Walking Ambleside to Grasmere

A much more gentle goal for today’s walk; a low level walk from Ambleside to Grasmere via Rydal Water. I’d never done this walk before so I was keen to do it.

We headed out of town a little after 10am. The first part was road walking but we soon stepped off the main road and onto one of Cumbria’s many corpse roads, where bodies were transported from town to town.

We took many photos of the landscape and livestock as we wandered along. The weather was cloudy but warm.

Over a stile and into the grounds of Rydal Hall, a manor house with some lovely garden features.

‘Grot House’ must have been named before people realised ‘grotto’ was more suitable.

To get to the house we walked along this lovely path then under a bridge.

The inside of the house was simple but lovely, with window seats for viewing the waterfall.

We had a little walk around their gardens and took a photo of the front of the main house.

We thought about pretending we were staying here but you lot would never believe it.

On our way out we saw the most magnificent carpet of wild garlic I have ever seen! Look at it!

It was very hard to photograph well but we gave it our best shot.

On to the 400 year old church just down the road.

The interior of the church was lovely in its simplicity.

There was a bowl and little slips of paper up the front on the little table. Visitors were invited to write a prayer or message to god and put it in the bowl. Luke pulled a couple out and had a look.

Did he fall asleep in church? Is this a threat?

Past the church and down to Rydal village, which is a very small collection of houses and a pub. It is very cute though!

Clematis is out everywhere at the moment. So pretty!

The next section of the wall was on the other side of the main road, over a bridge and then along the banks of Rydal Water.

The forest was a luminous green, with all the new leaves and fresh ferns.

Bluebells are irritatingly difficult to photograph effectively but so magical in person.

This is a very famous boat shed that has has been photographed millions of times… I haven’t done it justice, but sometimes it looks like this:

The walk along the water was lovely and we got to see some people doing something unexpected…

… getting in the water. Upon closer inspection we could see the kids had gum boots and there were a couple of adults with wetsuits. The water temperature today was 11 degrees.

Then it was across country to the next body of water, Grasmere.

Another photo that completely fails to capture the millions of bluebells in front of us.

I won’t lie, much like this post, the route was longer than I expected. Maybe my mile to kilometre conversion was off but the walk did feel longer than I’d anticipated.

We stopped for a toilet break at the cafe next to the cottage where Wordsworth lived. This is a photo of his cottage, not the cafe.

Here’s a poem I liked from the visitors centre.

Next stop: lunch! Even though I walked everyone further than they’d probably have liked, food is so much more enjoyable when you’re tired (or at least, that’s what I keep telling them).

I managed to take a photo that looks like I’m stalking them.

Lea and I shared a coronation chicken sandwich and then I ate half of Luke’s bowl of chips.

Almost as delicious but half as brightly coloured as my last curried chicken sandwich.

The people next to us had a dog that was a BORDOODLE! Border collie x poodle.

Here’s the dog I patted for about half an hour.

A mix I had not heard of until this year and one of my workmates got one. This one kept leaning on my leg and I found myself patting it without realising what I was doing. I am definitely missing Bonnie but I am 100% certain she is not missing us, going by the photos I am getting from the people she is staying with.

Daycare photo from a few days ago for reference.

Next we wandered around Grasmere and looked at all the cute buildings.

After doing a couple of circuits of town we decided on afternoon tea at the hotel above. Apart from Lea being served a pot of tea that contained a single teabag and getting a grumpy look from the waitress when I asked for more, the food as lovely and served in a very comfortable room with a view of the plebs walking past.

The only significant thing we did in Grasmere was buy some ‘famous’ Grasmere gingerbread.

This required queuing, which I am ideologically opposed to, but we eventually got into the tiny room and Lea bought a packet.

Last was a top-deck bus ride back to Ambleside!

This might be my longest post yet but I couldn’t bear not to share all these magnificent views. To finish, for those of you who know my dog, here’s a last photo of her at daycare with her adopted older brother, Chester.

17May2023

Ambleside: A Walk Up Loughrigg Fell

by Miss Penny Black

Everyone was happy for me to lead the way today so I suggested a walk up Loughrigg Fell, which is one of the closest and smallest fells near Ambleside.

