mutteringhousewife

Today had it all. A big climb, a steep descent, amazing Lakes District views, lots of sheep, long traverses, rain, wind, sunshine, hail and a ruined abbey.

It was also large kilometrically – twenty five kilometres which took us from 9am to 6:30pm to get done. We left beautiful Patterdale, one of those ridiculously picturesque Lakes District villages full of stone walled cottages, and started the climb to Kidsty Pike. I’m not sure if I’m getting used to this, or it was a particularly kind climb, but even though it took us some hours I didn’t really have a problem with it. We made sure to look back often, as we were leaving the Lakes District.

The wind picked up as we ascended, but at no stage did I feel like I’d be blown into a mere. Or a tarn. When we got to Kidsty Pike we found a small sheltered area out of the wind to eat our gingerbread lunch, where we were treated to a view of four fighter jets doing some kind of twisty formation thing through the peaks across the valley from us. The Commander went back up to the peak to take a panorama and was astonished to be engulfed in a hail storm, as was I. Glad we already had our raincoats on. It probably only lasted five minutes.

The descent down was really more like climbing down a series of small cliffs, often having to take them backwards. This thing is going to be a national walk next year, I am wondering if they are going to make some of these tracks that are really only visible on one of the multitude of map apps on the Commander’s phone into actual paths. Here is an example of part of the descent ‘track’:

Eventually we got down to Haweswater Reservoir, and the next bit was to walk the length of it along a cliff traverse. It was a little tough going, a very narrow track, often rocky or wet, and no red squirrels, sadly. After that there were tracks across farmland, meeting fat white sheep that would have been no match for the Herdwick sheep of the highlands. After a lot of walking, we came across our very first significant ruin, Shap Abbey.

Shut down by Henry VIII in the mid fifteen hundreds, the floor plan of the place is still visible beyond the very impressive tower. As it was already six pm by the time we got here, we had a very quick wander around this fabulous place before heading on to Shap, which is not nearly as picturesque as we’ve been used to despite the magnificent rainbows heralding our approach. Our place for tonight is the New Ing Lodge, who have humorously put us in an attic room up three flights of stairs.

With a tummy full of pie and merlot from the nearby Crown pub, some Voltaren and magnesium pills added to the mix, I’m sure I’ll sleep well.