Lake District 2009


Family Lake District Adventures


13th September 2009 - Sunday - Day 1

The drive up was accomplished easily although tiring. for all of us, but especially for Dave.

We set off in good spirits just before 9 this morning and reached our new "home", Glenwood, about 6pm. 9 hours on the road with stops, probably about 7 1/2 hours - about what Dave reckoned on. I have the twin room looking out on to a green slope and woodland.

This entry is bobbing about due to tiredness and whatever comes up first.

The scenery is something else but as I haven't actually touched it yet, it's all a bit overwhelming and unreal.

We came the scenic route, so we passed through some nice bits of Notts and Leics. Then North Yorkshire where the moors loom broodingly under a patchwork sky and do indeed show you what they mean by Wuthering Heights and the bleakness of Jane Eyre. It isn't much of a change of scenery from the Yorks. Moors to the outlying broodingness of the foothills that become Cumbria and the rising shadows of the great Fells. We're surrounded and enclosed by some spectacular ones that drop down into Ullswater just across the road. There's a park with benches along the waters' edge. There are several eateries that we found - Ramblers Rest, closed for a private function (lovely), the Inn on the Lake - monkfish with polenta? What's that about? No! . In the end we discovered Fellbites and ate well there.

I may write more tomorrow. We'll see how tomorrow works out.

14th September 2009 - Monday - Day 2

Very a.m. about 4:17am. Whatever! I'm on holiday. I'm allowed. I'll try to complete a bit more of yesterday.

Dave's Tom-Tom has a Homer voice which is quite entertaining, especially when it wakes up after 20 miles and when it says "there may be ice cream". When we got here, it said "Woo hoo!" and called Dave a genius.

Our stops were: a lay-by somewhere (my memory sucks!), a services off some fast road - the A616? Or something. Another services past Doncaster, and then here. I had chips for lunch and again for dinner, although dinner was supplemented by bream, samphire and asparagus. Dave had a rib-eye steak, Dad had pork roast and Mum had Cumberland sausage.

Let's see if I can give a word-picture of Glenridding and our position in it.

The house sits under Glenridding Dodd and looks over the road to the lake and Place Fell looming Up over the water. Aira Force, a famous waterfall, is about nearer 2 miles Up the road north (left out of the gate). Turning right out of the gate, you pass the guest house next door, some houses/cottages, the garage and then more houses and a green with a bus stop, behind which is tourist information and Fellbites which we all like - Mum and I had wine. These are on the right, or west side of the road (heading south). East, or left, is The Inn on the Lake and Ramblers Rest. Over the bridge - a  beck, all fast water and tumbling over rocks - and another hotel, restaurant, coffee house and houses and more guest houses. Shops on the west side continuing Up a side road. Helvellyn Youth Hostel is also Up there somewhere. Must remember - Travellers' Rest is about 400 yards past Fellbites.

The lane to the Ferry jetty turns left past the row of guest houses on the east side of the main road. There are public toilets along here with the back of the hotel and the river to the north, and the park to the south, with vast [stupendous?] views down the Patterdale Valley beyond the end of Ullswater. There's a path that is the end (or start) of the walk from/to Howtown coming (or going) through Patterdale.

And so far that is what we've discovered. Always good to find your way around the local area. Maybe I should carry my journal with me to keep up more immediate impressions, What about writing poems? I could try a McGonagal:

O Silver Crag across the water,
Why frownest thou over us all?
As though we woke thee from thy slumber …

Oh, bugger that!

I hear an owl …

15th September 2009 - Tuesday - Day 3

"Season of mists" certainly. I wonder if Keats saw the mist puffing up from Patterdale Valley and then spreading through and climbing Up the mountains (Fells), like the first breaths of a waking, unseen dragon?

Anyway, yesterday.

I was up early, then Dad got up and we wandered off down to the park by the lake and got some early morning photos. We got back and Mum got up.

Dave didn't surface till about midday and clunked his head on the door again.

Dad and I left Mum to go - or try to go - to Lanty's Tarn. And Dad made it Up, Up the steep "steps" (the way the rocks are laid out, by nature or design?) and down the rocky glen. We did the first bit of climb Up from Glenridding beside the river on to a very New Forest-y bridleway, but there's nothing New Forest about the river - all natural rocks, cascades and tumbling noisy water. The path goes Up to a house and dodges left through a gap Up to a gate into woodland and the beginning of the "stairs" (aha! More likely like Cirith Ungol but not scary). There is a big bit of mossy granite sitting among the trees (petrified troll?). Dad climbed and climbed with the steps to a convenient bench and the view down out over Ullswater had opened out in spectacular fashion. There's a wall of rock running Uphill and we saw a squirrel running along it - a red squirrel! They are somewhat smaller and slighter with brushy tails. I never expected to see that!

