My Advent Calendar - Day 8

December 8^th

Welcome to Day 8 of my Advent Calendar, where I am reliving my Coast to Coast adventure!

Day 5 – Part 1

 

~ Group walking, We are overtaken a lot, Americans and their Tour Guide, We take photographs, Departing the lake district ~

Another good breakfast gave us plenty of energy for the day ahead (that’s a helpful hint if you’re planning on doing a long walk yourself) but did delay us once again. This time when we set off, however, we found ourselves amongst a large group of walkers and together we kept a good pace. Seeing as we were carrying about three times more than anyone else though, we soon began slipping back as more people came up and overtook us.

            From Patterdale the path climbs and turns south for about three miles before swinging back to the east as it rises to the last really high peak of the whole walk (in fact it can be the highest you ever get if you choose not to make diversions like Hannah and I did). The peak is called Kidsty Pike and amazingly, if the weather is clear, you can see all the way to the coast, more than 25 miles away.
 

Looking west for a last view of the sea.

Helen, Nikki and Sarah, who we had by now nick-named The Fabulous Three, caught up with us several times throughout the morning as did a group of Americans being led by a Tour Guide. The first time they marched past they were sprawled out across the hill (i.e. not on the path) and the Tour Guide muttered, ‘I’ve lost one off the front, it’s like herding cattle this,’ as he passed us.

            When we rejoined them at the top of Kidsty Pike he was a lot happier, as were they, and when one of them asked us to take a picture we agreed. Then I did something stupid. I asked, ‘does anyone else want us to take one?’ Whereupon we received something in the region of twenty cameras and by the time we’d finished The Fabulous Three had also arrived.
            After a stop for lunch we descended to the shore of Haweswater Reservoir where we had the misfortune to run into ‘Campers,’ our bald, abusive, motivator, who gave us another barrage of scorn for still not having abandoned our oversized bags. After his group had moved on we agreed that he was wearing the same red top he’d had on the day before.

The path was now a proper track that skirted the edge of the reservoir from one end to the other (some three and half miles) and now that we were by ourselves again our pace dropped. We found ourselves stopping more often, and there was still some way to go. Two older men were also on the path and for a while we played leap-frog with them. We walked faster but they never seemed to stop and so we passed each other four or five times that afternoon.

            Eventually we reached the end of Haweswater and just beyond passed the boundary of the Lake District, and the end of Section 1. Immediately it began to rain.

 

Kidsty Pike (looking South East)

 

Haweswater Reservoir