Location	Pinewood, Stanger Street, Keswick
Those Present	Jerry, Bill, Mark and myself
Dates	November 7th - November 14th

Got a letter from LCH; Pinewood has been taken off the market. That’s three houses we’ve polluted so much that their owners can’t face letting them again!

I got a telephone call from Mark; he has to go to America on business, and won't be able to come. We shall also be without Jerry, as after a family holiday he is short of both leave and money. I persuaded Graham, a friend at work, to come as a substitute, and Sally's arthritis had improved so much she decided to come as well.

Not trusting my Sierra, which had begun to develop some bad habits, I hired a Vectra estate for the week so we could all travel together. Although not very exciting it served our purpose.

Saturday November 7th

Graham left his car at mine and we collected Bill and Sally. I had to stop ASAP and pump up the tyres - one of the fronts had less than 20psi. We arrived in Keswick after an uneventful journey and headed straight for the Keswick Lodge for an excellent pint of Theakstons, followed by some chips. Bill and Graham bought walking trousers, Bill’s old ones having given up the unequal struggle of containing his nether regions on the previous trip. (Don’t know what he does to them - remember Langstrath November 1995!), and then we did some shopping at the Lakes supermarket and went to find the house. We had to park on the pavement while we unloaded as the nearest free parking place was in Blencathra Street.

Sunday November 8th - Walla Crag, Ashness, Watendlath

We dedcided on a gentle walk to test out Sally’s knees and my ankle. We walked from the house along Springs Road, up Walla Crag and descended to Ashness. Having decided we were still relatively healthy we pressed on to Watendlath (picture) for a cup of tea before going over Puddingstone Bank and down to the Bowder Stone. Memory seems to blank out the drudgery of the walk along the road to the Lodore landing stage, and I am always surprised at its length. We just made it in time for the last clockwise boat back to Keswick. This time the walk was made even more unpleasant by a feeling of impending doom down below, and if it hadn’t been for the public toilets at Grange I would have been severely embarrassed!

Monday November 9th - Little Town and Newlands

It rained heavily over night, and although it had stopped by morning the wind was still approaching gale force. We walked over the fields to Portinscale and followed the route taken by Bill and me in the spring. Along the path between Hawes End and the Yewthwaite mines the wind was so strong that although I was walking quite fast, I didn’t seem to be making much forward progress. We stopped for refreshments at the mines (picture) , trying to shelter behind a spoil heap, and watched horizontal jets of water being blown from the beck which comes down from Hause Gate. We had thought of going up and over to High Brandlehowe, but we could see that Sally didn’t really fancy it, so we returned to Hawes End via Little Town and the green pastures of Newlands. As we walked along the lakeshore in the direction of Low Brandlehowe, Graham mentioned that he hadn’t seen any boats on the lake. We sat on some rocks and watched and waited for twenty minutes without spotting any, during which time I threw my cigarette lighter into the lake because it refused to ignite. Finally we decided that conditions on the lake had stopped the launches sailing, and had to retrace our footsteps to Portinscale and Keswick.

Tuesday November 10th - Styhead and Esk Pike

We parked at Seathwaite and made the familiar ascent to Styhead (picture) , Sprinkling Tarn and Esk Hause. Of course it was all new to Graham, and it’s one of my favourite walks, so I didn’t mind at all. I think Sally was ready to go back by the time we reached Esk Hause (picture) , but we pressed on up Esk Pike (picture) . It seemed further than I remembered, and half way up Sally really had had enough. She insisted that the rest of us continued while she waited, but when we had got to within 100 or so feet of the summit we decided we couldn’t leave her any longer as a very cold wind had got up. We returned to her and carried on down to the shelter below Allen Crags, where we could get out of the wind and have some lunch. We finally left the shelter and walked down to meet the Grains Gill / Langdale path. At the junction was a very boggy area, and we skirted round it to the left looking for drier ground. To my horror I noticed Sally carrying straight on, and before I could say "I don’t think that’s a very good idea" she was standing knee deep in water. She tried to escape and very slowly and almost gracefully fell face down in the water. By the time we had extricated her she was completely soaked, and we pressed on quickly towards Grains Gill and comparative shelter from the biting wind, desperately trying (at least for my part) not to laugh. When it became evident that the incident wasn’t life threatening, Bill said "Never mind pet, at least it’s a good drying wind!". I had really wanted to return via Honister, Buttermere and Newlands Hause, but Sally was pretty cold and miserable, so we went straight back down Borrowdale.

Wednesday November 11th - Honister, Fleetwith Pike and Haystacks

We parked at the top of Honister and went up to the old Drum House, with half a mind to do Gable, but the cloud was low on Pillar, so instead we turned right and made our way to Fleetwith. Bill and Graham were most impressed by the magnificent view down into Buttermere, although the cloud was still too low for it to be perfect. We descended to Dubs Quarry and went up Haystacks (picture) as far as Innominate Tarn, where we sat for a while enjoying the views before heading down to pick up the Gable path across the slopes of Brandreth. I really love that part of Haystacks, picking one’s way round little tarns, bogs and rocky outcrops, but Graham payed the price of a surfeit of picalilli the previous tea time, and had to make use of the emergency loo roll which I carry in my ruck sack. This time it was he who felt the need for a speedy return to Keswick, so we still didn’t get to visit Buttermere.

Thursday November 12th - Elterwater and Little Langdale

It was a horrid, wet day, with low cloud, and a low level walk was the only possibility. I remembered the walk round Elterwater and Little Langdale which Mark, Jerry and I had done some years previously, and it met with approval. We parked in Elterwater village and set off along the path by the Brathay, which was very full after the heavy rain overnight. The first difficulty we encountered was in the water meadows before Skelwith, which certainly lived up to their name, being more water than meadow. I think I was the only one to escape to higher ground with dry feet! Having calmed down Bill, who had suffered the most, we took the path between the road and the river past Skelwith Force. (picture) The ‘falls’ were most impressive, and we stood for quite a while and admired them and the canoeist who went over them. As we reached Skelwith Bridge it started to rain even harder, and we squelched our way along the road to the path through the woods to Colwith Force. The falls were quite spectacular, and we stopped there for our lunch. (picture) In the twenty minutes or so that we were there the water had visibly risen, the outcrop of rock between the two main cascades slowly disappearing. We followed the path up through the woods to High Park Farm and then along the road to Stang End. The fields leading to the footbridge over the Brathay were flooded, but we managed to pick our way across them without getting our feet too wet and went up to the road at High Birk Howe Farm. The track down into Elterwater was more like a stream. I hadn’t realised that both Bill’s and Sally’s waterrproofs had been leaking all day, and they were soaked through, and returned to Keswick via Kirkstone and Patterdale (which Graham wanted to see). From the back of the car came a plaintive request for me to turn the heater on - most unlike Bill who is usually too hot.

Friday November 13th - Buttermere

As compensation for her previous misfortunes, Bill had promised to take Sally shopping in the afternoon, so we decided on a short morning walk. The circuit of Buttermere is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful lake shore walks, and although Bill and I had done it several times before, it met with approval. We were back in Keswick by one o'clock, and got some packing done in preparation for an early start the following morning.

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