COAST to COAST WALK - DAY 3 Seatoller to Grasmere : 11 miles |
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| The bus left Keswick for
Seatoller at 09:25hrs so we had plenty of time to have a
leisurely breakfast and then get some sandwiches and
other bits before boarding it. By 10:00hrs we were off
walking down to Rosthwaite, about 2 miles away. It wasn't
raining (yet) but we weren't chancing it so we decided to
set off with our jackets and overtrousers on and that
soon proved to be the right decision. We stopped off at
the Scafell Hotel in Rosthwaite to have a morning coffee;
we weren't in a rush today with the short distance and
the tops were shrouded in mist so the later we got up
there the more chance that it might lift - ever the
optimists. The only dress standard for the Hotel was 'no
boots inside' - no problems with that but we reckon our
socks weren't much cleaner after the first two days we
had experienced!
Alongside the River Derwent towards Rosthwaite It's about 3 miles up the Stonethwaite valley to Greenup Edge, our highest point today at about 2,000ft. The streams were very full, especially the gorges of Langstrath Beck, the path was very wet in places and the rain was coming down again - so it was wet everywhere! The walk itself is reasonably easy but steepens higher up around Lining Crag where it is debatable which was the path and which was the stream.
We think they are saying 'what on earth are you two doing up here in this weather?'
Nearly at the top now, above Lining Crag The mist was well and truly down now and the path becomes quite indistinct over very boggy peaty ground. We have been this way before (many years ago) so we didn't have any problem locating the few remains of the fence that once crossed Greenup Edge, the official top. We heard in the evening about a mixed group of Brits and Americans who got themselves temporarily lost up here seeking the top of the pass. In misty conditions it can be quite confusing. It got slightly firmer underfoot further on but by now our feet were getting slightly damp, shall we say, so it didn't really matter about the conditions anymore - we just strode on not bothering to circumvent any boggy sections. There was a slight rise further on before we started dropping down the Easdale valley towards Grasmere, 5 miles away.
On the final rise before descending to Grasmere - Greenup Edge is in the background. We got a shock as we started the descent as they were 2 workers laying stones to 'improve' the path. It wasn't raining now so things weren't too bad for them, relatively speaking that is, considering that they were about 1500ft up. They had a small hut nearby presumably for when conditions worsened. There were lots of bags of large stones scattered about which had been helicoptered in - they still had a lot of work to do. Apart from those 2 workers we had seen nobody else all day apart from 2 people some way ahead of us and 2 people some way behind us.
Water was never out of sight -this was the last steepish drop before it eased off.
Down there, that's where we are going and the clouds are starting to lift As we got nearer to Grasmere we came across the large group who we had met at Kirkby Stephen; they had come over from Patterdale. We were both feeling a bit tired today by the time we got to Grasmere at 16:30hrs; think it was just our 'cycling leg muscles' getting used to 3 days of reasonably hard walking. A cup of coffee and some cake revived us before we walked on to our B & B. We had no problems walking back down into Grasmere village for some beers and food at the Pub and also a chat with a couple from Harwich doing the Coast to Coast who, we realised, had stayed at the same B & B as us at Ennerdale Bridge. The one annoying thing about today was if we had been an hour later coming over Greenup Edge we would have got clear weather, as we found out from another couple later on the trip. Our clear weather plan was to come down to Grasmere by Calf Crag and Helm Crag - a far better alternative with not much more effort required. |