We were up and out just before 10am, all well-rested and full of energy. It’s so nice to have a kitchen and be able to have a small breakfast. The place we are staying at only has one teaspoon though so we have to take it in turns to use it… and no toilet roll holders, which is also kind of weird.

We walked across the park and over the bridge to the bottom of the hill.

Up a steep road then over a stile.

There were swathes of bluebells, which are hard to photograph but stunning in real life.

Within half an hour we had made it up the first section to Todd Crag, which had beautiful views over Ambleside and Windermere.

The top of Loughrigg is undulating so we walked up and down a bit and even did a tiny bit of scrambling (walking but having to use your hands where it’s steep). We saw a deer and I saw a hawk.

Some of the tarns had completely dried up but the larger ones remained.

We took lots of breaks to enjoy the views.

We had a chat to a fellow who was enjoying a quiet walk while his wife was at her 75th school reunion in Ambleside. We later passed him and his wife in town and told her we hoped she’d had a lovely time!

After wandering on the southern half of the fell, and everyone feeling fine, I suggested we walk up the higher part of the fell to the north as I recalled there being good views of the Langdales from the other side.

This is the part of the day where I stopped taking so many photos because the path was distinctly more hilly and rocky than I’d recalled. Everyone else was extremely patient and put in a top effort and we got up the steep and gravelly slopes with a few rest stops.

We also saw the fighter jets again from this side! We’d seen a tiny moment of them from Ambleside yesterday but had a much better view today.

I don’t like slippery gravel at all, especially downhill, so I used the OS map app to navigate us down some grassy goat tracks on the far side and back to the main path. It was a bit hairy but I think, in the end, that it was a better way to go and no one complained at all. Champions!

Once we got down to the wide track it was an easy walk down back into Ambleside.

Next stop:

For some:

The sun was out, along with every man, woman, child and dog in town. After lunch we had a wander around town and a look in the Oxfam store.

I bought this book, I hope to use it to my advantage.

Then we discovered that Lea hadn’t tried Jaffa cakes so it was home for tea and biscuits!

(Or cake, depending on how you view them)

We learned our lesson from last night and booked a table booked at The Flying Fleece for dinner.

I had curry and everyone else had a gigantic Cumberland sausage and a mountain of mashed potato. A satisfying end to a big day!

16May2023

Ambleside Day 2: Family Reunited!

by Miss Penny Black

After a fabulous sleep in a king-sized bed, Luke and I awoke ready to enjoy the wonders of the Lake District and to catch the bus to Windermere to meet Luke’s parents, Lea and Pete, at the Windermere train station.

The smiles are a lie. It was freezing and I was deeply regretted not bringing my coat.

We caught the open-topped bus from Ambleside to Windermere and had a wander around Booths while we waited. It is a large and fancy supermarket where everything looks perfect and fresh and the labels are all very English and cute, it’s a bit like walking around an art gallery. Also there are no decent supermarkets in Ambleside so we picked out a few things to buy later before we caught the bus back.

Close to the time the train arrived, we went to the station, which is right next door to the supermarket. Precisely on time, the train pulled in.

I had several potential plans for the afternoon and we settled on the following:

Then up to Orrest Head, one of the best bang-for-buck walks in the area and it starts right by the train station.

The view from the top was fantastic but is hard to show in a photo, so here’s one of us instead:-)

On the way down we found the Gruffalo! We also saw some fat native bumblebees and robins bobbing around the undergrowth.

Then a tour of Booths to buy supplies..

Then onto the bus to Ambleside!

Followed by relaxing in our lovely apartment, eating cheese, drinking wine and sharing travel stories.

In the evening we took a short walked to bridge house, which had already featured in the blog at least once, many years ago. It is the most photographed building in the Lake District and used to house a family with six children. It was built across the beck to avoid land taxes.

We had a drink outside one of the pubs then bought some pizzas from the little local supermarket to heat up at home. We were all in bed by 10!

