still ventured out. We drove up to Coniston and visited the Ruskin Museum, then drove through Ambleside to Windermere. We grabbed a bite to eat at Lakeland Plastics, then drove to Holker Hall. We wandered around the Lakeland Motor Museum where the highlight had be the replicas of Bluebird K7 and other Bluebirds. They had cars dating back to the early part of the 20th Century.
We decided against going around Holker Hall and the grounds as by this time Callum was getting very tired and grotty. We drove back along the Coastal Road and by this time the weather was really closing in. You couldn't even see Heysham let alone Blackpool and driving past Nan and Grandad's old bungalow, the heavens really opened.

Today the weather was completely different - glorious sunshine! We decided to go to the South Lakes Wild Animal Park. For years we'd been driving into Barrow and seen rhino and giraffe by the roadside (they've caused many an accident!) so thought we'd have a closer look. We weren't expected much but ended up being pretty impressed by the place. The ring-tail lemurs had free run of the place and were running wild ... the exception being the cafe area where they were quickly sent packing by staff with water blasters! Although this didn't stop one jumping on our table and then leaping over Callum's head!
Viewing was superb and well thought out with high level walkways above the enclosures so everyone can get a good view of the animals. Where ever it was safe to do so, you could get up close to animals as you walk through their enclosures - bats, lemurs (several species), rheas, peacocks, vultures and kangaroos were all mingling with the visitors. Oh, there was also a python out sunning himself with his keeper - he was huge but not everyone hung around to appreciate how stunning he was!

We came back via Furness Abbey - it was less than a mile from Nan's house but I'd never been there before. The site of the former abbey covered a huge area and most of the arches had fallen away, but the remains were pretty stunning never-the-less. Callum spent most of the time running up and down the banks and finding all the muddy puddles. Where he got his energy from, I don't know!