Day 13 - Chapel-le-Dale

Distance walked: 19.6km, Actual Time Taken: 5h 40m, Estimated Time Taken: 5h 30m
Ascent: 835m, Descent: 738m, # Times Lost: 0
Booze: 1 glass Sangiovese

Today the chatty taxi driver drove me back to Stainforth to head back out on the trail.  Today's hike included climbing up the second highest peak in the Dales - Ingleborough which is 724m above sea level.  The keen eyed will see that the highest point I actually reached today was only 700m above sea level.  I got to the last little bit and it was a scramble up wet, slippery rocks and it was very windy up that high.  Below is a picture of what the last 20m or so was like (I pinched this off the interwebs).  I started going up and then thought "this isn't fun and going down is going to be even less fun and this is supposed to be a holiday i.e. fun" so I turned around and went back down.  I doubt the view would have been materially different from those extra 24m up.

I'd climbed up from the south side but to continue my walk I descended towards the north.  The guide book mentioned this was "hair-raising at first".  I disagree.  I think it was hair-raising the entire time!  I climbed down around 300m over a distance of a little over 1km. It was steep!

I got to my destination, the Old Hill Inn, in Chapel-le-Dale at around 3:30pm.  Unforunately, my chatty taxi driver couldn't come to pick me up until 4:15pm.  His taxi (a people mover) seems to double as a mini school bus.  Even more sadly, the pub was shut.  They've given all their staff 2 weeks holiday!  Fortunately, it wasn't raining.  I have tomorrow to look forward to that.

Dinner tonight was at La Tavernetta in Ingleton (where I'm staying for tonight).  The chatty taxi driver recommended it to me.  Strictly speaking it just rates as Harmless but it was comforting, decent quality bistro Italian.  I started with bruschetta with proscuitto and basil and then had the lasagna with a side salad with roasted vegetables.  The lasagna was decent but the salad desperately needed some vinegar or lemon juice.  For dessert I had tiramisu.  The consistency and the ratio of marscapone to biscuit was right but there was no trace of booze.  

The most entertaining part of the night was a man at a table next to me.  He was a dentist and he talked endlessly to anyone who would listen or even who didn't want to listen.  The poor waitress, who looked all of 18, had braces and he quizzed her about her dentist, her teeth problems, her braces and her treatments.  He chatted to me, he chatted to people at the table on his other side.  His poor dining companion kept ordering beer after beer.  At one point the companion said to the waitress "you understand why I need another beer don't you?".  

Day 12 - Stainforth

Distance walked: 19km, Actual Time Taken: 5h, Estimated Time Taken: 4h 30m
Ascent (GPS): 893m, Ascent (watch): 327m, Descent (GPS): 887m, Descent (watch): 351m
# Times Lost: 1, G&Ts: Slingsby Rhubarb Gin (Harmless)

I'm inclined to believe the GPS on altitude calculations this time.

Today was a day of chatty taxi drivers, Marie Celeste pubs and passive aggressive landladies.  Also some walking.

My destination for today, Stainforth, didn't have any available accommodation so my tour company had arranged with a local taxi driver to pick me up from there and take me to a hotel in a bigger town nearby.  However, they had arranged a time of 4:30pm and I had estimated I could be there by 3pm.  I was a little annoyed, but fortunately Stainforth does have a pub, the Craven Heifer, so I wasn't too concerned.

Instead, I set off to amble my way to Stainforth rather than walk briskly.  It turns out the extra time was useful.  Malham was also a detour off the trail it took me a good 30-45 minutes of casting about at the top of Malham Cove to find out where the main path connected.  I would follow a good, wide path only to have it peter out and realise it was just a sheep track.  It turns out the actual path was a piddly little thing that looked like a sheep track.  If I didn't know I had time to spare I would have gotten very stressed.  As it was I was merely grumpy.

Below (is somebody else's) picture of Malham Cove.  It is better than anything I could take with my phone.

I haven't met very many other walkers here in the Dales.  It isn't a hotbed of hikers like the Lake District.  However, I have run into the same pair of women several times yesterday and today.  They seem to be headed in the same general direction as me but are using more roads and less hill paths.  I suppose I could ask them where they are going but that would involve talking to other human beings.

I stopped at the town of Settle for a late lunch.  I was going to be sensible but decided to have a ridiculously large, sticky cinnamon bun instead, along with a very good double espresso.  I wouldn't have expected to get good coffee here in the UK but it was worthy of Patricia's.  In spite of all the walking I'm doing, I'm still piling on the kilos.  My hiking pants that 10 days ago were too loose are now fitting snuggly.  At this rate they'll be too tight by the time I come home.

