Grasmere to Elterwater and Back Via Loughrigg Tarn

Wednesday 30th September 2015

Unbelievably we have had another great walk in beautiful weather - this is getting far too good to be true.  We left Grasmere along the Red Bank Road and climbed up over to Elterwater.  At the top, before dropping down into Elterwater there were fabulous views overlooking the Lake at Grasmere.

 Considering it hasn't rained since we arrived on Saturday the footpath at this point was very boggy, muddy and wet.

Elterwater.

It's the last day of September and a few foxglove flowers are still hanging in there - just!

We seem to be making a habit of unintentionally  frightening herdwick sheep on the footpath, although this one didn't seem overly bothered.

At Elterwater we followed the River Brathay along the Cumbria Way for about half a mile and that was probably enough as it was a very well maintained wide flat footpath with lots of people using it.  I did my wildlife rescue bit here, as there was a frog in the middle of the path, it looked a bit traumatised but seemed to move alright when I put it into the safety of the long grass.

Having climbed back up again we had to divert in amongst the bracken to find a geocache and as it happened it was a good move as it took us to a great viewpoint overlooking Lougrigg Tarn.  Bearing in mind we were in the middle of nowhere, a jackdaw obviously knew that picnics mean food and came to join us, I threw it bits of crust and it caught them mid air - he/she has definitely done this before!!!

Loughrigg Tarn. We skirted round the lake and walked up a lane where we spent a while trying to locate a squirrel that was making the odd noise that they sometimes make, despite our best efforts we couldn't see it and had to give up (we were hoping it might have been a red squirrel).   

Grasmere from Loughrigg Terrace.

Although it was nearly 3pm, these cobwebs (in a shady spot) were still covered in dew.

Another view of Grasmere as we descend to join the footpath that runs alongside the lake, where we saw..............

A stealthy heron!

In summary we walked just under 7 miles, saw some fanastic views, found 3 geocaches, saved a frog from getting squashed and thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine.

Windermere to Bowness and Back - Lake District

Tuesday 29th September 2015

We have been coming to the Lake District on and off now for eight years and up until last year mostly in the school summer holidays.  I can safely say that this week the weather in the Lake District has been far better than any weather we have had at the height of summer, its been amazing.  

Today we drove to Windermere for a circular walk to Bowness, along Lake Windermere and back up to the car.  It was really pleasant wandering through the backstreets of Windermere, but Bowness was  busy with what seemed like thousands of tourists milling about by the lake.  It didn't take us long however, to get away from the crowds to the peace and quiet of a park at the edge of the Lake where we had lunch and I tested the water.  It was a very relaxing spot to sit and watch the comings and goings on the Lake but a couple of black headed gulls spent the whole time having a disagreement in front of us, which was less than peaceful!

The clock tower at Windermere (we managed to find a tiny magnetic geocache on the railings behind this!)

War Memorial.

Boats for hire at Bowness - not today thanks!

The view from our lunch stop.

Looking towards the Helvellyn range.

There are always lots of water fowl at Bowness, all very used to people.  Here we have a canada goose nearest the Lake and a greylag goose.

Such a calm place.

We walked alongside the Lake, where there was what looked like a school party out on the water in kayaks, they appeared to be having a great time!

Another sneaky geocache found in a money tree stump disguised as a 2p coin, which when pulled out contained the cache. Ingenious!

Walking back up from the Lake.

Another beautiful sunny day, 6 miles walked and another area explored. No complaints from me!

Grasmere and Rydal Water - Lake District

Monday 28th September 2015

It was another amazing day weather wise today,  slightly misty early on but that soon cleared and the sun came out and stayed out all day.  We walked from Grasmere around the shore of the lake and on to Rydal Water where we stopped for a bit of lunch then skirted round the lake and returned to Grasmere along the Coffin Route, a favourite walk of ours over the years.

Looking across the lake at Grasmere, with Helm Crag (that we climbed yesterday) on the left in the distance.

Looking across the lake at Grasmere to the Daffodil Hotel in the distance.

