N 55.18998°, W 02.34309°
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Blimey, was it cold at last night's camp! Emma reckons it dropped below -10 Deg C. One of the truck's sliding windows was frozen solid and huge icicles had formed below all the window frames. The truck also spluttered a bit on start up - not something I've encountered before - and though these were exceptional conditions it's made me think about the desirability of an engine pre-heater of some description.
After tiptoeing off the high ground down steep descents of sheets of ice and crunchy snow, the roads - though icy in places - weren't so bad. That said, the drive up to Kielder (pic) still took a lot of concentration and gentle driver inputs.
It's the first time either of us have been to Keilder water. It's clearly set up to deal with gazillions of tourists and though it's very pretty it's heavily 'guarded' with tons of 'Keep Out' and 'No Overnight Parking' signs festooned around. We got a feel for the area, had lunch, and I did a run around part of the lake before we skulked off feeling rather less than fully welcome.
A few miles away from the reservoir we returned to our preferred normality and found the interesting spot at the coordinates shown. We're going to kip here.
Quite close by there are buildings neither of us have heard of before called bastles. These are fortified farmhouses with the familiar theme of protecting owners from the random onslaughts of fellow humans over the ages.
There's also a really well preserved dovecote just a few hundred metres from our overnighting spot. It's an odd 'attraction' tucked away in the corner of a tiny walled enclosure but it caught my imagination. I never previously fully got just how much these things were about pigeon farming as pigeon fancying.
It's hard to imagine the dovecote attracts many visitors and it kind of brings home just how many nuggets of cultural history there are out there sitting forlorn and forgotten.
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