Warming down - Final days

Sunday 16th October



Grey and overcast with occasional showers forecast, so we went for a drive to Bardsea and Ulverston. I first went to Bardsea in 1964 when Brian and I had hitched a ride from Wisbech so that we could visit his Grandma Pete. She had been living in Bardsea for some time. When I met her she was 91 and complaining that when she first went to Bardsea she could walk to Ulverston and back about five and a half miles, but at 91 she found it too much and could only walk into Ulverston and catch the bus back. Brian probably gets his walking genes from Grandma Pete- and hopefully his longevity as well.


We found the Ulverston cemetery where Grandma Pete is buried and I was amazed that Brian could remember exactly where her grave is. It is still well maintained and the inscription is still very clear.


In 1964 we had also arranged to meet Robert Thorpe at the Post Office in Ulverston. We had left him in London while I went to meet the family in March and we arranged to meet up in Ulverston and then hitch up to Scotland and then take the ferry across to Norway. But we met him in Woolworths where we were all looking for cheap toothpaste etc. There is no longer a Woolworths in Ulverston and we debated which store it is now. I think it’s the Boots Pharmacy, Brian thought it was the Co-op – we will probably never know. We did see the statues of Laurel and Hardy in front of the theatre in Ulverston. Apparently Laurel was born there.


Monday 17 October – Friday 21st October Lazy days.


Can’t remember much about what we have done this week. I obviously need to keep the diary up to date on a daily basis. From memory the weather was okay but Brian was still not keen on tackling any of the uphill walks. His shoes had dried out after him put them on the roof of the car in the sun. I ended up going for a walk to the nearby village of Ireby which is about one and a quarter miles away.


Tuesday 18th October – Windemere.


Grey, cold and windy with occasional showers. Having spent the day at home in the cottage in Cowan Bridge on Monday we decided (or should I say I decided) that we should go and have a look at Windemere. We have been through the outskirts many times, and we have even crossed the lake by ferry, but had not been into the centre of town nor walked around the Lake. I was a bit disappointed it has some really impressive buildings, but it is obviously one of those places that benefited from the expansion of the railways in the 19th and 20th centuries. It reminded me of the Mountain towns in NSW and Victoria like Leura, Katoomba and Bright. Its hey day was probably in the 1920s and 30s and now Ambleside seems to be the more progressive place. We had lunch in a tea shop and walked around town, taking shelter in some of the op shops when the showers became too heavy.




Wednesday 19th October – Kendal


Still not suitable for a high walk. I bought the blog up to date then in the afternoon we drove into Kendal. First time we have been there without rain. Explored some of the alleyways and back streets, and when the rain did finally arrive took refuge in some of the shops we had not been into before – Brian bought socks to replace all the ones he bought with him as every single one had a hole in it. He did say that I could darn them if I had bought the sewing kit his mother gave him when he left England in 1960! No comment from me on that one.


Thursday 20th October – Carlisle


Woke up to our first really heavy frost. The car was completely covered in ice, and the house was freezing. Went into Kirby Lonsdale and parked in the free parking at the bottom of the village and then had a nice walk up to the Library. Brian dealt with the blog and I sorted my email.


Then on to Carlisle for the steeple chase meeting. It is a very attractive race course and while the wind was icy, the sun was shining most of the time. The track was soft, - we laughed at that – it seemed so unnecessary to state it, but I suppose if you live in a city you could be forgiven for not knowing that the ground throughout the north of England is soft at the moment, but if like us you are walking through it, a more accurate description would be extremely soft, wet and muddy.


We got in on the OAP rate i.e.£9 each but Brian was amazed to find that the minimum bet has gone up from 50p to two pound! We laughed as it shows just how long it is since we have been to the races either here or in Oz.


He backed a first and second in the third race, but we had no luck on the others. It was an enjoyable day and we almost covered the costs – I think we were only out of pocket about £5 for the shared fish and chip dish we had for lunch.


