Start/Finish: Parking space, nr Grange, on the Borrowdale Road
Distance: 9.7 miles
Time Taken: 8 hours
Companion(s): HumperLumper (Rich), Donna and Frankie
Route Map:
We knew in advance that we would need a full day's worth of daylight to complete this walk before dark but, I'm not sure that any of us were expecting the route to be quite as tough as it turned out to be!
Having arrived at the parking spot at about 8am, we proceeded to get kitted out and ready for the day's adventure and couldn't believe our luck that we appeared to be going to have yet another brilliant weather day ahead of us.....this is mid-November isn't it?? :-)
The walk began with us heading into Grange and thoroughly enjoying the peace and tranquility that you find when walking at this time of the day....
Leaving Grange, we followed the path towards Hollows Farm and the campsite...
My first view of Castle Crag.....
I spotted a deer in the woods at this point but didn't get the camera out quick enough to get a photo of it :-(
The River Derwent...
Having crossed the footbridge, we headed up through Dalt Wood....
....to the disused quarry....
We continued on our way....
Looking back....
...and enjoying the scenery we passed en-route....
Now on the way up to Castle Crag, looking down....
....and looking ahead....
...and down to the side again...
...and down...
You may be able to tell from the amount of photos I took, just how much I loved being here.....It's an amazing place and we had it all to ourselves and, to cap it all, the weather was amazing too!....
All too soon though, we had to tear ourselves away from this wonderful, peaceful place and continue with our walk. We followed the path which would lead us back down to the River Derwent and the Cumbria Way path.....
Once down, we followed the Cumbria Way path to Rosthwaite...
We had a quick refreshment break at Yew Tree Farm cafe in Rosthwaite before continuing on our way on the Cumbrai Way path towards Stonethwaite.....taking in the views all around....
It was this point that the nature of our walk changed! Having just passed Stonethwaite, we left the Cumbria Way path and followed the path that would take us up towards Willygrass Gill....
Having left the Gill, we head very steeply up via Lingy End and in between White Crag and High Crag....
Eventually, we make it to Dock Tarn.....
....and we continue on our way to Great Crag....
Looking towards Grange Fell (Brund Fell, Jopplety How) across Puddingstone Bank....
Watendlath Tarn now in view....
It's a bit wet and boggy up here.....
Having come over Kings How, we now began the descent via Brock Bield and it was at this point that my camera was put away.........This descent was a nightmare..........extremely steep, wet, slippery rocks, covered in wet and slippery leaves and I needed my hands to hold on to blades of grass, clumps of moss, bits of bracken, tree trunks, tree roots....absolutely anything, basically!!!!! My heart was in my mouth for virtually all of the way down and, once I was about half way down, every muscle from the waist down was beginning to scream in protest at the work they were having to do!
However, we all made it, safe and sound and just got back to the car before it was pitch black dark (we did have head torches with us, just in case!)
Yet another brilliant day out, in excellent company. An absolutely mint walk but.....there is no way I'm doing that descent in autumn again!!!!
A memorable day :-) Thanks to Rich, Donna and Frankie for allowing me to tag along.