On Up we climbed, Dad having got a second wind, through another gate. A sign about erosion control. We followed the way around to another gate and a post where the sign had been removed beside a path winding further Uphill. Uncertain whether it meant the path was part of the erosion control we went through the gate and along the side of the hill, with great views of Sheffield Pike to the right, and the valley running through towards Catstycam. In the distance we could see a waterfall. Closer at hand we came down to a beck and a footbridge. Some bloke was shouting his mouth off, then we discovered he was training sheepdogs and driving sheep.

We found the Travellers Rest on the road back down through the village.

Arriving back "home", I was about to go out again to take Mum Up, when Dave got up. Mum having spoken to the brochure people (the shower wasn't working), we set off, Dad included!, back round the same route. This time we did go Up the unsigned path and reached Lanty's Tarn which is through a gate and set in a little woodland and fed by one tiny beck, from what I could see. The woman in the tourist info centre had told us that yes, the path to Lanty's Tarn was open. Dad and I had also been into the mini-mart and Catstycam Shop to get the torch earlier.

From Lanty's Tarn we tried to find the path round but ended up going back through the gate and back the way we went earlier in the morning. This time however we stopped for lunch at Travellers Rest - LARGE portions.

Back to the house for teas and coffees. Dave and I went into Catstycam again to get Dave a rucksack. We both bought socks.

We sat around trying to decide what to do next. I finally had a shower.

We sat around for a while then walked down to Patterdale and back. I found the end of the path from Howtown, took photos of the church and mountains, one of which I particularly like for the light "hissing" over the fell. We watched sheep psyching themselves up to jump a ditch from one side of a field to the other - a few sadly limping -  and one synchronised leaping.

We didn’t go out to dinner, being too tired, so they had sausage and beans on toast, I had cheese on toast and finished off the veg sausages. Went to bed during the 10 o'clock news.

Today has been one of Ups and downs, both literally and figuratively. Let's get what we didn't like out of the way.

We drove to Hawkeshead to find it full of tourists and that Hill Top, Beatrix Potter's house, is actually 2 miles away, by car because there's no footpath. Things bought in a shop as souvenirs and we came back. Because Dave wants to get Up high and the walk is about 4 miles we all decided, after tea and biscuits, to go over Glenridding Dodd. We tried a sheep-path behind some cottages but it was awfully steep and Mum's knee started to hurt on the way back down. By a little post with a waymarker on it, I had a quick scout but the path, although clear and winding, is gravelly rather than stony and I didn't feel much confidence in it. Dave and I discussed things and thought we might try the descent at Glencoyne another time; might be easier going Up. Mum's knee got easier when not on steep downward slopes. I didn't like the steepness behind me.

What we did like. We stopped at Kirkstone Pass Inn on the way back from Hawkeshead. Mum and I went off through a gate and would have been quite happy exploring the paths and boulders of the Access Land of Red Crags, but Dad and Dave didn't want to do that, so off we went to the next car park to get views and shots up Patterdale Valley and Brothers Water, looking north. Kirkstone Pass is awesome and the views both ways are stunning and we could see across the ends of Windermere and Coniston out over low hills and the sea beyond. I would have enjoyed an hour or so exploring the Access Land.

Aira Force - the 1st place we went to. Good climb Up purpose-built stone steps. The Falls roar wetly until blocked by stone or trees and it suddenly goes quiet. The woodlands are quite delightful and the sun shone dappling through the trees. The Force is pretty spectacular, and the view Upwards to the bridge from below is very atmospheric. We got there in good time, too. Many tourists by the time we returned to the car park. I had to borrow 80p off Dad.

Dinner time. Mum came knocking just as I was getting changed. The sunset was very pretty over the Fells, highlighting the peaks above the slopes in shadow. We went back to Fellbites. I ate chicken - sorry chicken. Dad and Dave also had the chicken. So did Mum but chargrilled in a salad that was as big as our 3 dishes put together. I think I have one of those salads next time but not until Friday as Fellbites isn't open on Weds or Thurs. So we have to find somewhere else to eat! We also need to book for Friday. Mum couldn’t finish her salad and did want dessert. We said as much to the waitress who said they do children's portions, so Mum had ice cream. Dad asked the waitress for a tea spoon - or I did. She brought one! - accompanied by no words, just a smirky smile. The ice cream was gorgeous, delicately flavoured vanilla, smooth and white! None of your cheap store cr*p. Garnished with sweet strawberries. Dad and I had sticky toffee pudding; Dave had pancakes with banana and toffee sauce. Everything was wonderful.

