Lake District August 2019 - day 2

A much cloudier day, was the Wednesday, and showers were forecast, but one cannot visit the Lake District and not go walking! I was booked onto an all-day minibus tour on the Thursday and would be leaving Friday afternoon, so my main walking day had to be Wednesday. My plan was to go walking in the morning, then rest in the afternoon by doing some sightseeing on the two-hour circular public bus route out west from town.

When planning the trip I'd found a walk to do, but after talking to B&B owner Graham the evening before I now couldn't decide if I wanted to still do that one, or go up Lattrigg, "Keswick's own fell", a small but steep one of 367m literally just behind the town. I looked through a little walking route booklet over my filling breakfast of cereal, porridge, yoghurt mixed with fruit and nuts, and buttered toast, and in the end decided to do the one which was very similar to that which I'd been planning on anyway. Instead of a circular route, it was a seven-mile, four-hour linear walk to the village of Rosthwaite, via Walla Crag, Ashness Bridge, and the hamlet of Watendlath, and I'd be able to return to town on the bus.

I left about 10am and took about an hour to get to Walla Crag. Early on I passed a seventy-something woman coming the other way, outfitted in proper walking gear; I'd like to be like her when I'm older, still going out hiking. Most of the way it was fairly easy, but the last stretch was a steep hill to get up to the crag's summit. A little herd of sheep were sheltering from the wind and incoming rain against a drystone wall. The view from the heather-strewn summit was amazing. It didn't cross my mind at the time but looking back at the photos I can see that the viewpoint I'd been to the evening before, Castlehead (162m), looked from Walla Crag (376m) like just another part of the fields below, it didn't stand out at all. Of course the rain really set in when I reached the top, and my onward route meant I was walking into it so had to keep my eyes half-closed in a squint. I was in a light mood, though, and was somewhat surprised to find that I didn't main getting pelted with rain too much. I was wearing full waterproofs so only my face was getting wet, as well as my hands when I took my phone out to have a look at the route instructions. I wonder if you can operate touchscreen phones through the plastic of waterproof pouches; if not, I may have to learn to read maps. Maybe that would be a good idea anyway if I want to get out walking more.

Panorama from Walla Crag

From Walla Crag, I walked along the ridge for another mile and a quarter, about an hour or so, parallel to the lake shore. I loved the view from above its narrowing southern end, of the jaws of glacier-carved Borrowdale and the imposing fells above it. Eventually heading downhill I was glad to find a finger-post that confirmed I was in the right place, and followed the short path it pointed out to Ashness Bridge.

Derwentwater and Borrowdale

Ashness Bridge, looking towards Skiddaw

The bridge is an old packhorse bridge on the single-track road to Watendlath, and is a popular photo spot because of its fine view looking down across the lake to Skiddaw in the distance. The rain had stopped, and I was ever so happy to catch the smell of woodsmoke - one of my favourite smells - coming from a little bothy just behind the bridge. A bothy is a basic mountain refuge used for shelter. They're free of charge to use, and more remote ones are kept unmanned and unlocked, but this one - the Bark House Mountain Base - is on a road going to a hamlet and isn't too far from other peopled places so National Trust volunteers just open it up during the day. The A-board outside said "Muddy boots welcome. Information point, open fire, and comfy chairs here." Yay!

The Bark House Mountain Base

Inside the bothy

The crackling fire was lovely. Tea and coffee were available for a small donation and you could refill your water bottle for free. The hut has no running water so volunteers bring it in portable containers. It was a National Trust information point as well as a shelter, so it wasn't as basic and empty as I expect some bothies are, it was cosy. There were a couple of volunteers there, at that point keeping an eye out for a Duke of Edinburgh group whose arrival was expected soon. Maps on the walls showed the paths and walking routes in the area, and one of the info boards explained that the name of the hut came from its original use as a storage place for tree bark that would be sent off to tanneries. After a sit-down, a snack, and a little bit of a warm-up, I started to head up the road to another viewpoint half a mile away, called Surprise View. Although I'd known that the whole walk should take about four hours, and was only about two hours in, I was a little dismayed when another finger-post informed me that Watendlath was another two and three-quarter miles, or approximately two hours and twenty minutes, away - and that wasn't even the finish line.

Surprise View

It only took me 15 minutes walking on the side of the road to reach Surprise View, instead of the 35 minutes the finger-post suggested. But it didn't really occur to me that it therefore might take me much less time than another two hours to get to Watendlath, and another finger-post pointed out a path to Lodore, so I decided to try and find the much closer Lodore Falls. But somehow that didn't go exactly to plan - I found a nice waterfall, but it wasn't Lodore Falls, and was bemused to arrive at the main road not by the Lodore Hotel but by the Borrowdale Hotel. I was only half a mile off, though, and knew where I was, the bus stop was directly opposite, and happily there was a little café in the big old farmhouse next door where I had some nice spiced carrot and lentil soup with a bread roll for lunch, perfect after a few hours outdoors in weather like that. They'd decorated a couple of the otherwise plain, whitewashed stone walls inside with a couple of murals, one being a simple map of Derwentwater and the land around it - so I learned that I'd crossed Shepherd's Crag and was in Shepherd's Café. I was the only customer at that point and sat there for about 45 minutes, sheltered from the elements at a table just inside the open doorway, looking out at Borrowdale and watching the heavy clouds and light rain sweeping across, until 3pm when I crossed the road to catch the #78 bus back to Keswick.

