We had to check out of our lovely Keswick accommodation at 10am so there was time for a couple of hours of wandering around Keswick before moving to Buttermere, a lake in a valley to the west of Keswick.
Luke kindly let me drag him around a number of shops in which I bought nothing but we did pick up some fudge, a bottle of Kin toffee vodka and a Lake District book for Sue.
Chicken, chorizo and bacon pastie for breakfast. Goodbye Keswick!A last visit to the cheese counter at Booths for supplies.
The next and last stop is Buttermere. Our house is relatively remote so we need to take everything.
Mark and Sue brought their car so they are taking the bags while the rest of us take the bus. We were hoping for a double decker but ended up with the back seat on a single storey bus.
Epic views down Honister Pass. Pete said it was the best bus ride he’d ever been on.
The bus finished at Buttermere so we walked the last bit until we saw the sign.
Our new home!I picked a bunch of lilac for the table.Our private gate down to Crummock Water.Fleetwith Pike in the distance.
I went for a little walk and found two smashed glasses by the creek so I picked up all the big bits and brought them back.
We came back and took the lawn chairs out. There is a building with a bed and breakfast on the property but I’m yet to see another person.
Once the wind got up we moved to a sheltered spot.
We finished off the evening with pizza, wine and Bananagrams. Sue won two, Mark won one, and I was just happy to play.
Then we were off to bed in our tiny little beds in our tiny little rooms. I’ll post some photos of the inside of the cottage tomorrow. Goodnight!
After realising last night that we were, in fact, not leaving Keswick on the following day, we decided on a plan. We were going to catch the lake ferry to Ashness Bridge and walk back to town via Walla Crag, a walk none of us had done and which seemed reasonably straightforward.
The walk from our apartment to the landing was short and we bought tickets (a steal at £2.70 each) and I took some snaps of the very photogenic row boats.
The boat ride was short but scenic.
We alighted at the first landing and walked the step road climb to Ashness Bridge. I’ve been there twice before, also on overcast days, so if my photos look very familiar that’s why. Or you’ve seen this bridge on the cover of a box of Derwent pencils.
There were a few people around but these girls had decided to have their meal break right in front of the bridge and get in the way of everyone’s photos, which was kind of annoying.
Still, the time of day and light was much better this time. Here’s my very shady photo from 2018.
We were a bit less organised today and Mark, who said he wasn’t in charge, had the route marked out on his phone. We decided to take the path that didn’t look very steep.
Through this harmless-looking, and therefore misleading, gate.
But then it got STEEP!
It’s really hard to capture steepness in a photo, but I had to use my hands on the rocks, the surface was loose gravel and there were blackberry canes, nettles and roses everywhere, which made it all a bit challenging. Mark and Sue leapt to the top like mountain goats while everyone else got caught up behind me. To be honest, if I’d been on my own I probably wouldn’t have done it but, after a couple of uncertain moments, we got up higher where the path levelled out.
Maybe, instead of anaesthetic, in hospitals they could save money and just show people photos of amazing views because it seems to make me immediately forget all the suffering I’ve endured.
Onwards and upwards..Feeling the serenity. We did actually manage to hear a cuckoo today too!From up high we could see the fell we walked yesterday. We saw a bird of prey and our eyes could see more detail than this terrible image shows. We think it might have been a honey buzzard.More dramatic views.Negotiating a rare bit of mud.Me in a group photo. Thanks Mark!An unusual stile design to get to Lady’s Rake above Walla Crag. Stunning views! Lea loves it when I take photos of her unawares.Cotton grass.
The back of Walla Crag is a wide moor space that is very open and covered in heather. My favourite sort of landscape, it sweeps up to some higher fells and I was dying a little inside knowing that it will have wait until next time but I guess it’ll always be there.
After a while admiring the view we headed down again.
Past a field with some fell ponies and down a long hill.
Over a bridge…Past some sheep…Beneath a magnificent oak…Past more sheep…Down a lane lined with flowers…To the stone circle!What a day!Weather this good calls for one thing. Yum.
After a bit of a sit at the stone circle (which I have also photographed before… by now you may be wondering why I’m even bothering to rephotograph all these places.
When we got to the bus stop Mark and Sue decided to walk back the 30 minutes while the rest of us waited for the bus. Which, in the manner of buses everywhere, failed to arrive.
Oh well, Luke messaged Mark and they were at the pub along the way so we joined them at the…
It means ‘two dogs’.
After a drink and toilet stop we walked back to the apartment for a late lunch bite and rest before dinner.
Mark was the taxi for the evening and, as there were six of us, had to take us in two shifts to a pub in the village of Braithwaite. The pub was Mark and Sue’s recommendation.
Always nice to see the pour over the line.Cheese sauce with garlic mushrooms on garlic bread – I’m including this photo to remind me to make this at home.Pork belly, or ‘belly pork’ according to the waiter.
Unfortunately our lovely dinner was ruined by Luke and I sharing the news that we don’t separate coloured and white items in our laundry and I’m not sure the conversation really recovered.
Tomorrow we check out at 10 and have three hours to fill before we can check in at our Buttermere accommodation. The next place we are staying is much more remote than any of the previous so we need to pick up supplies, with cheese and wine at the top of the list!
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.
Lots of cute herdwick sheep.Checking whether it’s true or not.
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.Thousands of bluebells along the path.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:(Not my photo, obviously)
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.
Ducklings!
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.
No behaviour worthy of blackmail. Yet.
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.Luke is dubious.
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.
