Oban, Dunoon, Carlisle

There had been forecasts of heavy snow over Northern Britain but I think it was just another media beat up. There was no snow to be seen in Oban. I had kippers for breakfast, easily the best kippers I have ever had, and something I could get used to having for breakfast. I wonder if anyone in New Zealand is doing good kippers? We did wonder about a ferry trip to Mull and Iona but that will have to wait until our next visit. We drove around the cost back towards Inveraray. There are many lochs and the landscape was wet, green and sparsely populated. The coal smoke in the small towns reminded me of Westport, as did the damp and absence of people out and about on the land. We did quite a bit of driving today. We drove to Dunoon and got a car ferry to Greenock. This allowed us to avoid Glasgow and keep to the coast as we made our way to Carlisle. A highlight was listening to a reading of A Shropshire Lad on radio 4, we had been in Shropshire a few days earlier. The fog closed in and we were stuck behind a truck for quite awhile. Other than this the traffic hasn’t been bad at all. Our Nissan Micra (1.2L) is going well, it is doing 48 miles to the gallon. Petrol is 89 pence a litre, or NZ$2.45 a litre! It costs us 35 pounds to fill up and we get 400 miles to a tank. The central bank has dropped interest rates to 2% here today, the lowest level in 57 years. There are many sales on, trying to encourage people to spend. The government has dropped VAT (GST) by 2.5% to try and encourage people to spend. 45,000 houses will be repossessed this year alone in the UK. A mother has been found guilty of holding her own daughter captive for 24 days in an attempt to claim a ransom. Scottish hospitals have had their busiest ever days, due mostly to simple falls on slippery pavements.
We have found a good B&B in Carlisle. We walked down the icy pavements to the local pub. Every pub has 3-4 people standing outside smoking, smoking inside if now against the law. Tomorrow we will have a look around town and make our way into the Lake District.