After lunch I ambled the last 7km to Stainforth.  As I approached the village there was a sandwich board on the main road advertising the pub.  I had high hopes for a pleasant wait for my taxi.  However, when I got to the pub it was closed!  Peering in the windows I could see that it wasn't closed down.  There were bottles behind the bar and the tables were all laid.  One even had dirty dishes on it.  It was like someone just shut the door and walked away.  A Marie Celeste of a pub. Very strange.

The taxi driver showed up right on time but it was still a long, cold wait.  At least it wasn't raining.  When I got to my destination for the night, the Craven Arms, I found its front door locked too!  Fortunately there was a number to ring.  When it was answered a grumpy woman came downstairs and let me in.  My route notes always say to ring ahead and let people know when you'll be arriving.  I've been doing that for B&Bs but not bothering when I'm staying in a hotel/inn/pub.  After all, they are open all the time so what does it matter?  Turns out here they shut from 3 to 5pm so it does matter.  I also didn't bother booking a table for dinner here either.  I figured 1 person, out of peak season, shouldn't be a problem.  Asking for a table for dinner just made grumpy woman grumpier.  She insisted on carrying my suitcase up to my room, complaining the whole time about how heavy it was.  I was going to ask for a packed lunch, but the route notes said to order that in advance.  I guessed that grumpy woman wouldn't consider asking on arrival sufficiently far in advance so I haven't.  I have museli bars and trail mix in my pack.  Those along with a big breakfast should be enough.

When I went down for dinner tonight the dining room was less than half full, so I don't see what grumpy woman's problem was.  My meal was interesting.  The dishes were tasty but generally didn't match up to the descriptions.  For entree I had what was listed as a smoked salmon terrine.but turned out to be slices of smoked salmon rolled up with the chive & cream cheese filling.  Main was billed as  beef Wellington but the meat inside was shredded beef, not fillet, and there was no trace of pate or mushrooms.  Dessert was as lemon & lime posset.  Basically a lemon&lime custard/cooked cream.  It was very tangy and absolutely delicious.  I'd rated entree and main as Harmless but dessert was definitely a case of Not Bad.   Grumpy woman got marginally less grumpy when I praised it.  I wonder if she'll be presiding over breakfast tomorrow.  I hope not.

Day 11 - Malham

Distance walked: 24km, Time Taken: 5h 30m, Estimated Time: 5h
Ascent (GPS):  1038m, Descent (GPS): 972m, Ascent (Watch): 465m, Descent (Watch): 492m
# Times Lost: 0, # Detours (deliberate): 2
Beer: 1 pint Thwaites Amber Ale (You Can Drink It), 1/2 pint Sharp's Doom Bar (You Can Drink It)

I've included two estimates of height ascended and descended - one from my GPS and the other from my Garmin smart watch.  I'm not sure I believe either.  From squinting at the elevation profile (also from my GPS) I'd put the ascent at around 600m.  The smartwatch counts floors for each 3m increase in altitude, so partial "floors" don't count leading to a slight underestimate.

Anyway, today was my first walk in the Yorkshire Dales.  The countryside here is beautiful in its own way, but much tamer than the Lake District.  It is more rolling hills than the dramatic fells of the Lake District.   The weather is different too.  Clearer skies which means better views but also it is much colder without the cloud cover.  Today it was only 6C when I started out and it got to a maximum of about 12C.  In comparison, in the Lake District it only got down to about 10C overnight and was generally in the mid to high teens during the day.  Perhaps I did the right thing lugging all the cold weather gear around.

I did two planned detours today.  The first was to avoid having to cross a busy A road.  Imagine multiple lanes of traffic in each direction going at 100 km/h.  I took one look and thought nope, nopety nope.  I didn't come all this way, with all my fancy gear for keeping me safe on the fells, only to get run over by car.  The second detour was at the end to visit Gordale Scar, which is a waterfall down through dramatic limestone cliffs.  Or it would be dramatic if they'd had more rain.

Below is a photo of a local reservoir.  You can clearly see that the water level has dropped a frightening amount.  One of the landlords at one of my B&B's in the Lake District complained that if they don't get enough rain soon, they'll have to start calling it the Puddle District.

Walking in the Dales is much easier than in the Lake District.  It is mostly dirt tracks or tracks over grass so much, much easier underfoot.  So many of the trails in the Lake District were made up of small rocks that wobbled underfoot.  Very slippery and hard on the knees.   Below is a photo of a section of path here that is going to be fabulous when they get around to finishing it.  I'm not sure if you can see from the photo but someone has abandoned two shovels beside the path and just left for the day.  It was about 2pm when I took this photo.

Lunch today was two pork pies.  They take their pork pies seriously in Skipton.  I passed several butchers all claiming to be the best supplier of pies in the town.  I bought my (one plain, one with apple) from the butcher who hadn't bothered making claims, but instead had just plastered his window with all the medals his pies had won.  You could barely see inside the shop.  

