We returned to the campsite at the same time as Mike, who had had a great day paddling once he found a friendly sailor to zip him into his drysuit! He avoided being capsized by the Ullswater steamers, rescued a damsel in distress by sorting out her rudder for her, and even saw the bizarre sight of a bride in full wedding gear standing at one of the piers waiting for her groom to appear on a steamer – I’m still wondering what he’d doctored his pastie with to come up with that story!
The site had filled up considerably that day, but we still had our own pitch, and after showers again (sternly insisting mike put ’shower’ as a priority before ‘pub’ this time) and The Bridge still had room for us – another lovely meal, more beer, and a few glasses of wine, topped off by a real irish coffee complete with cream! Back to the campsite for nightcaps of straight whisky this time – and a generally giggly evening – Jill and I carefully negotiating all the new tent guylines as we staggered to the toilet block by torchlight before bed!
Saturday: Causey Pike/Castle Crag
Slept better – probably because we were all pretty exhausted! – and woke to drizzle after a wet night, but as we emerged from tents, the clouds were clearing a bit, the bbq sprung into life more quickly this time, and we were all packed up and ready for off in surprisingly good time! We all decided gentler walks were in order for today….
Mike elected to do Castle Crag – a mountain in miniature in the middle of the Borrowdale valley, and we chose Causey Pike – a hill with a lot of character in its 2000-odd feet, including a rocky scramble at the top, and conveniently close to Keswick and the A66 to home…. .. We went up the Rowling End route (I hadn’t done that bit before), which was steeper and more scrambly than anticipated, and we raced ahead of gathering clouds to get to the summit before it all closed in! Made it just in time, and decided to try to keep dry and cut our losses by heading straight for the descent route rather than bag any more of the ridge. A good, gradual descent, the last bit on a good miner’s road, where as we walked, Graeme and I listened to Jill telling Gordon about booking flights for their next holiday… she was trying to explain why she had paid for them by credit card rather than debit, but for some reason Gordon wasn’t quite getting what she was trying to say…. after several attempts it was becoming quite a pantomime, perfectly topped off by Graeme’s Fawlty Towers quote ‘Please try to understand before one of us DIES!!!’….
Back to Keswick for lunch, and Bryson’s tea shop, where we devoured tea, tea cakes and sandwiches while waiting for our appointed meet-up with Mike in the Dog and Gun. Rain started to pour down as we stocked up on more pasties and cakes to take home, and the Dog and Gun was packed, so it was a fish supper for Mike to eat in the car as we drove through increasingly torrential rain, and home in time for Dr Who!