We got home to the TV and coffee. Dad fell asleep. Mum, Dave and I went outside stargazing. I guess I saw as many stars that night laid on the bonnet of the car in Australia, but I don't remember; and tonight we did see the ribbon of the Milky Way, pale because of the "tightly-packed" mass of stars that form it. It's all overwhelming. The great mass of lights in the universe is truly awesome! Good thing the Fells are closer at hand to be the nearer awesome features!

I helped Mum to make a list of more groceries when she came tapping earlier. We agreed that today has been a day of testing what we like, dislike, can't do and can.

Tomorrow the holiday proper begins and we all go doing what we want to do and adapt to what each wants to do and doing our own thing. Tomorrow looks like a cloudier day than today but the winds are down south. There's the lake cruise to do, also Grisedale, Patterdale, Silver Crag and the view of Helvellyn that I want to do. Well, we shall have to see …

16th September 2009 - Wednesday - Day 4

Dave and me - Boredale Hause and Angletarn (well, not me).
Mum and Dad - Grisedale Valley.

I wish I could have done both. I don't know why I didn't, except Dave and I got back first and were waiting for the parents. I shall do Grisedale another day.

The walk Up to Boredale hause was really good. Not great in distance but higher Up than I've been before and the paths are so cool. Easy walk down to Patterdale and turn off by the school at the fingerpost, over a wooden bridge over Goldrill Beck, more like a proper river running into Ullswater. Up through side gates past the cattle-grids and then round and Up through a farmyard, past tea rooms, to a gate. Notice on gate - "potentially dangerous cows in field". Well, unless they are invisible stealth-cows, or cows masquerading as sheep, I think not - today. So across the field to the next gate and sharp left immediately through yet another gate with a hook and chain. This is the actual path, all stones and rocks, which divides into the bridlepath and lower footpath which can be seen from the house. The path (we chose the bridlepath Up and I for one would not take a horse Up there - too stony, too narrow) has various rates of ascent - always UP, sometimes a fairly easy climb, other times steeper, sometimes on small, stony stuff, sometimes on beaten earth or grass (not much) and most often on step-Up rocks - naturally positioned or deliberately placed? There were also places where just the sheer force of friction was preventing layered loose stones of intermediate size from slipping out from under your boots. There was one bit steeply stepped that I remarked to Dave reminded me [again] of the stairway to Cirith Ungol, only not as scary and no creepy Gollum.

We got to Boredale Hause and found what I thought were the ruins of the chapel, but is actually a sheepfold - oops!. We climbed up to a point of granite and took photos, then back down the heel-ruts in the grassy slope. We looked at the path going up to Place Fell (the big one opposite the house) and checked out the routes to Boredale and Martindale. Then we continued over the beck below the waterfall and up more rocks and stones toward Angle Tarn Crag. Sometimes we were walking in the beck. All was well until we rounded a corner where the slope fell steeply away many hundreds of feet. From here on Up I got more and more anxious - not the steepness but the sudden sharp wind; sharp in strength, the cold was unbothersome. I got a sudden irrational fear of being blown off the path and just below the top of the bit below Angle Tarn Crag itself I got vertigo and couldn't go on. I tried to go on but I was really too scared. It was horrible, and I didn't like letting David down, but we agreed I'd go back down and he'd go on. Only when he was over the top did I realise I still had his lunch (actually, I didn't have his rolls, only his Mars Bar). I called but he didn't hear me. Still not brave enough to follow him I went back down, still being poked at by the teasing wind. I met people coming round by the steep drop and asked the nice man if he could let Dave know ("tall chap with a red jacket on"). He did as well! He also asked some old chap if he'd seen such a person. The old boy wasn't talking to me but to a couple from Rochdale (the old chap was from Lancaster and his ancient father commented on my Tilley hat and orange jacket. Silly old buggers (and others) were wearing T-shirts in that wind - it was very chilly round the edges), and said someone has told him that "some guy's "wife" had his lunch". I said nowt.

Then out of nowhere there was a crackling roar and two grey harrier jets ripped through the Patterdale Valley and up Ullswater. They've done that 3 or 4 times today. Then some black jet shot through.