I had dinner at my hotel for tonight, the Buck Inn.  It is a lovely old coaching inn - well old by Australian standards.  It was built in 1874.  The dining area is made up of several separate sections.  I easily found a table in one section, although the others were all full.  At first I couldn't understand why but then I noticed the smell.  At another table in my section were two young men who were clearly hikers.  They had probaby, possibily, maybe showered and washed their clothes sometime in the last month.  Fortunately, they left before my dinner was served.  I had steak and chips, with mushrooms, tomatoes and onion rings.  For dessert I had rhubarb and plum crumble with custard.  All Harmless.

Day 10 - Skipton

Distance Walked: 7km
G&Ts: Haworth Deckchair Gin (Not Very Good), Beer: 1/2 pint Timothy Taylor's Landlord (Harmless)

Today was spent getting from Ambleside to Skipton via bus and train.  I was so nervous about missing the bus from Ambleside to Carnforth I ended up getting an earlier bus than I'd originally planned.  This meant I had 2 hours to kill in Carnforth.  Apparently they filmed parts of the film Brief Encounter at the Carnforth railway station here in 1945.  The tea room has been renovated so it looks like it did for the film set and there is also a small railway museum.  The volunteers who run both the tea room and the museum were very friendly.  As I'm not particularly interested in trains and had never heard of the movie this was a bit awkward.  Still, it was a pleasant way to pass the time.

The train station here in Skipton is about 10 minutes from the centre of town on one side, while my B&B is 10 minutes out on the other side, so that was my walk for today.  After settling in I planned to do the proper tourist thing and visit Skipton Castle and perhaps the museum and art gallery, but it was just too cold (all of about 9C).  I have enough layers to keep warm while hiking, but not for wandering around town.  In the end I browsed in shops, read a book and did some of the communal jigsaw in the local library before settling in at a pub.

I ended up at the Narrow Boat as they have good beers and the bar staff were friendly and welcoming.  I tried their gin of the day which, sadly, was horrid.  It was strawberry flavoured which was just wrong.  For dinner I had sausages and mash and then sticky toffee pudding with custard.  All Harmless.  Sticky toffee pudding is becoming my test dessert of this holiday.  This one was OK but the toffee needed to be a bit more caramlised so there is a touch of bitterness.  The custard was a pleasant change from the usual scoop of indifferent vanilla ice cream though.  A good effort.

Today it is back to hiking but this walk, the Dales High Way, is only rated Medium rather than Difficult so my knees should be happier.

Day 9 - Ambleside

Actual Distance Walked: 22km, Planned Distance: 18.5km,
Actual Time Taken: 6h, Planned Time: 5h 30m
# Times Lost: 2, # Times Fell Down: 2
Ascent: 1106m, Descent: 1189m
Beer: 1 pint Tirrils Red Barn Ale (You Can Drink It)

At least some of the extra distance was due to a planned detour to Grasmere for tea and gingerbread at about the 15km mark.  The weather was horrible today.  It was meant to be fine and not too windy in the morning but go off in the afternoon.  However, the clouds rolled in around 11am and the wind picked up.  Although, it never got so windy it made walking arduous (never a word you want to read in a weather forecast).  However, 11am was about when I started the climb up over the pass at Grisedale Tarn.  It has been raining on and off ever since.  Below is a photo of the fells I needed to climb up and over today.   The pass is somewhere in the dip largely obscured by clouds.

Below is a photo of the view back towards Glenridding before the weather went off.  As I was climbing up this slope (the first blip on the elevation chart) three lunatic cyclists came hooning down on some serious mountain bikes.   When I was gingerly making my way down the wet, slippery main descent I was passed by more lunatics.  This time these lunatics were running down the hill, bounding from rock to rock like mountain goats.  I'm not sure what appals me the most.  That they would run down such precipitous slopes or that they must have run up the other side!

Below is a photo of the mascot outside the Flying Fleece, the pub where I had dinner tonight.  Apologies for the rear view, not the most flattering angle, but it was raining so I just took the photo looking out the window.  I wasn't willing to stand in the street to get a better shot.  For dinner I had the housemade pate, then fish & chips with mushy peas and finally sticky toffee pudding.  It was all Harmless.

The evening was made more entertaining by a live musicial performance - a women with a guitar singing popular 80s hits.  She could carry a tune, but her timing was often out.  Still, everyone knew the songs and would sometimes sing along, even the dogs at times.

This was my last day walking in the Lake District.  Tomorrow I'm off to the Dales to walk the Dales High Way.  This walk is only rated Medium, until this Lakeland Round which was rated Difficult.  Perhaps my knees will forgive me sometime soon.

