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The Sketch
Today’s plan was, for me and Ami at least, to walk our way up to Easedale Tarn. On paper that looked relatively easy. It’s just a shame that the geology of the Lake District doesn’t include any significant deposits of paper.
The Morning
The day began with a substantial breakfast and a lot of staring out of the window at the less-than-pleasant weather. The forecast had been for some rain, and they were right. It was the kind of weather where you wouldn’t want to climb any high mountains. Thankfully we weren’t planning to do that, so all was good.
After breakfast we stuffed our bags and put on as many waterproof clothes as we could manage. Our plan was to walk all the way, so that Kas could take the car. That meant the first bit was downhill into Grasmere village. It also meant we could stop at the Co-Op on the way past to get some drinks and calorie-laden snacks to stuff in the bags. Calorie-laden snacks that come in waterproof packets. It was going to be a soggy walk.
The walk up to the tarn begins by following Easedale Road out of Grasmere. There’s a couple of bits where the path is the other side of a hedge from the road. And then you reach the part where you leave the roadside and traverse a small bridge onto the fields. There’s about 3 fields to cross whilst still in the bottom of Easedale before you come out into the common land and start to climb.
The climb up to Easedale Tarn is a shade over 150m from the valley floor, so it’s not far, but sadly it was raining quite a lot, so the footing was a bit treacherous in places. We were in good spirits though.
Soggy Lunch
We stopped for a rather soggy lunch at the tarn so we could get our breathe back and refuel a little. I’d found one geocache on the way up and there was another on the far side of the tarn from where we were, so we went for that one after lunch. After that though, there was little to do other than go back again. The weather wasn’t fit for lingering and we didn’t have the time or energy to go any further up. So back home we went.
Back in Grasmere Village we decided that we’d be best served by going back to the hotel rather than sitting in a coffee shop dripping water everywhere. That gave us the chance to get warm and dry.
Meanwhile, in Ambleside
Kas and Izzy had decided (mainly Izzy, I think) to head for Ambleside for some industrial grade relaxing. Full details are unavailable, but I believe it involved some period of time visiting the rock shop (geology, not confectionary) so Izzy could sit in their display of small rocks and collect a few to pay for and take home. After that, they went to a cafe for coffee and cakes. That was Daisy’s Cafe on Rydal Road. This is a totally useless piece of informaiton though, as the establishment appears to have closed.
Afternoon
We had some unhealthy snacks at the hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and packing our bags. We’d got an appointment with the road system the following day, so we needed to get ourselves sorted out.
In the evening we returned to Ambleside to go again to the brewery tap place we’d visited earlier in the week. It was good again.