Long Lakes weekend June 2016

Friday 24th June
Good journey. After taking in enough bags (Carol) for several weeks we had a light supper and walked down to Esthwaite water in the dusk. Lovely.

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Esthwaite Water
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Esthwaite Water
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Esthwaite Water
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Esthwaite Water
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Esthwaite Water

Saturday 25th June.
Big breakfasts. To Coniston for a look round then up to the Coppermines and then on to Levers water reservoir now part of Coniston hydro electric system. Quite a hard walk for my party (Carol) who did very well. Picnic at Levers water.
Back down we stopped for a cup of tea with the Jetboil at the end of Coniston Water.
Back to Belle Green B&B to get ready to go to the Tower Bank Arms. We managed to be late even though it is only 2 mins walk away. No excuse for us having to wait over an hour for our dinner. Carol had pork fillet with black pudding mash and veg. I had y m2nd choice of ratatouille with sweet potato mash on top and tempura veg. The food was nice but we were hungry tired and cross by the time it came.

There is a mountain rescue Land Rover driving over the mountain near the top of photo
There is a mountain rescue Land Rover driving over the mountain near the top of photo
Ye olde mining wagon
Ye olde mining wagon
Levers Water
Levers Water
What I've got to walk all the way down as well?!
What I’ve got to walk all the way down as well?!
Entrance to mine
Entrance to mine
Spill chucker was not used
Spill chucker was not used

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Coniston Water
Coniston Water

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Sunday 26th June
More big breakfasts. To Ambleside for the shops! Then to Browfoot just north of Staveley for a flat walk along a river. Very peaceful. Lunch overlooking Kentmere tarn. Back via ferry which now has stupid ticket machine system instead of buying ticket from man on board. Very complicated machine which made me want to hit it. Machine has not resulted in fewer jobs as there is still a man to check tickets and a man to direct cars as to where to go. Meaning the machine is total waste of time and will make people very cross. It seemed to be succeeding well with this aim. Back to B&B to get ready to go out to the Blacksmith’s Arms at Broughton Mills. This is a very nice old pub with good food and the excellent Tirril Brewery’s draught Pennine Pilsner. I had 2 halves. Carol had grilled chicken with and I had pea risotto with a poached egg on top. C then had sticky toffee pudding and I had a sort of lemon mousse with a piece of shortbread. All very nice. Back via lovely quiet lanes.

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Thelwell
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It didn’t look that bad!
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The footpath went through a filtration products factory
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My jacket, my lager
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Well we didn’t smoke anything
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Roaming in the gloaming

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Monday 27th June
Big breakfasts! Set off to do pub inspections for a possible evening meal:

Cuckoo Brow at Far Sawrey
Red Lion at Hawkshead
Queens Head at Hawkshead
C did the inspections. Asked which she would prefer. None of them! Decided to buy some small snacks instead as both quite well fed now.
Drove to Broughton in Furness. Unfortunately the nice bakers is closed on Mondays but we got some bits in the grocers and the butchers which had various samosas, pakoras etc. We had a drink in a cafe on the square.
Drove back through Broughton Mills passing the Reading Room car park which would be a good place to park when visiting the pub which has only room for 3 cars in front of it and no car park of its own.
Parked on the little road to Torver and walked a short circuit down the road along the beck. Very quiet, saw 3 people. Stopped for lunch at a named hamlet which is just a handful of ruined houses. Started to rain but just a shower. Back up the hill through the forest. My party struggling a bit as quite a while since dialysis on Friday and the cumulative effect of a smaller volume of dialysis since the fistula repair operation. She did well and is expecting to be full of beans once back on the regular regime. I hadn’t really appreciated how this all worked.
Drove back to Near Sawrey stopping for a cup of tea brewed up on the Jetboil.

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Cheeky!
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I think this is “hurry up and take the photo”!
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And we worry about chemicals in our food now.
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Deserted hamlet
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It’s a strawberry for Little Ted!

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Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map and use a compass with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

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Lake District April 2013

Sat 6th April

Carol went and did an early dialysis slot and I picked her up about 11.30. We arrived in Chapel Stile at 3 after being held up by a nasty looking accident on the motorway and then stopping to eat some lunch in the car at the services. After unloading the car very quickly because we were blocking the road we soon got settled in.
We walked up Meg’s Gill, quite steep up to just over 300m. The cottage is at 100m. Then we turned east on a great proper little mountain path with sharp drops to reach a col overlooking Grasmere. Through some leftover snow to the col to take us back to the village and down some very steep sections.
We are eating in tonight and because it is a bit like camping we are having chicken korma and rice from the Look What We Found range.