Day 8 - Glenridding

Distance Walked: 21km, Actual Time Taken: 5h 45m, Planned Time Taken: 6h 10m
Ascent: 1248m, Descent: 1196m, # Times Lost: 0
G&Ts: Whitley Neill Rubarb & Ginger (Dull), Lakes Distillery (Harmless)

The first half of today's walk was deceptively easy but then came the climb up to the top of Sticks Pass.  Five hundred metres up over 2km is a little challenging.  The descent wasn't as bad as yesterday.  A clear path which was mostly dry and firm underfoot.  That is the best that can be said of it.

Sticks Pass is a saddle.  That is, the ground climbs up to the top and then down again from the east-west direction, but paths go up to higher peaks to the north (Stybarrow Dodd) and south (Raise and beyond that Helvellyn).  My feet and knees were in a agreement that attempting to bag a few more peaks was entirely unnessary.  Others don't feel the same way.  As I was resting - sorry admiring the view - a young couple came down from Raise.  The man was trying to convince his girlfriend to climb up Stybarrow Dodd too, as this would make it 12 Wainwrights (peaks mentioned in his books) rather than just 11.  She was having none of it.

Helvellyn is a famous peak in the Lake District.  Glenridding is clearly a base for many walkers who plan to climb this peak (bag this Wainwright).  All the people at my B&B were hikers.  There was a row of boots under the bench in the hallway and we all greated each other with smiles and winces as we went up and down the stairs.  The landlady at the B&B said that in the summer, locals climb Helvellyn every day (all 950m of it!) to remove rubbish walkers have left behind.  Often they leave behind their camping gear!  They climb up to the peak, use their gear once and then just leave it behind so they don't have to bother bringing it all the way back down.  People are pigs.

I had planned to go to the Traveller's Rest pub for dinner but it was full - just wall to wall hikers both inside and at all the tables in the beer garden outside.  There aren't many other options for an evening meal in Glenridding which was a bit of a worry.  There is a posh hotel called the Inn on The Lake.  It has a bar, bistro and restaurant.  Unfortunately both the restaurant and bar were closed as they were hosting a wedding reception.  I asked the snooty receptionist if the bistro was open.  His reply was "he wasn't sure if they have a table for you as they were very busy but I could try."  Turns out they weren't busy at all and I had no trouble getting a table.

The food was good - You Could Eat It (smoked salmon with creme fraiche & capers on rye bread, shepherd's pie, sticky toffee pudding) - but the service was interesting.  It felt like it was being run by high school students on a work exchange program.  Some knew what to do, others were clueless.  I asked the waitress who sat me what local gins they had.  She didn't know, she said they were just all behind the bar.  I followed her over to the bar, where she promptly ignored me and went back to messing about with the reservation book.   I had to flag down another waiter to go behind the bar and tell me what they had.  When I got my main course, I asked the waiter to bring me some fresh cutlery too as my knife & fork had been cleared away with my entree plate.  He looked panicked and said someone else who fetch me some and fled back into the kitchen.  

A stile with a gate.  Just to be sure those sheep don't make a break for freedom.

 

Day 7 - Keswick

Distance Walked: 15km, Actual Time Taken: 4 h 37m, Estimated Time Taken: 4h 30m
Ascent: 841m, Descent: 845m, # Times Lost: 0
Beer: 1/2 pint Singha beer

I thought about getting the bus back to Buttermere and then walking to Keswick the way I was supposed to yesterday.  However, that was as a 22.5km trek with a lot of climbing and descending, estimated to take 7 hours of walking, never mind the time taken to catch your breath - sorry, admire the view, or stop for a drink or some lunch.  The earliest bus wouldn't get me to Buttermere in time.  I briefly considered doing the walk in reverse, but decided the combination of blisters and new boots meant that wasn't smart either.  I ended up settling on a shorter, easier circular route.  Note, the time given is only the walking time, not the total time.  It actually took me in closer to 6 hours in total.

There is a u-shaped ridge linking a series of peaks between Buttermere and Keswick, with the two towns at the ends of the U.  The original plan had been to walk the entire length.  Today I was sensible(-ish) and climbed up the Keswick end of the U, walked the ridge linking Cat Bells, Maiden Moor and High Spy to the base of the U and then dropped down into Newlands valley between the two arms and back along the flat of the valley floor to Keswick.

When I say back to Keswick, I'm leaving aside the fact that the start of this walk was 3 miles out of town.  I took the bus there and back - more sense on my  part.  I had originally planned to ask the bus driver to let me know when we got to my stop, but when I saw how all the other passengers on the bus were dressed and what they were carrying, I didn't bother.  I assumed about 2/3rds of the bus would be getting off at my stop.  In the end, it was only me.  Fortunately, the bus driver told me when we got to my stop without me having to ask.  This was helpful as we had been slightly delayed getting there by a flock of grouse (!) blocking the road so I wasn't sure if it was the right stop.

