| Location | Highbury, Blencathra Street, Keswick |
| Those Present | Jerry, Bill, Mark and myself |
| Dates | November 5th - November 12th |
Sept. 21st. I received a letter from Lakeland Cottage Holidays informing me that Birch Court was no longer available as the owner wanted to lease it long term. We were offered Highbury, also in Blencathra St., instead. We accepted it (five bedrooms and 3 toilets!!).
Saturday November 5th
This was the first trip for my Capri 280 Brooklands.
I picked Bill up at 8:30, and we had a good journey up (bypassing the M5/M6 junction with its roadworks via Dudley) except for a bit of rain over Shap.
We arrived in good time for a few pints, with Mark and Jerry arriving in the pub about 10 mins after us having parked at the house first.
We walked from the house along Springs Road and up Walla crag, and then down to Ashness and on to Watendlath, Dock Tarn, Rosthwaite and back along the road to Lodore just in time for last ferry.
We had tried to find Dock Tarn some years before on one of our long week-ends, but the conditions were so bad (gale force winds, rain, sleet and hail), that we were unable to distinguish between paths and streams, and ended up in the little valley between Great Crag and White Crag. This time the weather was much better, and our quest was successful. (picture)
My knee went half-way Willygrass Gill on the descent to Rosthwaite, and continued to hurt for the rest of the week. I also got blisters under both feet from the forced march along the road to catch the last boat.
We were dismayed when we arrived at the Dog and Gun that evening to find a large queue - usually after Saturday things quieten down a bit, especially at this time of year. Jerry went to the back door, and by the time everyone else had got in he was sitting at our table with four pints! It certainly pays to be recognised by the bar staff.
This was a much more pleasant day than for the same walk at Easter. (picture) We sat in the sun on the top and admired the views of Blencathra, Clough Head (picture) and Skiddaw.
After the walk we drove to Grasmere to buy some gingerbread. The weather was much gloomier in that direction, but it brightened up again on the return to Keswick. This is quite often the case; the weather can be dramatically different on opposite sides of Dunmail Raise.
We parked near Brothers Water and went via Hartsop to Hayeswater. After a brief pause we turned the left to climb up to The Knott. We may actually have reached the summit, as the path we were on wasn't the one we expected.
It was very windy on top, and we sheltered behind the wall and watched a solitary walker picking his way across the bog towards us. Every so often he would disappear from view as he went down into a trough cut by a small stream, and then appear again, a bit closer and a bit larger. It was like something out of Monty Python; only the big foot was missing! Twenty yards away from us he fell over! How embarrassing.
We went across the bog ourselves, without incident, climbed up to Angle Tarn
and followed a pleasant path which contoured gently down to Boardale Hause and thence to Brothers Water and the car.
We parked at Fellside. It was raining as we set off, and we initially took the wrong path and had to treck cross country to find the right one. Eventually we went up the old mine road to the foot of Roughton Gill.
The cloud was down, so we didn't go up High Pike, instead going left up Clint gill and picking our way across a large boggy area until we picked up a path which took us back to the car.
Unfortunately we missed Curly Job Well, whose intriguing name had prompted the expedition in the first place.
We parked at the end of Thirlmere at Dobgill and went up Wythburn, avoiding some boggy ground as best we could before climbing a stony path past the falls at the top of the valley. There we were confronted by 'The Bog'. It was very wet underfoot as we picked our way round it on the right and headed for Greenup Edge, but The Bog claimed at least one victim when Jerry stepped onto what looked like a firm patch of grass and sank to thigh level in smelly black ooze.
We followed the old fence to the top of Ullscarth. It was boggy all the way, and none of us escaped with dry feet. The old fence eventually stopped, so we followed the modern one, dropping down to the right beneath Standing Crag to pick up the path from Watendlath. Finally we returned through the woods and past Harrop Tarn to the car.
We parked at Loweswater and set off to High Nook Farm with the intention of climbing Carling Knott, but because of the low cloud and the pathless nature of some of the Loweswater Fells, we didn't go any higher, taking instead the level path just above Holme Wood.
We descended to Iredale Place, past Jenkinson Place and Hudson Place, and walked back along the lake shore and back to the car.
It was five and a half miles and not a bad walk. On the shores of
Loweswater there were dire warnings about dangers of blue/green algae in the lake.
Back in Keswick, we had a sit down Miggins before the pub.