An update regarding those two resolutions for 2023:
I had those done back in January, and the pics were taken two days later. The text isn't as wonky now that the healing has finished.
Archive for the 'Lakes Escapes' Category
Resolute
Happy New Year, folks!
Only two resolutions for 2023:
1: Tick off that final Wainwright - The Nab. Three times I've had the opportunity, and three times I've not taken it. This nonsense has to stop, so to that end we've booked a week away, based in Hartsop.
2: Get a tattoo. I was all set to get one, then AML foiled the plan, the haemos saying that it was too risky. When that risk subsided, Covid took its place. Right now I don't care too much for any current risk, so I figure that I'd rather have the local tattoo-artist stick needles in me rather than let the NHS have all of the fun.
January 2013 - The Nab - too far away for us to get there, back and down before nightfall.
A Friday finale
We woke to a glorious morning - clear skies with that late-season feel in the air, and the promise of a day of fine weather.
The garden was a busy place - a couple of pairs of braces of pheasant at last count. Of course, by the time I'd grabbed my camera they'd all buggered off.
Anyway, here's one last pic from the window:
Binsey... again
Packing the car is so much easier now that we use Really Useful Boxes for the majority of our stuff.
Talking of cars, here's the latest addition to our family:
Olga sitting pretty on the driveway at Owl's Roost
Soon we'd finished packing away our gear and were on our way, but I couldn't resist stopping for just one more pic:
Blue skies over Skiddaw and Dodd
And that was that. The end of a fine and much-overdue week away.
We're already planning another 🙂
A Thursday there-and-back-again
We didn't much fancy another full day of walking, as we would need to pack later for our departure early on Friday, so we stayed local and settled for a pleasant lakeside walk - a couple or three miles along Bassenthwaite Lake's western shore. A fair few interesting birds were about but none of them were interested in posing for the camera, so you'll have to make do with pics of less-mobile things:
Binsey again
A late and lonely Leucanthemum vulgare (ox-eye daisy, oxeye daisy, dog daisy, marguerite)
Looking towards Skiddaw
"Imagine that you're walking through a wood..."
A leisurely lunch was had at the much-lauded local - The Pheasant Inn:
Suitably dressed for the occasion
Despite evidence to the contrary, it was still Thursday
After that we toyed with the idea of spending the afternoon at Dubwath Silver Meadows wetland nature reserve but decided to leave that for another holiday. Instead we took a short stroll back to the cottage for a brew and a few hours of packing up ready for Friday.
A midweek mosey
We'd discussed the Wednesday walk on Tuesday. The conflab centred on which of the two Wainwrights still on my to-do list would be our objective. The plan that I'd had for many years was to leave Castle Crag until the end, on the basis that it would be easy to take my folks up there to celebrate with us, but I've taken so long, having been withheld from the hills due to personal afflictions and global pestilences, that my folks are no longer in fit states to go up there. Besides, The Nab in autumn wasn't very appealing. Common-sense prevailed - we'd go up Castle Crag.
After a delightful drive down the east side of Derwentwater we made for Rosthwaite, hoping to find a vacant parking place, but we'd just missed the last one. Backtracking, we found a space in the small parking area below Red Brow. We donned packs and walked back to Rosthwaite.
Not far along the road we got some fine views of our tree-shrouded objective:
Castle Crag
After passing through Rosthwaite we arrived at the Derwent. I was of a mind to cross at the ford via the stones, but Chris wasn't keen as she has "form" when it comes to crossing rivers and streams, so she opted for the bridge. To avoid her wrath, I did the same.
Stepping stones
Trouble over Bridged Water
From there, the route was simple enough, there were plenty of others going our way up Lingy Bank so it would have taken an epic nav error to go astray. That said, the maze of tracks caused a few "stop & choose" moments, followed by a combined snack-break and map check when we were near the Allerdale Ramble col:
Derwentwater and Castle Crag from near the col
We took one of the many tracks up the fell-side, negotiating drifts of fallen leaves, some wooded crags, a set of quarry-spoil zigzags, and a party of school-kids. On the way, we paused at this superb vantage-point overlooking Borrowdale:
Profile pic
Soon we were at the top. It was a busy place - there was a couple who had passed us near the quarry, the aforementioned party of school-kids, and a fearless scavenging robin:
It's one small step for (a short) man...
Robin
As you'd expect, the view to Derwentwater and beyond was excellent
We descended via a track that took us past the Hamer Memorial Seat. I can vouch for its comfort and for the fine view that it commands:
Seat
Plaque
From there we followed the track to Gowder Dub where the Derwent was wide and shallow, with many dry shoals. Again I was keen to cross, and made it dry-footed almost all the way to the far bank, but again Chris wouldn't give it a shot. Maybe the audience of school-kids was a factor in that decision. I retreated and we descended to Grange, eschewing the ice-cream outlet, regaining the road, and trudging the mile or so back to the car.
An amusing thing happened back at the cottage during Chris' "remote" yoga session... during the relaxation phase, the teacher's words were "Imagine that you're walking through a wood...", which provoked stifled sniggering from both of us. When the teacher said "you find a bench... you sit down... and relax..." that was too much, Chris started giggling and I couldn't resist chiming in with "did that earlier, got the tee-shirt!" Thankfully the audio was one-way at that stage of the lesson.
Castle Crag. Real woods, not imaginary. Comfy bench provided.
A Tuesday top-up
We needed a few items of outdoor kit, so we headed for Keswick.
Top of the priority list was boot proofing. Our final tin of Nikwak "proper" boot wax had expired and Nikwax no longer make the stuff, having moved over to some sort of spray gunk that softens leather, which isn't what my Scarpa SLs need. Advice was sought in various gear shops, each directing us to another. Eventually Chris relented and bought a bottle of the Nikwax spray gunk, that's fine, she can do what she wants to her SLs. I'll be changing brands to get my SLs a proper non-softening wax to be applied in the tried & trusted therapeutic "rub it in with a finger while sitting in front of a roaring log-fire" manner. Old-school, that's me.
I can't decide if I've lost my gear-shopping mojo or if I've simply got enough kit, but even after fondling some good stuff in the Alpkit emporium I still didn't splash the cash. I can't remember for sure which shop didn't allow us upstairs, but I did get a pic of the prohibition sign:
I'd have used "You cannot pass" as that's the wording in the book, but that might have offended "the wider public"
Soon enough it was time for elevenses. Or was it second breakfast? Or maybe luncheon?
Chris hadn't been in my favourite Keswick pub before, so it was time to put that right.
Cue the Bank Tavern pic:
We were a tad early to order food, so we had to kill time using the medium of Guinness. To be fair, after going without a pub beer for over a year, it wasn't much of an ordeal.
Game casserole wasn't on the menu, but the specials-board pie was a superb alternative:
Guinnesses, with two superb meals and a glamorous assistant for scale
Back at the cottage we got the fire going and settled down for a relaxing afternoon. A mix of blue skies and minor showers enhanced the views from the lounge window:
After dark we spent some time in the garden meteor-spotting, and then, after making a plan for Wednesday, we retired for the night.