At the start of the climb was a sign saying Cat Bells 1 mile, 1 hour.  The climb was steep, with a nasty bit where you had to scramble up using your hands, but it only took me 1/2 an hour to get to the top.  I was feeling very smug.  Until I realised I'd only got to the top of Skegill Bank and the peak of Cat Bells was still ahead.  It really did take an hour to get to the top.  Below is a photo from the actual top looking towards the first, halfway peak that I climbed with such smugness.

The tramp along the ridge joining Cat Bells to Maiden Moor and High Spy was spectacular.  The views were amazing and the walking was easy, after the climb up to Maiden Moor.  Then came the descent into Newlands valley which was not nice at all.  There was no clear path, instead it was mostly scrambling down wet, slippery rocks.  Newlands Beck did produce a lovely waterfall but my knees were not at all happy.  The descent took about as long as the climb to Cat Bells (the blip at the 2km mark).   I was so happy to get to level ground.

I ended up getting back to the starting point (bus stop) at about 10 to 4.  There was a bus at 4pm and a launch across the lake at 4:40pm.  I did think that given I was in the Lake District I should spend some time on the lakes, not just up on the fells, but I couldn't be bothered waiting that long, so I just took the bus.

For dinner I ended up at the Asaya Thai restaurant.  My first two choices were booked out, my third choice had gone out of business, and when I walked past two others I was considering I could see they didn't have any free tables either.  This Thai place was largely empty which was a worry but the food was Harmless.  In fact, it reminded me of home as I was able to have dishes I've had plenty of times back home in Australia.  I started with fish cakes, then had stir fry pork with basil and chilli.   Lots of chilli.  Perhaps that is why it was not popular.  They use the right amount of chilli in their food, not the white amount.  For dessert I had the not at all Thai dish of baked blueberry cheesecake with a layer of lemon curd - delicious.

Below is a picture of my stylish new boots, which are also comfortable!

Day 6 - Keswick

Distance Walked: 9km, Booze: 1 glass Rioja

I woke up this morning to pouring rain.  The mountain weather forecast was for heavy and persistent rain that would make conditions up on the fells arduous (their word), not to mention dangerous at heights above 300m. Since I had to climb up much higher than that to get over the pass from Buttermere to Keswick, walking was out of the question today, even if my boots had been in a cooperative mood.

Instead, I caught the bus to Keswick, only to be faced with the problem of what to do with myself until I could check in to my B&B at 3pm.  First stop was boot shopping.  I'm now the proud owner of a new pair of hiking boots in acqua - which match the colour of my hiking poles nicely.  Hopefully, they will be comfortable as well as stylish.  I guess I'll find out tomorrow.  

Next stop was the tourist information centre to pick up a leaflet/book of hikes in the local area for tomorrow.  This accomplished I still had 3 hours to kill.  The town was full of wet tourists all trying to find something to do to pass the time.  I first headed for the Derwent Pencil Museum but so did half the town so I gave that a miss.  Sitting in a pub, nursing a pint was my next idea, but that was what the other half of the town was doing.  I ended up at the local laundomat and did a load of washing.  They kept telling me that I needn't stay, but it was somewhere to sit that was warm and dry.  After all that excitement, I was lucky and managed to find a tea shop with some vacant tables and settled in with a pot of tea and some scones with jam and cream.

Finally, it was 3pm and I could head over to my B&B and rest my weary legs.  I'm sure Keswick is a lovely town but I'm struggling to have warm, fuzzy feelings about it.

Dinner was at Casa Bella as I wasn't in the mood for steak&ale pie or sausages&mash or other pub grub.  I wasn't sure what Yorkshire Italian food would be like but this place was highly rated.  I started with zucchini fritters with garlic mayo (bit greasy but the mayo was yummy) and then I had a pizza with spicy sausage and jalapenos (nice crispy base but too much cheese).  No room for dessert although they had tiramisu so I was tempted.  All in all, Harmless - the day and the food.

Day 5 - Buttermere

Distance Walked: 21.5km, Actual Time Taken: 7h, Estimated Time Taken: 6h 30m
Ascent: 1273m, Descent: 1210m, # Times Lost: 0
Beer: 1 pint Borrowdale Ale (You Can Drink It), G&Ts: 0

Today was eventful.  It started with the burglar alarm going off at my hotel 4 times during the night.  We were told the next morning that it was probably due to a large spider wandering across the movement sensor.  No one warned me there were large spiders in Yorkshire!

Boot is in Eskdale, which apparently is the wettest dale in the Lake District.  I can well belive it.  Clearly the hot weather and droughts England has been having recently is confined to the south.  It certainly hasn't affected here.  Below is a picture of the path leading up out of Eskdale (the first climb of 3 today).  It is not a stream.  This is the path I was meant to walk along it.

Once up over the pass into the next dale (Wasdale) I came across a bridge which apparently is frequently photographed, so I dutifully took a photo of my own.

