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.