Lake District

We vowed to revisit Honister pass and Buttermere, and today we did. This time we stopped at the Honister Slate Mine visitor centre for a look around. We didn’t pay the £5 parking charge, but had a good look round the shop and the exhibition which had some interesting stories about some of the mining characters, they also offer mine tours and walks, but they had to be pre-booked. We carried on down the pass to Buttermere where we parked in a National Trust car park from here we did a 5 mile walk around Buttermere. On the way around Prince went in the water numerous times and even went for a swim of his own accord at the start! We saw a foreign couple with two dogs who both chased after a sheep, the owners went berserk, shouting and screaming until they got the dogs back, we put ours on a lead and quickly walked past looking slightly smug and pleased it wasn’t ours! We had our picnic at the waters edge and also saw our first red squirrel on our way round, he ran off up a tree but we could still see him at the top and pointed him out to some other walkers as they passed. A nutty pair of Scotsmen stopped us at one point as one of them wanted to take a photo of Prince with his mobile, we could hardly understand him which doesn’t bode well for our travels further north! Eventually we got back to Sykes Farm where we had to once again sample some of their ice cream to check it was still as good as the day before. It really was, and after they were consumed we needed a drink so we popped into the pub next door and had some Old Peculiar to put us right!

Phil was up at 6:30 the next morning, this time to do a 20 mile ride to the top of Skiddaw, which at over 3,000 is one of the biggest mountains in the Lakes. On the way I got chatting to a road biker who lived in Portinscale (just up the road) and every day before work he rides around Derwent Water, what a place to live! We said our goodbyes and I continued on my own up to the top of the mountain, mostly pushing but some riding, with the views ever expanding as I rose higher and higher. At the top the scenery was breathtaking, looking down on the whole of the Lake District and its huge mountains reminded me of being in the Alps (without the ski lifts). The downhill was awesome, 5 miles of constant downhill all off-road, in some places it was so steep I had to stop and squirt my brakes with water and they hissed as they cooled down! I met 3 sets of walkers on the way down who I said hello to, the first couple were very surprised to see a biker up there at that time in the morning! I got held up again by another shepherd moving his sheep up a track, he was on a quad bike and had only one dog, I had to stop as I got swamped by sheep as they came towards me. Once back at the van and showered we headed out to Keswick, we wanted to have a general look round, Phil wanted to see what the Pencil Museum was all about and Linda wanted to go to the Quaker Tapestry exhibition. First we went into Rathbone’s with Linda’s waterproof which has frayed on the seams, they said this was due to it being a light weight polyester and not nylon which is ten times stronger, they did say they could send it off to Sprayway for us but it would have to be clean (!) they said it would be ok to machine wash and shouldn’t develop runs in the fabric so that was that. Then Phil took the dogs back to the car and Linda set off to find the exhibition, couldn’t find any of the streets marked on the leaflet so popped into the police station to ask for directions, met a very friendly police man who said it was a police station not a Tourist information centre (joking) and then proceeded to look at the leaflet and not recognise any of the street names and ask if it was Keswick, I said yes I thought so and then he found the Kendal address on the leaflet, whoops! Very funny and embarrassing but at least it gave him a laugh! Linda then had a wander in the outdoorsy shops while waiting for Phil who learnt some amazing things about the manufacture of pencils, saw the worlds largest pencil and a pencil used in the war by POW’s that had a map hidden inside it. Then we popped into Booths as its our favourite supermarket (that’s not saying a lot) and while we were inside there was a very loud thunderstorm so we speeded up to get back to the dogs, Smudge very stressed and Prince a bit worried because she was! In the evening we had a walk from the site to the Borrowdale road and back onto our lane, Prince had a few swims in the river and we got rained on a bit, Linda found her right boot had a split in it (so that’s why its been leaking so much) and on our way back through the site we saw a roe deer.


We had already decided that today we were going on the Keswick Launch boat trip around Derwent Water, so we got up earlier than usual and Linda went out to reception and got us some tickets, after getting ready and packing a picnic we headed out down the paths from the site to meet the boat as it came to our nearest stop at High Brandlehow. We stayed on the boat past the next 2 stops and eventually reached the Keswick landing. We got off here as we intended to have another wander round Keswick, so from the launch we had a walk around the lakeside before finding a nice bench to sit on at the waters edge and have our picnic, watching the learners on their yacht’s (Mike J – you’d have loved it!). After this we headed into Keswick where we went into a few boot shops. In the first shop the assistant was very helpful, and told us about how her daughter and a group of friends got caught in the brief thunderstorm yesterday while out walking, a number of them were struck by lightning, and one was even thrown 30ft in the air! After leaving the shop we bought the News & Star which had the full story of the group’s drama on the front page. After failing to find any suitable boots we headed back to the launch via Hope Park, the town’s very nice waterside park, and jumped on the next boat which was heading our way. We jumped off the boat at the next stop we came to at Ashness Bridge, where we walked the half mile up the road to the bridge. It’s a lovely little narrow stone bridge which doesn’t look like it could take much weight (we saw a few cars going over it though and have driven over it on a previous visit). We took some photos and splashed about in the stream before heading back down to the jetty to catch the last boat home. It was a short trip back to High Brandlehow, and then a mile walk back to the van.