The climb up out of Wasdale was via the famous (infamous?) Black Sail Pass (2nd climb).  The climb up was steep but on a clearly marked path.  Once at the top everything started to go pear shaped.  It started with the sole of my left boot deciding it had enough and wanted to leave.  I forced it to stay around with the aid of shoelaces and string.  

The next bit of fun was the climb down the other side of the pass.  I soon discovered that just because there is a clearly marked path on the map doesn't mean there is a clearly marked path on the ground.  At times there was a dirt track (sheep track?), other times there was what could be either track or a dry(-ish) stream bed, other times there was just boggy grass.  The dip in the middle of the elevation map is me going a few hundred metres down, decided this can't be right, climbing back up to the top of the pass, realising there is no other clear way down and retracing my steps.  Fortunately after about 1/3 of the way down, I could see the footbridge over the next beck that I needed to aim for, but I'm remain unsure if I took the correct way down.

The final climb out of that dale into Ennerdale and my hotel here in Buttermere wasn't too hard but was accompanied by fine drizzle (and a flapping boot sole).  What fun.

Buttermere is the first village in the Lake District that I found that doesn't have at least one shop selling hiking gear.  It's not the end of the world.  Tomorrow I was supposed to walk to Keswick and then the day after was a rest day.  Instead, tomorrow I'll take the bus to Keswick, take my rest day then and buy new boots.  The day after I can do a walk, either a circular walk from Keswick or else I can get a bus back here to Buttermere and then do my planned walk to Keswick.  Choices, choices.  I think my feet and my knees will appreciate moving the rest day up a day.

Day 4 - Boot

Actual distance walked (including detour): 25km, Planned distance (excluding detour): 20km
Actual time taken (inc. detour): 6h 55m, Estimated time (ex. detour): 5h 30m
Actual ascent: 1535m, Actual descent: 1553m, Planned ascent: 950m

I woke up this morning feeling fine.  No muscle aches and pains at all.  Some tender spots on my big toes but no blisters.  This made me over-confident and I took a detour up the Old Man of Coniston.  I now do have blisters and I don't think my knees are going to forgive me any time soon.

The detour happened this way.  I was walking up a steep track towards a crossroads.  My route went straight ahead but there was a turnoff to head up Coniston Old Man.  This is a famous peak in the Lake District.  I kept telling myself to be sensible.  It doesn't matter if I don't climb up to this peak.   After all it is just a big pile of dirt.  Saying I've been to the top means nothing.  But then I got to the crossroads and my feet said "fuck it" and turned off to take the detour.  My planned route is the pink line below, my actual route is the blue line, starting from Coniston on the right and ending at Boot at the top left.  The highest point on the planned route was only 600m, not the 803m of Coniston Old Man.

Below is the view from the top of Old Man.  Below that is the view of the route down - not dangerous at all, the ridge was a good few metres wide.  I did get a lovely picture of Low Tarn on the way up at least.  

Exit from Coniston Old Man - along the ridge linking Dow Crag, Buck Pike and Brown Pike.

Low Tarn - only a measly 518m above sea level.

They have weird animals in Yorkshire.   Friendly cats and distinctly odd sheep.

On the final stretch into Boot I encountered cows.  They were on a narrow stretch of path between a stone wall and a creek, having wandered out of their field.   The path was exactly one cow's bum wide and they were facing me.  I was too tired to be frightened of them and just waved my arms about and shooed them away.  A cow turning in its own length is an interesting sight.  Eventually I managed to shoo them back down the path and into their field.  Except for one who just kept ambling on ahead of me.  Eventually the path widened so it was two cow's bums wide and I could get past.  Fortunately, the errant beast was a cow, not the bull.

I had dinner tonight at my B&B, the Brook House Inn.  It was the only place available in Boot, which is a tiny hamlet.  There is one other pub in the hamlet (The Boot Inn) but it was shut, so they were rather busy but give precedence to guest luckily.  I started with the Brook House pate and then had the steak & ale pie - both Harmless.   Then for dessert I had the special, a whisky custard, which was sadly Dull.  The custard was rubbery and had no flavour.  It came with a piece of chocolate sponge cake which was stale and a scoop of ginger sorbet which was tasty but a very odd texture.

Day 3 - Coniston

Distance Walked: 18.6km, Estimated Time: 5h 30m, Actual Time: 4h 20m
Ascent: 518m, Descent: 521m, # Times Lost: 0
G&Ts: 0, Beer: 1/2 pint Wainwrights Amber Ale (You Can Drink It), 1 pint Coniston Brewery Old Man Ale (You Can Drink It), 1/2 pint Cumbria Way Ale (Not Very Good)

 

Today's walk was a moderately gentle introduction to hiking in the Lake District.  The distance was relatively short and the amount of up and down the least of all the days.  I ended up reaching Coniston way too early and had to spend an hour at the pub before going to my B&B (its a hard life).  The weather was perfect too.  It was overcast and drizzly when I got up.  Some of the peaks nearby were covered by cloud, but by the time I started walking it had improved.  The clouds were still there but higher than any peak I'd be climbing today.  The temperature was mild (high teens) and there was no wind.  I was lugging around all sorts of wet weather and cold weather gear and needed none of it.

