Day five, Coast to Coast

Grasmere to Patterdale

It’s becoming a given that the days will be hard on this walk.

This one was pretty easy compared to the last two. But that doesn’t mean it was easy.

We didn’t get off to an early start - but then we didn’t think we needed to.

Our amiable host Richard at the Lake View Country House in Grasmere assured us that he could walk to Patterdale for lunch, and then walk back again. He’s a fine fellow, so surely he wouldn’t exaggerate. Besides, we were taking the easiest of the three routes across to Patterdale.

We were looking forward to it, so the fact that breakfast wasn’t until 9am wasn’t an issue. 

We started out at about 9.30am with a quick peek at William Wordsworth’s daffodil garden and his graveyard. We didn’t actually seek out his specific plot, but we got the idea that he was there somewhere.

There followed a pleasant walk of 3km or so along quiet country lanes. For old people, we can belt along on surfaces like this, but soon things turned upwards and into the hills.

We were heading for that rock up at the top of the picture - a climb of about 600m.

Compared to the past few days, it was a walk in the park.

Especially when you get to sections like the staircase above. I don’t know how they do it, but there’s been some amazing work done in upgrading sections of the trail with these huge rocks. There’s nothing cheap and temporary about them. In keeping with England’s antiquity, you can imagine these stones still being there in 1000 years.

We came over the top and found ourselves at Grisedale Tarn, with a pretty reasonable looking surface ahead. It was about 1pm. Rain was forecast for about then.

In the distance we could see Ullswater, close to our destination of Patterdale.

We had a long, gradual descent ahead, but rain was coming in right on time and the wind was rising.

It didn’t take long until the raincoats were out and the covers were on the packs.

The going wasn’t perfect on the way down, but we made reasonable time. The wind was pretty extreme for a while.

We liked the little bridges and the moss patterns.

Readers from Nelson will like this version of Split Apple Rock. I named it Split Pear Rock.

Soon we found ourselves close to civilisation.

Shortly after, we were at Crookabeck B and B. Don’t be taken in by the sunshine. That’s a stolen photo. Our version would have been too dismal - wet and soggy walkers in the damp and misty drizzle. They have a mass of industry going on here - wool is at the heart of it.

Julia and Adam couldn’t have been more welcoming. 

Our wet gear taken care of and a load of washing taken away.

As we sit here, nice and warm, having a beer, we can see a very pleasant scene outside. Pleasant, that is, when you’re on the inside looking out. It’s cold and wet, but we’re very happy.

If you want statistics, today we walked 15.35km in 4hr 50min and climbed 612m - we’re starting to get the hang of it.

Here’s the Overhead video on Relive.

Here’s the day’s photos.

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Our share with a friend.