6May2023

Camino Ingles Day 7: Sigüeiro to Santiago de Compostela, aka the end!

by Miss Penny Black

We left Sigueiro at about 9:30 and had 15km to walk to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.

Apart from a few spots of rain the worst of the weather was just a lot of cold wind, which made walking easier.

I kind of expected the path to be quite industrial as it was so close to Santiago but, either by luck or design, it was mostly forest and fields for all but the last few kilometres.

We saw many more pilgrims than previous days but only really talked to one, a lively Italian lady named Leah who told us she had left her husband at home and decided to do the walk by herself at the age of 70. She didn’t have any aches or pains and wished Danny improvement with his feet.

At about 11:30 we stopped off at a food place that was right next to the trail in a forested part.

It was a big open cement area and a huge echoing hall that looked like the world’s saddest wedding venue. It had a tiny bar and food counter set up so we had some coffee and sandwiches.

We have been told that the government is using money to promote this route but it would be nice to spend some money on making it safer as often footpath just runs out and trucks almost clip you as you walk.

The amenities and businesses along the trail (or lack thereof) have been a constant source of bemusement. The traffic along this branch of the Camino has been increasing drastically over the last two decades (from under 100 people to over 22,000 last year) but there’s quite long stretches of road with no footpath, no places to get food and not one public toilet to be seen along the whole route, which Danny says is typical of Spain. Anywhere that sells food is expected to let people use their bathroom but quite often there’s nowhere open.

Coming into Santiago from the opposite direction to the most popular trail meant that it was just right into the older part of town.

The industrial estate part of the walk wasn’t pretty but had excellent wide footpaths.

Our first sight of the cathedral??

How about now?

Then Danny said that we would hear bagpipes when we got close, an instrument that is traditionally Gaelic, so they are played here as well as in Scotland and Ireland. I completely neglected to take a photo of the piper, but eventually we heard them as we continued through the lovely ancient streets.

It was great to finish, and it felt like Danny might not have made another day with his blisters as they were getting worse.

Seeing all the groups of pilgrims getting photos and looking so excited was very nice, I imagine that if you’d come here just for this and if you’d finished one of the longer walks – quite a lot of people walk from France or further – the sensation of relief and achievement would be overwhelming.

Having just spent twice as long walking through much more dramatic countryside in England, this was fun but it didn’t particularly make me want to do other Camino routes. I’m not against the idea either, I just have other places I’d like to walk.

Danny and I did discuss what we’d learned from the experience. I’d totally agree with Deb that four days got me into my stride, so doing a longer trek would definitely be possible and if I’d put more effort into preparing I probably wouldn’t have had such sore feet in the beginning.

I felt a bit hamstrung by not speaking the local language and I think a lot of my enjoyment from travel comes from meeting people so that was a down side. We didn’t really meet many people who spoke English confidently.

I think if I’d done this years ago I would’ve been part of the ‘get up and on the road by dawn’ crowd, but going slower and making decent stops has increased my enjoyment. I don’t think I could ever walk ten hours a day so there’s no need to be up and out so quickly.

The time of year we’d chosen was really good. None of the days were too hot or too cold and we had luckily sat out the rainiest day. The time of year also meant that there were lots of flowers in bloom and the farmers were yet to spread manure on the fields. I always forget how much of country walking is accompanied by the smell of manure but it wasn’t too bad this time.

Despite being surrounded by long green grass most days my hayfever was fine. I really don’t understand why it’s so bad in England and not here where the plants are almost identical.

Collecting the stamps along the way was fun. Who doesn’t like stamps? I think the stamp system would be a great thing to institute on other long walks around the world. It’s an easy and fun reminder of all the places you stop at.

We did 122km or so, 100 is needed for the certificate at the end. We did get the certificates but I think the stamps are actually a better souvenir.

So that was our Camino! Probably the least impressive in terms of length but a very nice walk and Danny and I managed to get along very well, both being very patient when the other needed to go slowly or take a break.

To finish, here’s a series of photos of us in front of highways and derelict petrol stations. It’s not all forests and fields!