Saturday, 22 October - Scafell Pike


Everything had looked favourable the previous day for a fine day on which to do Scafell Pike (England’s highest peak) walk so headed out early for Wast Water. It was a 2 hour drive as it is necessary to drive around the peaks in the Lake District to get there. Mary dropped me off at the start (the National Trust car park and I left her to head off to Keswick and later to Seathwaite in order to pick me up at an ETA of 4 pm. I rejected the Lingmell route as the initial fields looked very boggy and chose the more popular route of Brown Tongue. The directions I had printed out from the Net said that after about a kilometre “the path crosses the now much smaller Lingmell Gill”; well it must have been a drought period when the author wrote that because the Gill was now running fast and other walkers were crossing with extreme caution. I chose to walk up the gill a few hundred yards to find an easier crossing which I did. I still was in over my ankles but much safer than (slippery) rock hopping and deep fast running water. Wet feet are far preferable to falling and getting a full soaking (or worse – self injury). The final steep ascent was in mist and had become much cooler. The track was well marked with cairns each of which kept appearing out of the mist. The mist prevented me from checking out the start of the Corridor Route which was my return track to Seathwaite in the Borrowdale valley. At the summit the successful walkers were huddled in the shelter of the huge cairn alongside the trig point. The wind was strong and gusting even stronger. Adding to these conditions was the low temperature resulting in what was probably a chill factor of below freezing. I had a drink with some chocolate, texted Mary that I had made it to the summit and then headed down.


Luckily the mist had cleared and the descent was clearly visible. However, I still missed the ‘prominent cairn’ advised in a further set of directions from Steve Goodler in his book “The High Fells”. There were so many cairns I am still uncertain as to how the quality of prominence could be assigned to any of them. I soon realised I had missed the turn off but luckily with the mist now clear I was able to determine where I was and where I had just come from. Also, I was able to see (through the saddle of Lingmell Coll and Scafell Pike) Sty Head Tarn with Derwent Water beyond which was my way down. Using the map and a triangulation bearing I set off across some open fell to the saddle and found Piers Gill gorge and the Corridor Route. I was able to confirm this with a couple of walkers heading upwards to Scafell Pike. Luckily they gave me some advice about the only tricky part of the track which was a short scramble up a rocky face. It is labelled with an arrow pointing upwards with word ‘Free’ or perhaps ‘Freedom’ alongside the arrow.


The track was easy to follow after that except some care was needed (especially by seniors) over the paved but uneven rocky surface. I realised that my ETA of 4 pm needed revising but unfortunately I was now too low (no mobile reception) to get a text through to Mary. Eventually the 4 pm turned into 5 pm and found Mary huddled in the car at the roadside in Seathwaite. She then drove me and my aching knees back to the warmth of Bronte Cottages. A check of my pedometer revealed I had covered 16km which had taken me 7 hours. Actually, anything over 2km per hour is not bad going for a climb and descent over this type of terrain plus it was an extremely pleasant walk especially the descent down to Borrowdale.




I was amazed when I finally got to Keswick. The drive to Waswater Head took 2 hours and then it took me more than another hour to get to Keswick. That is almost the time it took Tim and Hazel to get from Peterborough to Cowan Bridge so while we are close to the Lakes, parts of the Lakes are a really long way away. I was even tempted to making the return to Keswick even longer by going in to have a look at St. Bees which is where we started the Coast to Coast walk, but decided against it on the grounds that I wanted to do a walk around the lake at Keswick rather than one on the headland which would have been very cold given that there was such a strong wind blowing. It took a long while to find a parking spot – none available in the first three places I tried, then a loo (by this time I was getting desperate) and then change for the pay and display machine. When are they going to get Oyster cards into action all over the country so that it is not necessary to carry stacks of coins to pay for parking? The girl in the bakery even told me that the staff members there have to pay to get the change for their tills.


Did a quick look at the market, coffee and cake at the bakery and a walk along the Lake. I think Derwent Water is my favourite of all the lakes we have visited. Then the drive through the Borrowdale Valley – very attractive but very narrow winding road and on to Seathwaite which is a dead end. Did a walk back to the turn off and then part of the route Brian was supposedly coming down. I was getting a bit anxious because I had not heard from him, but as there were lots of people coming down I didn’t panic. In the absence of a pub or café, had a cup of tea from Jack’s Snack Shack which helped to warm me up. While the wind was not as fierce as Brian experienced on top, it was still pretty chilly down in the valley. I was relieved when he finally arrived but then he said that he thought I should drive because he might get cramps in his legs. We had a few tense moments when it got dark. I reminded him of Rudi’s statement about when he and Val are in the car i.e. They are both nervous, but it is better for Val to drive because Rudi is less nervous than she is. I thought it was also interesting for Brian to have the passenger’s perspective of being close to the gutter i.e. he told me at one stage he thought I was driving too close to the edge but did acknowledge that the hedges in England are not quite the same as the drop offs on those high Spanish roads.


This remote part of the Lakes is obviously an area for extreme sports. At Wast Water there were several groups going diving in the Lake even though it was so cold and I saw three cyclists come down from Scafell while I was waiting for Brian.