I woke to a perfectly clear, blue sky and checked out of the West View somewhat regretfully. it would’ve been an amazing day to walk but never mind.
Amazingly blue but either that’s snow on the distant peaks or the thickest frost I’ve ever seen. It was -2 overnight.
last night I ended up going to see ‘Air’ at the cute little cinema a couple of blocks from the B&B. It was entertaining and I always like going to tiny local cinemas. So tiny the tickets were hand-written!
The bathroom decor was almost more exciting than the movie.
After I left the West View I headed to the shops. I bought the last couple of things I needed for the Camino, including some compeed plasters, which multiple people have assured me have magical blister-healing properties. I also got some more familiar but less magical elastoplast tape. With two treatments for blisters I’m hoping Murphy’s Law will ensure I get none.
All the buses leave from outside Booths supermarket. There was no one waiting when I first got there so I went into the supermarket to look at weird chip flavours.
Score!
When I came out there were approximately a billion people waiting for the same bus as me. I glumly joined the end of the line but, due to one bus parking in the wrong spot, my bus ended up stopping on the wrong spot, closer to my end of the queue. Well, the tension was palpable as all the orderly elderly people realised what was happening. One single couple walked from what was now the back to the front and just kind of shoved in (quelle horreur!) but otherwise we all just got on in the new order.
I went up the top and found tables! I’d never seen tables on an English bus before. I ended up sitting at a table with three locals, who said it was definitely a brand new bus.
(I took the photo after everyone got off)
It has USB charging points but also wireless charging too, where you just sit your phone on the disc on the table. Fancy!
I talked to the people at my table for the whole trip to Windermere, where they were getting off to walk to Orrest Head. This is the first time I’ve been to the lakes and not walked up Orrest Head. It’s a tiny hill right near Windermere station and Alfred Wainwright’s first walk – and mine! Maybe we’ll be able to fit in in next time.
The views became less rocky and more green towards Kendal. I’d bought my train ticket tomorrow from Oxenholme, which is just south of Kendal. There are buses that go direct from Oxenholme to Ambleside but not all the way to Keswick so I thought I’d walk from Kendal to the station. It was only about 3km.
Kendal is a lovely town but more like Penrith and Carlisle than Keswick, which are larger, less touristy towns that sit around the edge of the Lake District.
I walked around a bit and stopped for a lunch of Thai pea soup at the oldest pub in Kendal, Ye Olde Fleece Inn.
The soup was lovely but the wallpaper was something else!
Passionfruit flowers!
It was a very nice place to sit, so I sat for a while.
The walk to Oxenholme was neither pretty nor quiet, being along a busy road, but there were a few nice views.
The tree was magnificent but could not entirely cover the stalag-esque community centre behind it.
The most noteworthy thing I saw was this school.
My brain did a little hiccup and initially thought it had been doing scholarships etc since 3:25 in the afternoon. No wait, they’re celebrating their 500th anniversary in 2 years.
Eventually, after a climb up a steep hill, I reached my accommodation.
And the enormous room!
Now I’ve had cheese and mushrooms on toast for dinner and I’m listening to the Somehow Related podcast.
An early night – I don’t feel like I’ve done much but I’ll be happy to get into bed.
To finish, here’s a lovely picture from my new favourite account on instagram – a magnificent cat who likes to go walking in the Lake District!
The weather has become colder and today I had a few jobs to do before leaving to go south and then fly to Spain on Friday.
First, a quick trip to the post office.
It was not, in fact, a quick trip. It took over an hour thanks to me not reading the instructions properly on the stickers I had to fill in and having to re-line-up several times. Oh well!
Still, a literal weight was lifted when I passed it all over the bench and I went off to the museum.
The Keswick museum is small but contains some very interesting items.
Birds’ eggs. Very pretty!
A little tree hung with people’s methods of getting through lockdown.
And a giant musical instrument that was like a xylophone but made of pieces of slate. They had buttons in the display that you could press to hear the music, which was surprisingly ethereal.
Next I was going to buy myself a pair of hideous but comfortable hiking sandals (Spain being a lot warmer than Cumbria) and I like to think I succeeded and then some.
They fit perfectly, why do they look so huge? Like I’m about to go snorkeling.
I stopped in at the Oxfam shop too. No matter where you go in the UK there seems to be a plethora of second hand clothing shops.
I was excited to find a copy of The Idler, a book-style magazine that was the forerunner of one of my favourite books ‘How To Be Idle’. The magazine is full of articles on idleness. I’m generally a busy person and I live a busy life, but after I read this book years ago (and got two of my book clubs to read it, with mixed results) I re-examined my attitude to life. I make more time to do nothing now. I used to love doing nothing when I was a child, pottering around, or even just staring into space. Now I don’t feel guilty if I do nothing at times.
Anyhow, the magazine serves two purposes. First, I can read it, and second, I can cut it up to make some mail art. A few years ago my friend Fish and I did a collage course at a library. It was fun to just mess around with shapes and images. I thought I might make something to send to Kat, a friend of mine who loves getting things in the mail. Let me know when it arrives, Kat!
So I later spent several happy hours in the lounge of the B&B being creative, using receipts and fliers and bits and pieces I’ve collected in the last week to make a little fold-up collage that I could send tomorrow. As I was sitting there I wished it would rain and then it started raining, how lucky is that?
Other than that, I bought some insanely-priced hiking socks and a couple of tiny bottles of the other Kin vodka flavours so I could try them while I was here. A little toast to the first chapter of my journey ending and being such a success.
Here Comes The Planet 