My Advent Calendar - Day 4

December 4^th

Welcome to Day 4 of my Advent Calendar. If you’ve only just found it, where have you been? Go back and read parts 1-3 immediately! I am reliving two special weeks from my year, which my sister and I spent marching across the greatest country on earth, and hopefully giving you an idea of the ups and downs, physical and emotional, that we went through. Enjoy!

Day 2 – Part 2

~ Youth Hostel, we have some food, we become food for the midges, we go to bed ~

Having made it down from High Style we were back in the Ennerdale Valley, although now much closer to the head of it, and this was where we would stop for the night. For those of you who have been in this area you may know what’s coming. Instead of camping we had one of our four, planned, indoor stops, this one at the famous Blacksail Youth Hostel. Right at the head of the valley this old shepherd's cottage is surrounded by mountains, and the only sound you can hear is the rushing river not far away.

            The hostel is fairly small, understandably, but almost always busy, and indeed there were only a few spare beds on the night we stayed. Over the next days, when we told other walkers we had stayed there, we received some jealous looks, so if you want to go, make sure you book early!
            The hostel has a very social atmosphere and after we arrived (past 8pm) and devoured the remainder of the food, which was delicious, we struck up several conversations with the other walkers. A few were also on the Coast to Coast but most were just walking in the Lake District. One man, by the name of Gary, informed us he had once walked the Coast to Coast with some friends, in just seven days. Apparently it was mostly fuelled by beer. There was plenty of drinking going on that night too and one woman kindly offered to take a picture of Hannah and myself, which I won’t post due to the slightly blurred aspect of the shot.
            We decided to sit outside and watch the sun go down, a beautiful sight but ruined slightly by the fact that we were being eaten alive by midges. The pesky creatures are one of most annoying things about staying in the great British countryside, but technically it is their home and we’d moved into it, so I guess that gives them the right to feed off us for a while. After a lot of skin slapping and scratching we gave up and moved back inside. Then, because we were tired and had a long day ahead we opted to find our beds and said goodnight.

 

Looking West from Blacksail YH, down the Ennerdale Valley