On the way to Bassenthwaite the next day we spotted that one of the large houses with a lovely garden had an open garden day in aid of Borrowdale School. We quickly pulled the car over and went in for a nosey! On the way up the drive there was an honesty box which asked for £1 each which we duly paid and hesitantly headed down one of the little paths, we were soon surrounded by lush shrubs and trees and spotted a small fountain in front of the house. We emerged onto a little lawned area next to the house, and were soon to be met by a very friendly little Scottie dog, who welcomed a lot of fuss! As we headed along the lawn we saw a lovely hedge which had been cut into the shape of the dog! Around the corner we were met by the lady who owned the house and we had a little chat about the garden and the Scottie hedge in particular (which she said her daughter thought was tacky!), she then warned us about her husband who was in the garden somewhere, as he has Alzheimer’s and senile dementia, and once he starts talking you can’t stop him (he’s fine, just agree with everything he says)! Of course, just up the path we met him and he started chatting! He was a lovely friendly chap who told us a bit about the house and garden and how they had bought it when it was run down and the garden was still a work in progress, he then went on to say he was in the Air Force and worked his way up the ranks, he told us about how he was present in a meeting when Stalin (the Russian communist leader) had died and he had to come back and tell Maggie Thatcher who he told us was Prime Minister at the time! He thought we were just visiting the garden as we said we had met his wife and were just having a wander, he was very pleasant company, but as the dogs were in the car we made our excuses and left him to his veg patch. After a quick hello to the gardener we were back in Tonks and on our way to Bassenthwaite. We parked up on a small forestry car park (just down from the pay and display- saving £2.50!) before walking up the hill towards the main car park. We saw that there was some sort of Osprey spotting event on, so we continued up the hill to see what all the fuss was about. When we got to the viewpoint the RSPB had set up a few telescopes which were trained on an Osprey nest in the trees about 1,000yds away, on looking through one we got a really clear view of the 2 parent birds sitting on the nest. Apparently one of the 3 eggs on the nest had hatched yesterday but we couldn’t see the chick. We carried on back down the hill and had our lunch on a secluded picnic table in the sun before heading back to Tonks where we were talked at by one of the very nice RSPB workers who said we should join! We escaped and headed back to the ‘van where we decided to prepare for tomorrows early departure by taking the awning down, having a tidy up, and then Phil headed out for his final ride in the lakes.
This 12 mile loop took me back up past Ashness Bridge (which we’d seen the day before) and to the top at Watendlath Tarn, then there was an excellent rocky descent into Rosthwaite before following the B road half way up the Honister Pass (phew!) before following an even more fun rocky downhill back to the van. Meanwhile Linda took the dogs for a nice peaceful walk to the side of Derwent Water where she found a lovely spot on top of a rock outcrop to have a sit and listen to the not very much at all that was going on.


The next day was move day, so up early and out before 9:00 to avoid the parked cars in the lane, the entrance and exit to the site has 2 very narrow bits (through a pair of old gateposts and over a very narrow double humpback bridge) so we wanted to make sure we beat the influx of walkers on this bank holiday morning. After dawdling our way along the A66 w e arrived on the Camping and Caravan Club site at Barnard Castle at 12:00 and despite the fact you’re not allowed in before 12 there was already a queue of vans and campers waiting to get in, once at reception we had a lovely welcome despite the wardens being a bit stressed, and one of them showed us to our pitch. We spent the afternoon getting set up and putting up the awning, and then had a brief visit into the town centre of Barnard Castle. On the way in we saw the first of what was to become a common sight, Romany Gypsies camped on the side of the road and in lay-by’s with their horses tethered nearby. This is because of the Appleby Horse Fair which is taking place from this coming Thursday for 7 days, and the Romanies arrive well in advance and pitch up in the surrounding areas. Once in the town we had a little walk around and then went in one of the many pubs for a pint. The one we chose had a lively atmosphere, with music and pool, so we sat at a small table and decided to stay for a couple of drinks!


We’ve been to High Force, which is a 70 foot waterfall where the river Tees tumbles down over its rocky bed as it rushes down Teesdale towards the sea. We did a 6 mile walk which first took us to the smaller waterfalls at Bowlees and up to Gibsons Cave, an impressive rocky overhang which the water cascades over and into a plunge pool below, the story says that it was the hideout of an outlaw called Gibson in the 16th century, and he used the cave behind the waterfall to hide himself and his stash, which is how it got it’s name. We had a play at the side of the plunge pool and on the very slippy rocks that make up the river bed before finding a convenient picnic bench to have our lunch on. We continued our walk past the small visitor centre in Bowlees in an old chapel which we had a look around and then on across the fields and over an old footbridge. The Wynch Bridge was originally built in 1830 and is an iron suspension bridge that is now Grade II listed, there is a sign above the bridge that said that foot passengers should go over one at a time so as not to overload it. Despite this Phil took a gamble and walked across with Prince! We carried on walking along the Pennine way which follows the Tees and took us to a great viewpoint looking down on the High Force Waterfall. Whilst not the biggest waterfall in England 70ft is still high enough, and with the sheer volume of water coming over the falls and the immense noise it created it was quite a sight. After snapping some photos we retraced our steps back to Tonks to head back to the van. On the way back we stopped at Grassholme Reservoir where there is a very small visitor centre and a free car park. Grassholme is one of many reservoirs in the area which are all linked by rivers or underground pipelines, as well as domestic use these reservoirs also supply industry, except the factories get untreated water straight from the reservoir rather than the treated stuff we get to drink and wash in.