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The Morning
Another fairly easy-paced morning involving some breakfast in the hotel. The weather was a bit grey, but not too bad. Our plan for the day was to go to Borrowdale to attempt the “Fairy Walk.” I’m not sure why it’s called that, but it’s worth a go. Izzy didn’t fancy any massive walks but a shortish walk on the flat was deemed acceptable.
So after breakfast we saddled up and made our way around through Keswick and into Borrowdale, supposedly the wettest place in England. The walk required us to park in Rosthwaite, where there’s a handy National Trust Car Park. And of course, we can park in those free of charge.
Fairy Walk
We’d read beforehand a brief description of a walk up the Stonethwaite Beck and past Galleny Force to some rock pools where the Langstrath Beck joins. It was only a mile and a half or so. The walk was mainly flat and there was a handful of geocaches on the way to keep me occupied while the ladies walked. At the rock pools there was a particularly troublesome cache that I decided wasn’t there. I started preparing a replacement and messaging the owner to check, and just as I was about to place it I spotted the real cache. D’oh!
All the while I’d been doing this, the ladies had made their way down to the water and started paddling. I joined them eventually and got my boots off for a quick dip. There was a nice and relatively shallow bit with decent rocks that we could sit on, so we sat there for a while, plodged, and generally soaked up the atmosphere. It was a lovely spot, even if the weather was a bit average.
The walk back, down the other side of the beck, seemed to take much longer. Maybe we’d had enough of walking. Anyway, the car park also had a cafe nearby. So we availed ourselves of some drinks and lunch while we were there.
We hadn’t really planned anything for the afternoon and Izzy was done, so we went back to the hotel.
Legging It
A general lack of enthusiasm for more exercise amongst the ladies lead to a decision by them to just chill at the hotel.
I wasn’t quite so tired, so I stole away to walk my way around Grasmere, picking up a few caches on the way.
I started by walking down the main road towards Ambleside. At Town End I went off the main road and onto the local road around White Moss. This eventually bought me out quite close to Rydal Water and I walked back through the woods and along the little river that drains Grasmere into Rydal Water.
I crossed the river onto the far side and walked my way around the west side of Grasmere and back into the village. I was getting a bit parched so I grabbed a drink from the Co-Op on the way past.
By the time I got back to the hotel I’d walked just over 8km and I’d been outside for an hour and three-quarters.
A Night on the Town
The girls had saved enough energy to go out in the evening rather than stay at the hotel. So when I got back from the walk I had a quick shower and we headed to Ambleside. We’d seen a few decent-looking places when we were there two days earlier. Our favourite-looking one was a brew-pub right next to the car park. They had a bit of a queue and said it might take about half an hour before we’d a table. So the girls went and sat on a wall by the river while Kas and me stood in the queue.
It eventually took a little under half an hour, partly because some people just walked away.
Once we got inside we were treated to some nice, fresh beer (well, I was) and a menu that had a bit of everything. I think we ordered a lot of pizzas, amongst other things. It was really busy, which was rare for this holiday. The hotel restaurant had been quiet every night we’d eaten there and the one night we went out we were in a quiet restaurant too. This place was busy. All the tables were full and the wait-staff were running around like blue-arsed flies, only more efficient.
Back at the hotel Kas and me retired to the bar for a swift half while the girls went up to sleep. It had been the busiest day so far.