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.