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Elterwater

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Lingmoor Fell backdrop
Lingmoor Fell backdrop
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Grasmere backdrop

Sun 7th April

Another lovely crisp sunny day. Parked at Colwith wood and went to Black Crag, my 50th Wainwright, via a different route from when we last came here and only got some of the way.
We lunched near the top overlooking Crinkle Crags, Bowfell, the Langdales. Then back via our own route across the access land. Off piste and very nice too.
Tonight we are going to the Jumble Room in Grasmere for our dinner.
I had kedgeree for starters, the hard boiled egg came separately and it came with some pale jam. Very good. Carol had fish and chips main which had some bones but she coped and the fish was also very good. I had chicken curried which came with beetroot and sweet potato. All very nice. Carol had sticky toffee pudding, no surprise there then. I managed to resist pudding but was feeling quite unwell with allergies. I have sneezed a lot in the cottage which is a bit dusty and something set me off in the resto. I must be a bit susceptible at the moment. Also have excema on my legs and feel very itchy and uncomfortable. Came out of resto streaming.

Navigation in action
Navigation in action
Crinkles and Bowfell
Crinkles and Bowfell
Bowfell
Bowfell
Secondary summit on Black Crag
Secondary summit on Black Crag
OS trig on Black Crag
OS trig on Black Crag
Carol getting poked by tree
Carol getting poked by tree!

Mon 8th April

My dad would have been 99 today.
We went into Ambleside and lots of gear shops but I refrained and just bought a birthday present for a friend. Not saying who as they will probably read this!
We drove to Far Sawrey and parked up opposite the pub in a car park with an honesty box. Great walk covering all sorts of terrain and some lovely views. Stopped at Moss Eccles Tarn while Carol ate some lunch. I’d already had mine before we set off. Then we skirted round  where Chris and I did bushcraft. A good mix of open land, tarns, coniferous woodland, the Somme (really very reminiscent with bare trees sticking up out of bog in the forestry cleared sections) and older woodland. Eventually we met up with the path Chris and I used. We found a good spot for wild camping which is a secret. Only a 4 mile walk but it took us nearly 4 hours because of being so leisurely.
Back to the cottage and I went for a run and met a very young Jewish lad who was looking for a campsite. I met him a second time on the way back from Elterwater and asked if he was ok and he said he was but I worried about him as he seemed rather vulnerable.

Gormless
Gormless
Cute, cute, cute
Cute, cute, cute
Moss Eccles Tarn, Beatrix Potter and William Heelis' favourite place
Moss Eccles Tarn, Beatrix Potter and William Heelis’s favourite place
Wise Een Tarn
Wise Een Tarn

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Tues 9th April

Drove to NT car park at Dungeon Ghyll and saved £6.50 because I am member.  We walked along and then up to Blea Tarn on a mixture of permissive paths and public rights of way and a bit of road. Another gorgeous crisp sunny day. Looked over to Wrynose Fell and pass.
Carol was having sore knees so we went to Dungeon Ghyll pub and then for a drive back via Blea Tarn again and Little Langdale. Buggered because nowhere to park the car. Hey ho. It will be hard to pack it up tomorrow.
Dinner at the Grasmere Hotel. Smoked salmon and creamy nibble and brie and walnut nibble. C starter filo pastry parcels. J creamy forest mushrooms. Both had lemon sorbet. Both had beef casserole with veg, roast spuds and creamed celeriac. So nice I have now bought some celeriac with which to experiment. C pudding Grasmere gingerbread meringue ice cream. J blueberry creme brûlée. Complimentary coffee with mint. All very good quality at £24 per person.

Cottage on road between Langdale and Wrynose, with thatched porch
Cottage on road between Langdale and Wrynose, with thatched porch
Bowfell
Bowfell
Scoured glacial valleys
Scoured glacial valleys

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Across to Wrynose
Across to Wrynose
Blea Tarn
Blea Tarn

Weds 10th April

I got up early and went for a run to Elterwater and back, hardly saw any cars, lovely although very chilly. Packed up car with only having to shift it once.
Went to John Ruskin’s house, Brantwood on Coniston Water. Nice house but I think he would have been quite annoying, writing several books and papers before breakfast. They have kept his clothes so you can see his pants! For those of a delicate disposition it’s actually just his outer pants.
Hot drinks after chilly house. Ambled round a bit of garden overlooking the lake. Great location for a house.
Booths’ supermarket in Windermere because Carol felt like she hasn’t been in one for weeks and then home. The weather got duller and duller and finally started raining. We seem to have had the best of the weather.

Since getting back I’ve been reading Robert MacFarlane’s Mountains of the Mind where he talks at length about Ruskin’s influence on how we perceive mountains. I really didn’t pick this up from our visit to the house but it’s made me go and look at his pictures a bit more, not sure that I like them.

I had to do an OU tutorial on Tuesday in Sheffield and what should be on at the gallery I passed but a Ruskin landscapes exhibition, unfortunately it was shut at night. It’s wider than just Ruskin. What I hadn’t realised was that Sheffield Museums have a Ruskin collection.

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

Coniston Water, from iPhone. Despite my fancy cameras, this is best photo of holiday!
Coniston Water, from iPhone. Despite my fancy cameras, this is best photo of holiday!
Old Man
Old Man

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

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