Posts tagged 'Keswick'

A Tuesday top-up

Posted by on October 29th 2021 in Great Escapes, Lakes Escapes
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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.

A weekend based in Keswick – Jan 2013 – Part 3

Posted by on January 24th 2013 in Great Escapes, Lakes Escapes, YHA
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Yet again I was up before sunrise and yet again Ella was reluctant to relinquish her duvet. After a quick breakfast we checked the MWIS forecast which confirmed that conditions would be pretty much the same as they were on Saturday. We decided that our half-day walk should be up something a tad tamer because my butt was playing up again so we chose Binsey for a simple up-and-down stroll.

After we'd filled the flasks we packed the gear in the car, said our goodbyes at the hostel and headed off for the short drive around the Back o'Skidda. We parked up in a small lay-by near Binsey Cottage, from there the track was straight up and obvious, no crampons required. If there had been a good covering of snow it would have been an excellent sledging hill with no problems going from top to bottom in one go.

Binsey's an odd fell, set apart from the others. It lacks altitude and technical appeal but it affords great views:

Snowclouds breaking over Skiddaw

On the way up we spotted from a distance what we thought was an injured sheep lying in the grass:

Sheep?

We should have gone to Specsavers  😎 ... on closer inspection it turned out to be a boulder with a peculiar covering of moss and lichen:

Notsheep

As usual, Ella couldn't resist playing with the ice:

Frozen

A few hundred yards further on we were nearing the obvious summit where the wind was tearing up from behind us and whistling over the top:

Ella makes for the top

Surveying the scene

Snug in the shelter

We got comfy in the shelter, it was time for cuppas and snacks. The view from the top is well-worth the minimal effort of getting there, it's a great place for appreciating the layout of the Northern Fells. I managed to take a few pics when the wind wasn't flinging ice at the lens:

The Uldale Fells

Pano from Binsey

The stroll back down to the car took around twenty minutes and soon we were back in Keswick - Ella wanted some retail therapy. While shopping we ran into the two folk that we'd met up on Satura Crag the day before... what were the chances of that happening?

I was determined to keep my hands off my wallet but couldn't resist using my YHA-membership discount in the Cotswold shop when I saw the snow-scooters. Yeah, I might well be fifty but there's nowt in the rules that says that I have to act like it! We'll try to remember to take the thing up Binsey in the snow next year.

The drive home was fairly easy with hardly any bad roads until we got within 100 yards of home. Four hours of simple driving and then an hour to get the car on the drive. While we'd been away our village had been more-or-less snowed-in and iced-up.

Here's the tale of the tape:

Saturday: 3.04 miles of walking, 1341ft of up/down, 1 new Wainwright for Ella, none for me;
Sunday: 1.48 miles of walking, 592ft of up/down, 1 new Wainwright for each of us;
Wainwright totals so far: Ella 14/214, me 209/214

A few days at Borrowdale – Part 4 – Return and round-up

Posted by on April 28th 2011 in Great Escapes, Lakes Escapes, YHA
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It was our last morning at Borrowdale, the forecast was for more hot weather and we didn't fancy another walk in such conditions. After packing the cars we went into Keswick for some retail therapy. Gifts were bought for friends and family and we got caught up in a procession of folk carrying a wooden cross through the town centre to the Moot Hall. Amazingly we still managed to get away from the shops without buying more kit, but not until after we'd managed to refuel ourselves first at Java and Chocolate and then at the Lakeland Pedlar Whole Food Cafe.

Narrowly avoiding a round of "obstacle golf" (I suppose this is the PC version of what we used to call "crazy golf") we returned to the car and raced off to the A66 for the long haul back home.

I suppose that a few walking stats wouldn't go amiss...

Wednesday

  • Distance: 4.2 miles
  • Total ascent: 1652 ft
  • Wainwrights: 1 - Bessyboot 1807 ft (first ascent for all of us, first Wainwright for Millie)

Thursday

  • Distance: 6.9 miles (including detour to Lonscale Fell)
  • Total ascent: 2361 ft (including detour to Lonscale Fell)
  • Wainwrights: 2 - Skiddaw 3053 ft (first ascent for the others, second ascent for me), Lonscale Fell 2344 ft (first ascent for me and for Geoff)

Illnesses and injuries:

  • Prickly heat (Chris and Anna)
  • Heel blister (me)
  • Rock/face impact (Jacob, who forgot to let go of the projectile that he had intended to whang into the stream)

So, two more Wainwrights knocked off the to-do list, only 20 still to do.  The Wainwrights and Routes map has been updated accordingly.

A couple of days at Buttermere – Part 2 – Rained off

Posted by on October 31st 2010 in Car stuff, Great Escapes, Lakes Escapes, Shiny new kit, YHA
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It rained nearly all night and the Saturday morning was looking grim. The only folk determined to go out and hit the fell-tops were members of a group of charity walkers who we'd been talking with the previous evening and who were attempting a one-day ten-peak fund-raising epic from Gatesgarth Farm to Stool End. By the time we were up and about they were long gone. We chatted with one of their support crew who said that they'd left loads of excess supplies in the kitchen for us, so we dipped in and chose a few items and left the rest for those that came after. I've just visited their JustGiving page and it says that they had to abandon their challenge due to bad weather, in a sad way that justifies our decision to keep our kids off the fells that day.

 

A final look at the hostel

 

After another fine breakfast we packed the cars and headed up to Newlands Hause just in case anybody had a change of heart and fancied a quick jaunt up High Snockrigg, but there were no takers so we took a few pics and headed into Keswick for a mooch around:

 

Moss Force

 

Keskadale

 

We opted for an hour or so at The Bond Museum - this turned out to be much better than we'd expected. Click the following pic to open more pics in the lightbox:

 

Gotta get me one of these

After that we did a bit of gift-shopping, had a tea-break and browsed the wares on display at the market, but the draw of the clackysticks on offer at The Outdoor Warehouse in Windermere was too strong. We left Keswick and, after stopping for a picnic lunch at a spot overlooking Thirlmere, we hauled into the shop's car-park and headed in to do the deed. From then on we were homeward bound.