Keswick - Brassed Off!

 We awoke to a glorious morning, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. Perfect weather for a little walk. After beating Ian at the crossword off for the third day in a row I prepared some porridge and toast which we ate on the huge piece of grass by Dame Shirley. We then proceeded to prepare ourselves. Sun tan lotion. Oats so simple. Smidge. And an insect repellent bracelet. Take that you little devils! 

It was a mere 10.30 when we left the site and headed for the launch jetty. Luckily we bought our ticket and jumped straight on the next boat, although it was heaving.

Standing on the dock

  I am sailing

We were headed for High Brindlehow landing at the bottom of the lake and a walk up through Borrowdale to Castle Crag. The boat trip was really nice in the sun, with amazing views as expected. Once on the jetty we began the fun part, navigating. Wherever we go we seem to have trouble with navigation, and sure enough it wasn’t long before we were consulting the maps. Ian swears by his phone, where I prefer the real map.

High Brindlehow Landing

The first part of the walk was by the lake, then we crossed an amazing meadow full of wildflowers and orchids. It was like being in Switzerland. 

A Swiss Meadow

A few more, difficult, navigation issues occurred involving a wall and a wood, both solved with the real map, before we came to a bend in the river Derwent where we had our lovely picnic. 

Picnic by one of the four UK river Derwents

After the picnic we began to climb, which is where my sticks really became useful. I was passed by huge numbers of young things with huge packs on their back, but I kept going behind Ian, who was itching to go quicker. 

Onwards and upwards

Eventually we came to another controversial navigating situation where we decided on a small path off to the left. Who would have thought the iconic Castle Crag would be so difficult to find! One last push up some steep steps before we came to what looked like the top of Mount Doom. A huge pile of slates with a little path forged up it! Eek was something like the word I used. I set off, and not looking down once, climbed the pile. I did force Ian to be right behind me the whole way.

On the slate pile

At last we reached the summit of Castle Crag. And what a view! Right down the valley and on to Derwentwater. It was well worth the climb. 

Atop Castle Crag

Now I just had to get down! Bizarrely it was so much easier than getting up. I even looked at the view at one point. We were headed for Rosthwaite at the base of the crag, then the bus back to Keswick. Once again we had a navigational situation, despite there being around a hundred people going up and down. We soon picked up the right trail though, the descent was down a steep slope with steps which was a devil on my bunion, but we dropped back down to one of the many river Derwents and followed it over a lovely old bridge, called New Bridge, into the village.

Old New Bridge

By the way, the whole walk we had been ‘following’ the Cumbria Way, yet New Bridge was the first place we saw an actual Cumbria Way Marker. Up your game boys!

A rare Cumbria Way marker

As we (I) hobbled into Rosthwaite we saw a wonderful sight. A sign advertising a tea room! In the smallest village in England! Still, we took full advantage and had a coffee. The man was very pleasant and told us all about the buses. He then pointed out his terrace round the back, which had a lovely view down the valley and was heaving. That’s why there is a cafe in Englands smallest village. We ended up sharing the table with another couple who had been up Cat Bells then driven here because they had heard of it. 

Tearoom in the middle of nowhere

After a pleasant chat we headed down to the bus stop and got the 78 back to Keswick, sadly it wasn’t the open top one. Soon we were plodding wearily back to Dame Shirley and cracking open a little beer. We deserved it.

But no time to rest! The reason I had force marched Ian out so early was that we were going to the theatre tonight. The Theatre By The Lake to be precise. We showered and I threw together the emergency ten minute tea. Not long after, clean and changed, we set off over Crow Park. We arrived just in time. However they had decided to delay kick off for fifteen minutes (crowd trouble?) so we could have rested a bit more, never mind. 

It was a show in the round and we thoroughly enjoyed it, neither of us having ever seen the film. After we walked back through the park and were more or less straight in bed. It had been a long but wonderful day.

From Crow park at night

Oh! And the shows name? Brassed off of course.

Neighbour watch

Sadly we are now surrounded. Two tents by the watering hole, and a caravan with car and various boats/paddle boards etc right next to us on our big bit of grass! The caravan does not seem to have anyone with it though, at least we haven’t seen a soul.

Nature watch

We saw a daytime bat! Who knew such a thing existed around 10am. Also a big bird of prey, really big. Heron. Swallow quite close up in Rosthwaite. 

News of the day

Sadly for day two of my new section, there was very little news. The King had his speech. And the Millers released their new bright third kit. So here is a photo of an unknown (to me) player modelling it.