Lake District weekend - day five - homeward bound

From http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/

I awoke to the sound of Dave's car crunching along the gravel drive at 5:50 am. Ian and I had breakfast at 7:45 am and, having been thoroughly confused by the local bus services timetables, we had booked a taxi to take us to Keswick at 8:15 am, to ensure we caught the 8:55 am bus to Penrith.

8:25 am came and went, and it was pretty obvious that the booked taxi wasn't going to show, so we got the hotel to phone another one. The only problem is that the nearest taxi services are in Keswick, some 6 or 7 miles along a twisting lakeside road. However, it was with us by 8:35 am and you should have seen the driver's face when we told him we had to catch the 8:55 am bus - he couldn't have been more excited - we had made his day. It was as if we'd said "follow that car".

We got there in good time - in fact, the bus was slightly late anyway. That gave me time to check the bus timetables again:

Yes - it definitely says there is a bus at 8:19 am from Rosthwaite to Keswick - as we had planned - but the hotel staff all insisted the first bus isn't until 10 am. Still don't understand.

The rest of the journey home was uneventful - that is, until we got back to Stonehaven. Ian picked up his car from one side of the station, and I went to mine on the other side, where I came across this scene:

Fortunately, there was an apology note on the windscreen from a woman who lives in Burnett Road, Banchory. Apparently it happened on Friday afternoon when it was raining - that was her excuse!

That was the only thing that ever so slightly took the gloss off a great weekend. Mucho thanks to Ken for organising it all - and for his map-reading skills - we'd have been lost without him. Thanks also to Dave for again acting as cashier for the weekend - that saved us a lot of hassle.