Walking around here is ridiculously popular.  I met people coming the other way around every 10 minutes.  In fact, there was one stretch of path along a river bank, which joined two pretty villages, that was wall to wall people.  It was practically like walking down Lygon St in terms of the numbers.  Once up on the fells it was better.  Fewer people and truly stunningly beautiful scenery.

Nothing much to report on the walking front.  It was lovely to do but not interesting to read about.  I walked, I admired the scenery, I walked some more.  Just outside of Coniston I meet up with two German women who are also doing a walk with Contours (who are managing this trip for me).  We had come to a junction and had differing views on which way to go.  We each went our preferred way.  I haven't seen them since (which sounds more ominous than I intend).  I'm not sure if they are staying at the same B&B as me.  I guess I'll find out at breakfast.

Breakfast at my B&B in Ambleside this morning gets a You Can Eat It rating.  I started with granola with yoghurt & fruit, then a Mostly Complete English - it had everything but black pudding and the hash brown was from a packet, and finished it off with toast with butter & marmelade.  The coffee was decent.  I bought a Cornish (!) pasty for lunch from a bakery in Ambleside before setting off, but I really didn't need it.  I might just buy some fruit tomorrow and have that and my Haggis flavoured chips for lunch tomorrow.

I had dinner at the poshest of the three pubs here in Coniston.  One pub, the Black Bull Inn, has an attached brewery and brews excellent beer, but I wasn't tempted by their food menu.  The second pub is clearly the one that is the favourite with families as it serves pizza as well as standard pub grub.  I naturally gave that a miss.  Hence ended up at the third, the Crown Inn.  Its only claim to poshness is that it has table service rather than ordering at the bar.  Otherwise its decor and food is all standard pub - although their beer was dreadful and all their gins were mainstream brands, nothing local.  I had a steak & ale pie with steamed veg and chips.  It was Harmless.  I briefly contemplated their sticky toffee pudding but just couldn't fit it in.  I'll definitely skip lunch tomorrow as my dinner stop is highly rated.  It would be a crime to miss out on dessert there.

Day 2 - Ambleside

Distance Walked: 7.9km, G&Ts: 1 (Lakes Distillery - Harmless)

This morning I had my first "Full English" breakfast of my holiday.  Although I think a more accurate description is "Moderately Complete" (see photo).  In addition, there was no marmelade for the toast and, crime of crimes, the coffee was instant!

Still, I didn't do any hiking today so I suppose I didn't need more food.

Today was spent getting to Ambleside.  My hiking adventures start tomorrow.  The journey was in a series of increasingly less comfortable trains, followed by a long taxi ride.  The first train was a quite comfortable high-speed train where I'd reserved a carefully chosen seat.  However, at the last minute they'd replaced the train with one with a different number of cars and all the reservations were voided.  When boarding was announced there was a mad stampede for the train.  We needed have bothered as only about 1/4 of the seats were taken.

On the second train, I shared a car with a group of women who had been at a hen's do the night before and were still very vocally and cheerfully drunk.  The ticket inspector was a young man, who they teased mercilessly.  I found this part of the journey quite entertaining.  I suspect poor Geoffrey didn't.  The third train had a seat pitch that made Jetstar look spacious.  Finally I spent an hour in a taxi making conversation with the driver, who was friendly and chatty but totally devoid of a sense of humor.  Today was a long journey.

Ambleside is a pretty little town on the shores of Lake Windermere.  It is a maze of narrow streets, climbing up and down.  There is a stream running through the town into the lake.  For some reason, somebody built the tiniest house on a tiny bridge across this stream.  It is cute but why?  It is only two rooms - one on top of the other.

The town is heaving with tourists.  Half the time you have to walk in the street as the footpath is too crowded.  Every second shop sells outdoor gear.  The ones in between are cafes and restaurants.  There are also lots and lots of dogs.  In the street, in the hotels, in the pubs and in the restaurants.  There were four different sets of dogs in the restaurant where I had dinner tonight.  A pair of terriers, a German shepherd puppy, a full-grown boxer and a full sized poodle.  I wonder how many food safety standards they were breaching.

Dinner tonight was at Sheila's Cottage and was merely Harmless.  I started with something called a Westmoreland ramequin which was mushrooms in a cream & brandy sauce topped with melted cheese.  The mushrooms were tasty enough but it came with a salad with a questionable dressing.  It had coarsely ground pepper in it which kept making me wonder if they hadn't washed the salad leaves properly.  Main was a steak and kidney pudding.  I was expecting this to have a lovely crisp suet crush pastry but I got this.   

