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Well it's Day 2 of our planned walks and we are at Buttermere Youth Hostel, its 6:30am as Chris and I stir ourselves and proceed to the shower rooms whilst it’s still quiet. Then it’s outside to check on the day which just now is beginning to show another promising day of sunshine and blue skies although there are still signs of a light and cool breeze about. Its now 7am and time to see if the malingerers have stirred yet and upon closing the dorm room door heard a pitiful and pained voice emanating from a pile of bed covers saying that his knee was still hurting and wouldn’t be able to manage the Newlands Round but was prepared to do a more gentle one as he didn’t want to spoil the day altogether.
I gave what I can only hope passed as a sympathetic vocal gesture and quickly suggested having a go at Latrigg before his symptoms rapidly deteriorated with the actions of climbing out of his bunk and placing a load onto the aforesaid damaged knee and changing his mind to reducing the walk to a stroll around the ale houses of Keswick, which is not too bad an idea really, but a walk is planned and a walk we’ll do however short and simple it is.
Right, breakfast over and done with, lunch bag collected, final check around the room and off we set for Keswick, that wonderful small market town sat by a glorious lake and surrounded by high and mighty mountains, and it's sunny.
The drive back over Newlands Hause and along the valley to Braithwaite is always a joy as it takes us under and between the mountains on either side of us with Keskadale Beck and green farmland in the valley bottom to our right.
Once we have arrived at the A66 it doesn't take long to drive the short distance into Keswick where we found one of my favourite free parking areas blocked off due to laying of new services - maybe for the new houses that are being built in the fields below Greta Bank Farm - which now means that finding a free park is going to be difficult as the town is busy with visitors. After driving around for a while it was decided to park up in the large long stay car park that is behind the main shopping area. Now this is when we had a great stroke of good luck as when the required amount of cash was inserted into the machine it only gave us half a ticket. Now what, we thought. I read the notice board adjacent to the pay machine and spotted a phone number to ring in case of any arising problems.
Not wanting to collect a parking ticket the number was called by Daniel who explained the problem of the ripped ticket. He was promptly given a number with instructions to write it on to a piece of paper and put it on the dashboard of the car. Could this be a good way to get free parking for ever I wonder??
As it was a good sunny day and only a short walk of six easy miles it was decided that Chris and Daniel would take their bags with mine and Peter's bits and pieces shared between them. What a noble gesture and one that Peter gladly took on board as his knee was irritating him somewhat. So off we set wending our way through the mid-morning crowds making our way to the street that runs past the YH and down alongside Fitz Park, up to, around and past the Sports Centre to reach the tarmac road that runs by Briar Rigg. Then after a short walk past the houses on the left hand side we took the lane on the right hand side and crossed the A66 by way of the concrete bridge…
- The lane leading to the A66 over bridge.
- Carl Side - Skiddaw - Little Man.
which took us onto the lane and past a few more houses before we passed through a gate to start the short but steepish climb alongside Ewe How.
- A view to the North Western Fells.
From the car park we have actually been following the route of the Cumbria Way and will continue to do so until we reach Mallen Dodd. As we climb the views over Keswick and the surrounding countryside opens up even more so since they cut down a great swathe of pine tree forest that was on Ewe How and how much better it looks for it. The Forestry Commission just need to clean it up now but at least they have planted a few indigenous trees around the perimeter. The path levels out as we reached a small beck that cuts across the path but it is not big enough to cause any problems.
- Keswick countryside and the North Western Fells.
From the beck the path curves around and starts to gently climb up alongside the fence of Birkett Wood, another large area of pine trees which I hope are next in line for the chop. On previous visits past here I have seen the small South Asian imported Muntjac deer which are descendents of deer which escaped from the Woburn Abbey estate around 1925, grazing amongst the pine trees.
When the finger post is reached there is a choice of either continuing on to the car park which services walkers on the trudge up to Skiddaw and the grassy break that goes straight up the fell side to Latrigg summit, or turn back on yourself up the well made path and follow it south as it climbs its way steadily to the top of Whinny Brow where it then turns north east to reach the bench seat that holds commanding views over Keswick, Derwent Water, and its surrounding mountains. This is not the summit though as the path continues rising until reaching the rough and obvious highest point.
- Keswick and Derwent Water.
After enjoying the views for a few minutes we then continued on the path as it started to slowly descend towards the gate which would lead onto the large grassy area above Brundholme Wood. The way down is over grass and there is no obvious path to follow but keeping a heading of roughly north east will lead one steadily down to reach a gate which itself leads onto a good, wide path that was re-instated last year due to being badly washed out by the regular showers of torrential rain.
Upon arriving at the end of this path there is another gate which now puts us onto a tarmac road which runs through Brundholme Wood on its way back to Keswick. However, once through the gate it will be noted that the tarmac road can be followed either right to Keswick or left which takes us down the fairly steep road to another gate that puts us onto the old Keswick Dismantled Railway line which is now a well used track for walkers, joggers, and bike riders, the total length of it runs from A66 just south of Threlkeld to the old station at Keswick which is now owned by The Keswick Country House Hotel and is just over 3 kilometres in length.
As the old track is reached there is an old railwayman's hut which is well used by passers-by as it is a good place to have a snack as it's just short of halfway along the walking route. The walk down the track is very good and scenic with many views of the River Greta as one passes over any of the many bridges that span the river. It must have been one of the most scenic railway lines in the country but thanks to the short sightedness of our government of the time and the unrelenting axe-man ship of Dr Beeching, it, and many others were closed putting a far greater strain on our roads than is neither good for them or the environment.
It is here, sat in the warm sunshine that we had our packed YHA lunch.
- A section of the old railway walking route.
Following lunch we made our way leisurely down the track and back into Keswick, dumped the bags back at the car and proceeded to investigate the innards of a few of Keswicks many hostelries. As Daniel doesn't drink it gave the rest of us a chance to imbibe some of the local ales without the worries of getting back home.
- A busy day on Keswick's main street.
Well, this walk was not what was planned but nevertheless it has been a decent enough stroll above Keswick and gave all three of them a walk on a hill they hadn't been on before and Peter a chance to ease his wounded body with a little light exercise on his bad knee.
This has been day two of our escape into the hills and once again things didn't work out as planned but one can't help sickness or injury. I wasn't going to post this report as there is not much about it really, but it may inspire someone to take the challenge of trying out a small local hill and maybe get the bug for walking the hills as a pleasurable pastime.