Notes taken on phone in stretch between Surprise View and reaching the end: Breathing in earthy smell of the damp mossy woods makes me grin. Listening to wind in trees, running becks, birds, otherwise wonderful quiet. -- Sound of soft raindrops standing under the trees in an oak woodland carpeted with heather and sphagnum moss. -- Smell of bracken. -- Hate the loud full clunky sound of my walking boots on the ground, especially rock. Walking is a light, natural way to travel but I don't feel like I'm treading lightly and respectfully. Barefoot has more grip, too. -- At the waterfall, noticed how the bark of the young oak trees on the cliff next to the falls blended in with the heather behind.

A pretty place

Waterfall selfie

At Shepherd's Café

At the bus station in town I switched to bus 77A, the public service going once every two hours clockwise around the circular route which takes in three lakes, a few mountain passes, a slate mine, and a forest. It first headed south along the slopes of Cat Bells on the western shore of Derwentwater... Notes taken during the journey:

Great views over lake, hotels on opposite shore dwarfed by hills. Winding lanes precarious, steep sides and few passing places. Hundreds of pheasants around on patches of land along the road; a little disappointed to realise they weren't free-range chickens. Grange Bridge looked lovely, a swimming spot on the river, cute pretty cottages, a café. Seatoller is a cute hamlet too. Into Honister Pass, so steep that bus slows almost to a crawl at points. A hostel next to the slate mine. At the mine, the hill drops steeply and the valley widens spectacularly. Pass ends at Buttermere lake, the fells on the opposite shore rising too steeply for a road there. Mid-point tiny Buttermere village. After Crummock Water fells become further away and less steep, the land around more rolling with more trees and farmland. Round to Low Lorton then to Whinlatter Pass. Whinlatter Forest has Go-Ape and adventure stuff and bike paths. Start going downhill and I see the valley open up wide below and see Bassenthwaite Lake to the north of Keswick and the town a few miles away. Pass through Braithwaite and back to main road. Back ten minutes later.

I didn't even try to take any photos through the half-steamed-up windows of the moving bus, but nor did I really want to. I managed a few poor ones at the impressive Honister Pass, but the rest of the time I was happy just gazing out and taking it in, being in the present. I'd like to go back to that pass one day, have a look properly and maybe go for a tour of the mine. There's an age-10+ Via Ferrata climbing route there, too, which a teeny tiny part of me likes the idea of, but I know my limbs would turn to jelly doing that.

Summit of the Honister Pass, and by the slate mine

Coming out of the bus station towards the high street, I noticed an independent bookshop called Bookends. Anyone looking at me would have seen my eyes go wide, my mouth go Oooh and break into a big smile, and me making a beeline for the shop like a child to a coveted toy. Haha. I spent about half an hour in there, and was unable to resist buying an absolute gem of a book called Jacob's Room is Full of Books: A Year of Reading, by Susan Hill - a sort of diary, with several entries for each of the twelve months, reflecting on what she has read, or done regarding books, what else that throws up in her thoughts, and other little unrelated observations of things in her daily life. I've read the first two months/chapters already, and love it, I can imagine myself writing something similar, and it conjures up a picture in my mind of being curled up in an armchair with a blanket and a book, in a cosy home full of books and lit warmly with lamps, like the house we stayed in last summer in Sydney. An absolute dream! After leaving the bookshop I spotted a café, closed by this time, called Laura In The Lakes! I can also so imagine myself running a little place like that.

"A town isn't a town without a bookstore" - completely agree!

I went back to the B&B and got changed, rested for an hour, then headed back out to have dinner at the Royal Oak pub, which I'd chosen to go to after looking online at the menus of a few different places. It was busy but they managed to find a table for me. While I'm happy in my own company, there's something comforting, after spending the day alone with few or no other people around, about just being in a busy place, and being surrounded by chatter and civilisation and people going about their lives. That applies to walking through town on the way home after a day by myself in the office as much as it does to having dinner in a pub after a day of solo hiking. Anyway, I ordered a glass of their homemade lemon, ginger, and elderflower cordial, and Cumberland sausage with champ, onion gravy, and cider and apple chutney. Both were yummy. The sausage came in the traditional coil shape so was longer than normal, but it was very good quality and somehow I managed to eat all of it and the substantial pile of mash. Some veg would have been welcome, but a side of wilted greens was an extra £3.50, more than my fishcake and chips the night before had cost. Did you know that sticky toffee pudding is from the Lake District? (A pair of chefs started serving it in their hotel the 1970s, from a recipe they'd got from a hotel owner in Lancashire, who'd got it from two Canadian air force officers who lodged at her hotel in WW2.) So of course, for dessert I had sticky toffee pudding with toffee sauce and custard =] After that I went back to the B&B and collapsed into bed, reading for a while. A very enjoyable day!

A Cumberland sausage coil with mash and onion gravy

Sticky toffee pudding and custard - yum