Kim’s account with anything derogatory against Mike removed follows, lol
Plan A: Fly to Orkney (when is Plan A ever anything other than this?!)
Plan B: Fly to Wales
Plan C: Hillwalking
It became fairly easy to discount Plan A as the large blue blobs of rain and wind virtually covered the North of Scotland on the weather forecast maps. Plan B was also looking dodgy as the blue blobs were forecast to travel South and East – which would jeopardise our plans to get back to East Fortune for Saturday…
Plan C looked obvious, and with the Rain centering in Scotland, we reckoned this would be a great opportunity to introduce the Tuesday Walking Club to the delights of the Lake District – there is also a lot of water around there so that Mike, the ‘Non-Tuesday-Walker’, could do some paddling in his kayak. This looked good until we realised it was Bank Holiday Weekend – urggg! B&Bs and Hotels all jam packed, roads and hills would likely be the same… even camping was looking like a non-starter as a lot of campsites seemed full up as well – this wasn’t going to give the best impression of the Lake District to the Club!
However, Graeme set to researching camping options, we decided on Scafell Pike as a target walk, and Mike found that Ullswater would provide a promising paddle.. the plan started to come together when he found out that a site at Buttermere didn’t take bookings, and if we arrived by lunchtime on the Thursday we should be able to stake out our plot for the next couple of days. Buttermere is my favourite area, off the main ‘drag’ through the Lake District to hopefully avoid ‘bank holiday campers’, and offers Haystacks as a great introduction to Lakeland hills – what it lacks in height it makes up for in its position and character, with a wonderful ‘wild rock garden’ on the top complete with tarns, wild flowers and rocky outcrops. Some more logistical organisation saw us leaving the Kayak in storage at Ullswater on the way down, and packing the Brompton folding bike so that Mike could get from one end of Ullswater to the other, paddle with a following wind, and not need dropped off or picked up anywhere.
Thursday: Home to Buttermere, and Haystacks
We met up in Keswick at lunchtime, having dropped the Kayak off at Ullswater, I provisioned with breakfast bbq stuff while mike got disoriented in the anti gravity room in the puzzle museum in Keswick, and after sampling the wonderful Cornish Pasties from the Cornish Pastie Shop in Keswick (I kid you not!), we decided these would make excellent hill-walking sustenance for the next day – they even did sweet varieties – so stocked up. Down to the campsite, which was just delightful – an undulating field with trees and rocky outcrops to make natural boundaries around the pitches – only a couple of other tents there, so we set up camp, approved of showers/toilets/nearby pubs (there was even a plug point for my hairdryer!), then high-tailed it to Gatesgarth to park for Haystacks. We quickly split into groups – Gordon (clad in super-hero outfit of ‘tights’ and shorts on top!) picked up his usual running pace, and decided to to Haystacks, then the range of 3 connecting hills that led back to our campsite – High Crag, High Stile and Red Pike. It took him about 2 hours (for what I had thought was a good day’s walking – shit!) Graeme followed his route, albeit at slower pace and taking photos, but was still back at the campsite in just over 3 hours… at this rate they would gobble up the Lake District in a matter of days!! Mike, Jill and I made steady progress and enjoyed the delights of the summit walk in the evening light, round towards Fleetwith Pike, but came down its flank following Warnscale Beck back to the cars. The weather was kind – showers that threatened on the summit didn’t materialise, and we brought both cars back to Buttermere to congregate at ‘The Bridge’ after quick showers (for most of us…). The Bridge offered Buttermere Bitter and Lakeland Gold, wonderfully restorative fare after a walk, and the food was excellent (buttermere beer-battered fish and chips, Cumberland hot pot with lamb, black pudding and a ’stottie’, and roast shank of lamb) – with great puddings (lemon meringue pie, gooseberry crumble, summer pudding)!