Dave and I ate our Mars Bars and I had a roll - Dave had his rolls with him and ate them in the sunshine on the shore of Angle Tarn. And I'd missed it by about 100 yards. I still think I was right to turn back.

We came back down the footpath which would have proved even steeper than the upper path. We came down under pine trees and as we came back to the zigzag to the gate a red squirrel ran across the path and over the stone wall.

The walk back was now tiring and Dave had a blister on his heel. Dave bought some base-layer socks and once home, removed the Compeed he had on (which took the blister off - ouch!) and re-covered it with a larger one.

We got in, finished our lunches and had coffee. I had a shower, after a bit of a rest, what time Mum and Dad came in, both knackered and in need of tea and cake. We swapped walking stories and photos. Mum and Dave are now watching the news and Dad has gone to sleep.

I want to walk Grisedale myself now.

We had dinner at Ramblers Bar. More chips! It was good food and we may eat there again tomorrow. Think I'll have a baked potato, possibly with tuna mayo. I also need a good thick jumper or cardi because of the increasing chilliness, so maybe I'll do that and get my souvenirs tomorrow.

Half the holiday gone already! No!!!

17th September 2009 - Thursday - Day 5 (Nooooo!!!!)

Getting desperate!

A day that started badly but got much, much better.

I got up very early and was waiting for the sky to lighten before heading out for an early morning walk. I thought I'd try Grisedale, where Mum and Dad went yesterday. Dad got up early, too. I made him a cup of tea, grabbed water and a penguin and headed off out - hoping to be back before the others left for the ferry-ride and walk back from Howtown.

Grisedale was not to be. The turn I made was totally wrong! I went right up a "side-road" finger-posted "Helvellyn". The right-turn into the "side-road" intended is Grisedale Road if you're coming up from Patterdale. I did go the correct way but the line drawings in the guides are not to scale (although they claim to be!) and the Helvellyn route along the road is much longer than they claim. Also, the road levels out and drops down, going past the stone and ball-topped gatepost, just past where a red deer managed to get through the gate into the woodland. So, I ought to take the OS map instead. Anyway, I ended up going through the wrong gate (signposted "public footpath") and wandering over sheep pasture and wondering if I should go through a gate in a fence and not a wall, although there were - cows. I went back to the road and went on a bit, what time the red deer came out of nowhere, leapt off the bank into the road. I was poncing around for about 1/2 an hour, the beck still on my right and I could hear the kennels. Thoroughly frustrated, I returned to the house.

It took a cat to kick-start the betterness of the day.

It was the one Dad and Dave met yesterday which was having a post-breakfast wash and totally ignored them. Today, it was in the park. Dave put his hand down and it trotted to the gate, dodged under his hand and went in a wide arc around all of us. It stopped behind me. I bowed down before it and … it let me stroke it, made quite a fuss of it which it seemed to endure.

We went on down to the pier. I got the ticket and we waited on the pier for 10.30. Our boat was Lady of the Lake (Arthurian legends abound the Lake, also called Dark Lake or Dark Water. It is very dark!). The views were lovely and the boat chap getting people to do surveys was very informative.

We disembarked at Howtown and had a fab walk back.

It was an enchanted walk: lakeside, under-Fell, woodland, waterfalls, gravel track and rough stone path, across bridges and becks, through sheep pasture. The weather sunny and warm. We had a rest stop at Sandwick Bay, sat on a low stone wall by a small sandy beach, overhung by trees. The Ups were a bit trying for Dad, especially in the very undulating parts through the woodlands below Birk Fell before coming round to Silver Bay and Silver Point. We had lunch on a grassy knoll on Silver Point, overlooking the lake and a vista of great looming Fells, with Catstycam and Helvellyn brooding in the distance.

After lunch, Mum and Dad continued along the lower path under Silver Crag  and below Place Fell. Dave and I retraced the path a bit to the ascent Up and through the pass between Silver Crag and Birk Fell, coming down under Place Fell. The ascent was much a scramble Up great getting-bigger stones, level out a bit, gravel track, then another "stair". I wasn't scared and the views behind getting more and more stunning. We eventually reached the col, continuing on lovely, lovely grass, occasionally uneven with tones poking through, and beyond the Crag itself a rather Sound of Music moment (no, I didn't). We looked out for Mum and Dad and much waving back and forth. We passed an adit and a cave with a waterfall spilling over. Loads of slate and slate-screen. Dave wanted to throw rocks at some granite blocks standing all ways every way up the slope **sigh!** . We came round a corner on a dodgy bit of narrow path, all loose bit of slate - well, a couple in front of us went that way! On the other side, Dave pointed to a parallel grass track coming over a sort of hump and said "maybe we should have come that way." Really? You think?