The flabby thing on top is the pudding.  It is sitting on a huge puck of mashed potato in a lake of gravy.  The gravy and the pudding filling were tasty but the mash needed more butter and/or cream.  The less said about the pastry the better.  For dessert I had the creme brulee.   It looked delicious initially but when I broke the crust the custard was a strange greenish-black colour.  It turns out it was coffee flavoured.  It was delicious but that colour was all wrong.

Early today I went shopping for trail mix and the like to take with me on my hikes when I came across these chips.  I had to buy them.  God only knows what they'll taste like.

Wish me luck for the weather tomorrow.  They are predicting clouds in the morning and a 50% chance of rain the afternoon.  This means it will be cloudy with poor visibility too.  Fun times.

Day 1 - London

Distance Walked: 18.4 km, G&Ts: 2 (Bombay Sapphire - Dull), Other Booze: 2  glasses red wine

I've made it to London.  And, more importantly, so did my suitcase!  Other than that, my journey was bascially uneventful, except that the flight from Singapore to London was "re-timed".  Note, for some reason, this is different to being delayed.  Although in this case we ended up taking off 30 minutes late and landing 1 hour behind schedule.

The flight was completely full, as so many people are headed to London for the Queen's funeral.  Not a spare seat in the place.  There was a very posh Englishman in the queue for Business Class.  He was explaining to his equally posh friend that he had to "slum it" in business class as there wasn't an available First Class seat on any airline.  Poor man.

I'm horribly out of practice with travelling.  It was midnight, Melbourne time, when we got to Singapore and all I could think of was how nice it would be to go home and go to sleep in my own bed.  I managed to get 7 hours of (fitful) sleep on the Singapore to London leg so I felt reasonably human by the time I finally got here.  My hotel room was ready early (I got here at 11am) so I was able to take a shower and put on clean clothes before heading out again which helped.  My hotel here is the Regency House Hotel and my room is the Captain's Cabin.  It's not nearly as big as this photo makes it seem but it is very cute.  I can easily imagine it is a cabin on a ship.

My first stop was to buy a local SIM card for my spare phone.  I have to confess I had an embarassingly difficult time doing this.  I asked the hotel concierge for advice and he told me there were plenty of places on Tottenham Court Road.  I wandered down the whole length of it without success and then pottered around Covent Garden getting more and more anxious.  I eventually wandered into one of those hole-in-the-wall places that sell mobile phone cases and other bits and bobs and asked for advice.  It turns out these days you buy a SIM card from them (or a supermarket or a newsagent) for 1 GBP and then add credit to your account online.  I'd been searching for a Vodafone shopfront!  In my defence, I was horribly jet-lagged.

For lunch I stopped at a random Italian place during my frustating search for a SIM card.  It was basically empty, so I was worried about what it would be like, but it felt like comfort food. The place I chose was called Dalla Terra.  I had the proscuitto & melon to start and then spaghetti carbonara for main and then a double espresso for dessert.  It turns out it was a fairly upmarket place, so the portions were elegant (i.e. small) but the taste was delicious.  It definitely gets a Not Bad rating.

Since I'm in England, I'm rating all my meals on a suitably English scale.  From worst to best they ratings are

• Not Very Good
• Dull
• Harmless
• You Can Eat It
• Not Bad

I'm also keeping track of the number of gin & tonics (G&Ts) I drink and the gin used.  Apparently, distilling gin is a big thing in Yorkshire these days.  There are 45 different distilleries there so I'll have to sample at least some of them.

There rest of my day was spent wandering around, doing random shopping.  The SIM card as well as some maps & guide books and batteries for my GPS.  The company organising one of my hikes mailed me the map & guidebook 6 weeks ago to my home in Carlton.  However, it still hadn't shown up by the time I left.  They've promised to mail new copies to the first hotel on my hike but I thought it best to buy my own here in London, just in case the replacements go missing/are delayed too.  There is a lovely map shop here which I'd been to before, but it had moved and I practically needed a map & guide book to find its new location!  A very frustating shopping day all round.

London feels very strange.  There are the usual amount of people around but hardly any cars and the ones you do see are usually taxis.  I'm not sure if that is because it is the weekend, or because congestion charges/general traffic make driving a car in central London just too unpleasant, or because of road closures due to the Queen's funeral.  I didn't go anywhere near where she is lying in state.  Apparently the queue to see her is 7 hours long!

I went out for a ludicrously early dinner as the caffeine hit from lunch was wearing off fast.  I went to In Parma which I'd been to before and really liked.  Either my memory was playing me false or it has gone downhill as the food just got a You Can Eat It rating - except for the tiramisu which was as good as mine.  Now I'm back in my room, desperately trying to stay awake until at least 9pm.