3May2023

Camino Ingles Day 5: Ordes to Segueiro

by Miss Penny Black

Most pilgrims stay in Bruma but we had missed out on accommodation so we had walked off trail to Ordes. I don’t know if I really spent enough time in my last post emphasising precisely how many trucks were driving through the main street of Ordes, where our hotel was. It was like a truck convention had come to town.

It was pretty much a constant stream of loud traffic. The town had a strange vibe, with half the businesses clearly closed down but also a lot of fancy cars and richly dressed pedestrians. All the buildings were soot stained… basically we weren’t sorry to leave. If Pontedueme was 4/5, this was 1/5.

I cannot complain about the staff at our hotel, who were so so friendly and helpful and apologised all the time for their English (this is so embarrassing for me and my ten words of Spanish). Breakfast was … tomato on toast!

Plus a special treat.

Mum, I know exactly what you’ll say when you see this photo! Coco pops was my special treat cereal as a kid.

Hotel decor was a bit dramatic for breakfast.

As we left the hotel I noticed something significant – a pile of bags with tags. This meant the bag transfer service was available! I got out my little backpack, we put all of Danny’s heavy stuff in my big bag and left it for pick up. Having an AirTag on my bag made it easy to check when it reached its destination and helped us navigate to the right place.

Walking out of town was a pleasure and quickly took us away from the grotty part of town and into the countryside. Along the way was some great graffiti.

Five kilometres out of town was an excellent little cafe with an owner who spoke not only perfect English but with a West Sussex accent despite being clearly Spanish. she has been born in England then moved back to Spain with her Spanish parents to look after her grandmother.

We asked her if pilgrims were annoying and she said ‘only the Spanish ones’ and when we asked how they were annoying she said ‘in every way’ and the gist of it seemed to be that they were very entitled and acted like they were doing her a favour and didn’t realise her business was mainly supported by locals, pilgrims were ‘holiday money’. It was really interesting to be able to talk to someone about the local side of living on such a popular route.

People had left pilgrims messages so I left the orange one in the middle letting people know that the little boxes on stilts were for corn. Later on we met some British girls who had also been wondering. It wasn’t just us who was mystified!

The lady in the cafe had said the walk from then on was easy and she wasn’t wrong. Either that or Deb had been right about day five and onwards being easier… or the cooler weather made a difference. Maybe it was all these aspects combined?

Most of the walking was by fields, through trees and on roads.

There were definitely more people on the trail today as both routes had properly joined. We kept leap-frogging groups and saying hello … well, hola! When everyone says hola it’s really hard to work out who speaks English.

We had a nice chat with some Spanish men who spoke English at a rest stop by the second last pilgrim bath of the day.

The last part of the day was beside a highway but behind a hedge, thankfully. Also it was a gentle downhill for once.

Then through industrial estates but they seemed quite new and busy.

Apart from Danny’s epic blisters we both agreed that it was by far the easiest day. Most of the other pilgrims had walked further than us though as we had stayed at a town that wasn’t exactly on the trail. We had wondered if towns not on the official route would still give us stamps but it turned out to be fine no matter where we went.

Walking into Sigueira was lovely with a nice park and an open cafe.

As we sat with a snack under some lovely wisteria, too early to book into our accommodation, the weather turned a bit.

Danny was not happy about getting out his raincoat.

My bag had been taken to a different hotel so we had to pick it up before our accommodation. The AirTag was a super handy way to find my bag. The lady at the hotel was very annoyed that my bag had been sent there when we weren’t actually staying at her hotel and she said ‘maybe it was there, maybe not’ but a nicer member of staff went to look and found it immediately. If I hadn’t been able to track my bag with my phone I would’ve had a proper panic!

Our apartment was on the third floor so after we lugged our bags up we went out for food – delicious arepas at a bar that was playing almost nonstop Adele videos.

I will admit this photo doesn’t look great but it was actually one of the best things I’ve eaten so far on this trip.

We highly recommend this bar, not just for the food but the staff were lovely.

We bought some wine and snacks and by 7pm we were on the couch watching Drag Race.

Danny’s feet had been hurting so much that we decided to book another night in Sigueiro. It turned out to be a great decision as it started raining during the night and hasn’t really stopped since!