We came back down to the gate from yesterday and past those dangerous stealth cows again and met up with Mum and Dad. We'd seen them pass a black Fell pony. Apparently it looked at them, otherwise, nothing.

Once back in Glenridding, we stopped at Greystoke's for ice-cold cola. I bought new poles because the others ceased to work. I don't think the new ones will be much better for long, though. I also bought a Weirdfish jacket for warmth and went to Fellbites to book a table for 6.30 tomorrow.

For dinner we went to Ramblers again. Dad had minted lamb suet pudding; Dave had chilli, Mum and I had baked potatoes and much more enjoyed smaller meals. I had tuna with mine - will eat that again! We sat outside. Not so chilly in the shelter of the pub and glad of it because of screaming brats within. Views of Fells, a turquoise sunset and another sunshiny day to look forward to tomorrow.

I took about 150 photos today.

Tonight's spider was in Dave's bedroom. The last two nights (coming in after dinner) both were in the living room. Last night's was a particularly large specimen with well-developed limbs.

When's it going to be my turn?

[No diary entry for 18th September - Friday - Day 6 - This was the family walk Up Grisedale. Cold and grey but the valley is beautiful and the walk relatively easy-going, if you're not getting to the reserves of your stamina or suffering with a bad back! We had lunch by some big rocks where the path curves round over the bridge or heads off towards a hut from where you can go up to Helvellyn or on Up through to the next valley; in the shadow of Eagle Crag and Helvellyn brooding further over. We looked up the path to Helvellyn and decided it wasn't for us. We had dinner at Fellbites.]

19th September 2009 - Saturday - Day :-(

I had a lovely walk arounbd Patterdale, all wonderful places to walks, just high enough and a bit of everything, except blue skies and sunshine, which we've had all week anyway. Fog, disappearing Fells and mountains, stony paths, grass paths, flint cottages, waterfall … you name it, the walk had it.

I took the key with me. I still had it when Mum and Dad sadly had to turn back before Lane Head because Dad had finally outwalked himself. Considering the state he was in this time last year, I'd say what he's achieved this week is nothing short of heroic!

By the time I realised I still had the key I was at Brother Water and didn't know what to do. It would have been as long to go back as go on, so I went on. Fortunately, there's a shop at the campsite not far ahead; even more fortunately very nice woman in the shop was able and very willing to change a £20 note for phone change. They had a payphone from which I was able to phone Mum.

I got back to find Mum waiting for me and photographing a Sea-King helicopter, one of the yellow ones. Dad and Dave were Up at the Travellers Rest and Dave has been Up Helvellyn, over Swirral and Striding Edges. He couldn't get a picture from Striding Edge owing to enshrouding mist, rain and you-name-it. When prompted by me, he admitted that his legs were shaking scrambling the Chimney.

More about the Patterdale Walk. From Lane Head, the path comes down between fields back to the road and a lovely flint bridge. You walk along the path at the side of the road and after passing a stile built into the wall (I managed to fail to read directions properly again and ended up going over the stile, Up through steep woodland (all on a public footpath) and not knowing where I was getting to, so I went back to the road and tried again), you dodge behind a tree on a narrow path which comes to a gate. This is access on to National Trust land and goes through woodland alongside and above the road, eventually coming down to Brothers Water. The path goes alongside the Water, round past a farmhouse and through the campsite, where there were cows everywhere. Other people seemed to be walking past them without being eaten so I bravely strode through. After phoning Mum, I began to calm down a bit having walked like a mad woman as fast as I could, panic! panic! I was worried about Dad because he was tired and did Mum have any money for coffee? And Dave gone up to Red Tarn (that Edge as it turned out!). The walk back towards Patterdale was wet and misty and absolutely stunning in the "stupendous" weather. The track winds down to the lake shore and then up through a gate, across the road, through another gate and on to an ancient cart track past cottages clustered in small hamlets on the hillsides. The cloud was pouring over the crags and ravines of the towering Fells in cloudfalls creating the most Gothic atmosphere. The path past under trees and through a sort of parklike area, through a gate and on through a farmyard past a white house down into the next hamlet. From here the way came back past the little pond we'd passed earlier on the way out of Patterdale village and so back past the narrow pub and through Patterdale to find the family and have a much-needed lunch.

And that was our last full day in the Lake District. It looks like we had dinner at the house for our last evening.

The next day, we came home.



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