Friday 21st
Nice easy journey. Nowhere to park near my B&B. Cold room. Lots of rules including no visitors so this put paid to Cath and me doing web things on the laptop.
I booked a table at Merienda restaurant. Walked the whole 5 minutes into town. I’d thought Keswick in winter would be nice and quiet. But no, it was a living hell. Christmas lights switch on, people shuffling along when not at a standstill, swaying to a choir singing Status Quo songs at great electronic volume. How could that possibly be good?
Merienda was a haven of peace despite the racket outside. I had baked trout which was excellent. And a Moretti beer. Popped back to the B&B stopping briefly in the rain to chat with a woman who said “Hello, the Titanic was hit by a burger!” I managed not to roar with laughing, we had a short chat about the programme at the cinema and off I went. Returned a little while later to meet Cath at the Square Orange and drink another beer. I’d last been to the Square Orange with Chris in April 2014, that was our last mountain adventure together. The Titanic burger woman was in the bar.
Saturday 22nd
Smoked salmon and scrambled egg for breakfast. Asked about the woman we’d met last night, it turns out she is a much loved local character called Mary and often engages people in conversation for hours at a time. I’d been fairly assertive with her. The locals look out and after her.
Attended a workshop on weather with 2 men from the Met Office. Boy oh boy this was hard work. So what I learnt is that everything brings about rain in the end. And there is a line called the snow line above which there is a 50% chance of snow. Tuna for lunch, that’s 3 fishy meals on the trot.
Christmas dinner, I went veggie. Nice nut roast. Then some beer. Back to my B&B to find a parking spot next to it. My room much warmer so glad that I asked them to sort it, they had to fill up the pressure, something I’m very familiar with doing!
Sunday 23rd
Contours only workshop. Into Chris Ensoll‘s car for 10 minutes. First half hour was guidance on how to move on steep slopes, really useful advice on how to be more efficient moving. The maps have nothing else on them except contours and grid lines so you can tell which way is north.
Great day in the Newlands valley finding tiny gaps between the crags to climb up and up. We ended up overlooking Cat Bells which was the last mountain that Chris and I climbed together. Still so much in my heart. My best buddy. So many adventures, she trusted me and we always got back down ok. A few months earlier before illness came to fuck us all over we’d climbed Sheffield Pike and ended up getting down in the dark but she still forgave me. It wasn’t her last mountain but it was the last one that was a lot of fun. Cat Bells in April 2014 had been pretty awful although I couldn’t really say that at the time. She’d had to stop every 10 metres or so because she had no breath to get up there but she wouldn’t accept the get out of jail free cards I offered. Such a tough stubborn old girl! Of course I’m glad she did it because she must have been worried about what was starting to go wrong.
I learnt I’m really not too bad at navigating after all. Saw Cath before we both departed for home. Back via Tebay services.
