Wednesday 4 June 2008 - A Fine Lakeland Day - Lakeside B+B to The Old Homestead

Distance - 21 km
Ascent - 1134 metres
Time - 7 hours 40 mins including 1 hour 45 mins stops

A Fine Lakeland Day, but in a sense routine - I can find no fault with the company, the weather, the countryside, the B+Bs, the people we met, the food...

But should you wish to read further:-

breakfast was served by John Inman. He has been resurrected with a Geordie accent;

a red squirrel fought with hooded crows for possession of the bird feeder;

Leaving Dalegarth Guest House

blue skies gave way to cloud but then returned in place of the forecast rain;

Sue2 abandoned the rest of us to take a low level route more conducive to her feet;

Sue2 leaves on her low level route, below Whiteless Breast

The view to Rannerdale and Crummock Water

the rest of us enjoyed a fabulous brew stop astride the summit of Whiteless Pike (see header photo);

Wandope from beyond Whiteless Pike

the hillside was alive with these small beetles (leaf beetles?);



three of us enjoyed a trip to Grasmoor;

Gary on Grasmoor, with Buttermere and Scafell Pike in the background

meanwhile Notchy waited on Hopegill Head, where he acted as tour guide for a miscellany of people, from Chinese student to old codgers;

the ridge over Ladyside Pike was new ground for all of us - and an absolute delight, with good scrambly rocks and an excellent spot for lunch;

we descended by an ineffective wall over closely cropped turf;

past chirpy wheatears, then a leafy lane drew us to High Swinside Farm, and onwards down lovely grassy paths in the sun;

a jolly gardener chatted in sleepy High Lorton;

on through Lorton, an idyllic little village where we missed a path - that may have led to both a pub and a cream tea break;

so we savoured a 'green bench' break before taking a path through knee high grass;

some startlingly ineffective gate posts failed to halt our progress;

a glade of buttercups in this little used pathway warned of danger;

on we tramped, through the deep marsh;

we failed to release a startled sheep trapped in a kissing gate to the correct field;

but that sheep won't go hungry;

an elaborate watering place erected in 1897 was an unexpected find;

then on to Byersteads Farm and The Old Homestead, a delightful B+B bought by Zen and Jane three months ago from the farmers who still live next door and whose land surrounds us;

fabulous hot showers and spacious rooms;

then an excellent 'bar meal' in the well-appointed dining room of the nearby Hundith Hill Hotel;

Sue1 dashed back to watch 'The Apprentice' - we have our first TV since leaving home on Saturday;

at bed time David arrived from London, so Sue2 and her blistered feet will be warm and cosy tonight.

All in all a splendid Lakeland day.

Here's today's route.

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