Road Trip II - Day 2

Well day 2 - morning we had got up only by 7:00. Sapna had got up at 5:30 since we had told her we will be starting early. But , I guess little did she know that we were one bunch of lazy gooses. Come to think of it...who in their sane mind would get up early in the morning on a Sunday. (i hope Sapna does not strangle me after reading this;-))
anyway we got ready by arnd 7:45 and by 8:00 we were on our way. From the moment we started from the travel lodge, it was raining heavily and the winds were strong. We thought by the time we reach Blackpool it would be better. But it was not to be. We reached Blackpool in less than an hour. And in a way it turned out to be a big flop going to this place on this day. It was as if everything was jinxed.
It was raining so badly and so cold that the very idea of going to Pleasure Beach was ruled out. We decided to go to the famous Blackpool Tower and go on the "Walk of Faith". This is nothing but at the top of the tower you have an area where the flooring is completely glass. And there is a precaution board saying, that it might break if you walk on it. Standing on this glass, all you can see is the 30 floors below floor. That is creepy and this is in an open area. Now as luck would have it, coz of the rain, they decided to restrict the entry into this. They said the glass was all wet n slippery and it was dangerous to go on "Walk of Faith" under such weather conditions.This dampened our spirits completely. It was not worth giving £12 entry fees and not being able to go to the top of the tower. there was a ball room and circus and so many other entertainment within the tower area but then we were in no mood for that. so ditched that. Now we were stranded in Blackpool with one whole day in hand and nothing to do coz of the weather.
What could be more irritating. We looked across the road and saw the stranded beach which otherwise in this supposed summer was to be filled with birds that were semi-clad or whatever. And instead what was inviting us was a dull stranded beach with not even a real bird in the vicinity. ( Later on i came to know that this area was also famous for its Sandstorm and we were lucky not to have got caught in that). Anyway we just walked around trying to find a shelter from the rain n wind. We saw this huge Casino by the name "The Buccaneer Family Bar". We decided to enter into it promising each other, we would not gamble or do anything of the sorts. Just walk around, see what is happening and once the rains stopped their beat, we would go somewhere. But we didnt know the surprise that was held for us. This was not the Casino which i had expected where big gambles are made. This was a proper fun area with lot of sega games and small gambling for 1 penny, 10 pence, 50 pence etc..so we started playing the games...one of the games was dropping in 10 pence into a slot. And if the coin dropped at the right spot,there was this metal plate which would give ti a slight push which in turn would push the hazaars which were kept at the edge of the collection point. But try as much we could not get the coin to be pushed. So then we quit that game and walked around checking out stuff
Th next game we played was dropping in 50 pence and manouvering a metallic claw to pick up a teddy bear or something of the sorts from a box. By the time we had figured out how to do it efficiently, we had already spend abt £2 pounds on it. Cursing our luck and our day we ambled along and saw the next game - Camel race.
This game had about 15 toy camels lined, reaedy to race. And each person was alloted one camel. He was given 3 balls and he had to roll the ball into holes which was a t a distance and each hole was for a specific distance and depending on the hole in which the ball fell, the camel would move the appropriate distance.
Basu started off on this game. He played 2 rounds and in first round he almost came close to winning it. and ended up being 2nd in the race. Then Srijith played one round and he wa nowhere near winning.Next Srijith n myself played one round (mind you...there were 13 other ppl also playing along with us) and both of us did a poor show. Basu then coaxed me into playing one final round before we left the place. And i agreed. I played smooth and we won. I didnt even realise we had won until the guy came up and asked me which stuffed toy i wanted. I told him to give me "Hobbes" of the Calvin n Hobbes series. Relishing the victory we decided to stick on for some more time in there. Next we thought we would let Sapna play who was so far an enthusiastic supporter only. We came to this game of hitting the dinosaur that popped out with a hammer. She played that game thrice followed by Basu who played it once and in return we got 10 ticket points for which we got a "Skateboard key chain". Happy with our gifts, we got out and decided to munch on something since it was already half past 12. We entered into Mcdonalds. Srijith had some mini chocolate stuff and Sapna had veg. burger. I had a Big Mac Meal while the best of the lot was what Basu had - Big Chicken green ranch salad with dressing. It tasted yummy. Poor basu hardly got anything since the remaining 3 of us plunged into it as well.
After that we walked around Blackpool city center, checking out the place. We went to this "chor bazaar" likes in Blackpool where for a fleeting moment , i felt as if i was back in India. Anyway having roamed arnd plenty, we decided to hit it back and weather was also getting a bit better. Went to the tower once again to see if they had reopened the walk of faith. But all in vain. We got back into the car and drove along back to M6. At junction 44 we took a deviation to go to Coniston waters.
Thats when i took over the driving again. Initially it was a pleasant and smooth ride but as we went further n further into the country side, the roads were getting so narrow and for the first time i thanked Srijith for taking a small car which could fit in these roads more comfortably than any other cars.
We decided to go through Hawkshead hill and this road was a mighty climb- actually reminded me of the roads leading to Ooty. hawkshead Hill is famous especially fro having inspired one of the greats in poetry - William Wordsworth. Anyway we just kept going n going and suddenly came across a steep climb and i was in the 3rd gear (yet again) and i shifted to 2nd..and voila, the car stopped on upward slope. There were cars coming in from behind and Basu waved all of them to carry on past us. The problem was this was an upward slope and a curve. You can imagine my situation as the driver. It was such a fix where i could not even pass on the wheels to Srijith or Basu. If ever we were to get out of there, it had to be courtesy me then. And after so much valiant efforts, finally i managed to get out of that fix. really got workedup at that point. Luckily none Honked at me. that was the only relief i had. We then stopped at coniston waters. Sapna n Basu played in the waters for sometime...while i went on clicking and Srijith taking a break:-)
And after about having spent half an hour there, we continued.At a particular curve, suddenly the road narrowed further and there was another car coming in the opposite direction and i banged the left side of the car onto the rocks on the left side. I thought i had screwed up the car completely.But however , we were in a position not to stop the car anywhere...and so continued driving. Reached this place called Far Sawrey and realised that we were reaching a dead end and we had to take ferry service to get across the lake. Now we were all puzzled. Coz from a distance, it didnt look like there ever existed a ferry service and the very thought of having to drive back all the way we had come was extremely taunting. Anyway we decided to take a chance and carried on forward and after about half an hour or so..saw the ferry service..and thats when i heaved a sigh of relief.Checked the car where i had banged it and saw that it was only a small dent/ scratch and anyway the car had been fully insured while we took it for rent.And so ultimately all was well. Stopped the engine as we were the 22 in the queue and at a time the ferry took only 18 cars max. The other 3 had ice-creams while i had a hamburger. Then i handed over the car to Srijith. The driving thru the country side with so much concentration had taken its toll on me.
Srijith took over. We got into the ferry and got off at the other side..and continued our ride for another 2.5 hours into EDinburgh. Reached Edinburgh by around 10:15 pm in the night. was dead tired by then.
Vinay had cooked dinner for us (me, basu n srijith). We had that . Even Parveen, Srijith's room mate had come back from Punjab that evening. So all of us got together at our place..talked for sometime, had tea and finally around 12:00 midnight, crashed onto the bed after a very eventful weekend.

ps. Check out the snaps.
(forewarning: - Clarity not that good for many of them)