Grasmere

And on to Rydal Water.  The fell opposite is Nab Scar and we walked back along the Coffin Route on the tree line about a third of the way up to get back to Grasmere.

Of course the locals joined us for lunch.

Not a bad spot for lunch!

The money tree on the Coffin Route back to Grasmere.

Rydal Water from the Coffin Route (so called because in  years gone by before there was  consecrated ground in Rydal or Ambleside - until the 16th century - coffins were brought by foot along this route to St Oswald's Church graveyard in Grasmere).  How on earth they managed to negotiate this path is beyond belief, it's up and down and very rough let alone a long old way to go - there are coffin stones along the route that were used to rest the coffins on to give the coffin bearers a rest.

This photo shows one of my very favourite smells, wood smoke, seen in the sun's rays.  Someone was burning pine wood on a bonfire as we dropped back down into Grasmere, past Dove Cottage one of William Wordsworth's homes.

Dove Cottage.

To summarise today's walk, we walked about 6 miles skirted 2 lakes and sat on a coffin stone for a rest!  One other note, we passed many friendly walkers today and one of them was one of the Sky TV sports reporters!

Helm Crag From Grasmere - Lake District

Sunday 27th September 2015

Here we are again, staying for a week in the village of Grasmere in the beautiful Lake Distirct. We have been forecast an Indian Summer for the next couple of weeks, but I'm not holding my breath, although I can't complain so far as today was amazing with blue sky and sunshine all day. We walked from Grasmere along the Easedale Road to the end of the road, where we took a footpath across a field to start the steep ascent up Helm Crag.  

The footpath skirts along the edge of a field of herdwick sheep and it would have been rude not to take a photo of a young one (herdwicks are born black and gradually lose the black as they mature)  there is lots of info on herdwick sheep on the Herdy site here

I spotted this heron on a dry stone wall.

This is where we are aiming for, Helm Crag (405m or 1328ft) which is also known as the Lion and the Lamb because of the shape of the rock formations at the top.

At the start of the climb there's a notice on a house that always makes us smile,

.....Not For Cars........ as if!!!!!

Looking across to Easdale Tarn.

This climb was hot and very sweaty, just like the height of summer, quite unexpected but nice at the top where there was a slight breeze.

Nearly at the top, looking towards Grasmere and the lake.

At the top looking in the Helvellyn direction.  We had lunch overlooking this view then successfully found a geocache and began the walk back down.

Green Burn, a nice spot to ..........

dip my feet in and cool down!

There were a few fine specimen rams about,

some more friendly - and pink - than others!!!!!

We walked back through Grasmere along a footpath beside the River Rothay and the eagle-eyed one of us (that wouldn't be me then) spotted a dipper on the edge of the river.

A less than impressive photo of an impressive dipper (who wasn't doing a lot of dipping, rather more standing on one leg in the sunshine).

In summary we had a fab walk of 5.5 miles up to a height of 1328ft with fantastic views in amazing sunshine.  

Conkers!

 Thursday 24th September 2015

I don't have much to say in this post except that I have always really liked conkers, not playing conkers, that's never been my thing! but just collecting shiny new conkers.  It's such a shame they don't stay all shiny and new for ever.  Still, I picked up this little lot today and hopefully they will ward off spiders in our house, conkers I like, spiders I most definitely do not!  For ways to keep spiders out of the house, including using conkers, take a look at this article from  The Independent

Fingers crossed that the conkers work

Worth Matravers to St Alban's Head

Thursday 17th September 2015

It was a funny afternoon weather wise today, we started our walk in Worth Matravers where it was sunny, walked out to St Albans Head where it was very windy and then overlooking Chapman's Pool it started to rain, all in a couple of hours, never mind, never a dull moment!

Strip lynchets at Winspit.

A harvest scene.

Yesterday it rained hard all afternoon so today there's plenty of mud and water about!

St Aldhelm's Chapel at St Alban's Head, we've been here before but not been inside, so today we had a look and found this..............

graffiti from 1665 and 1636!

This bit of the walk has steep steps going down and even steeper steps going back up (note the person in white just going up the steps on the other side).

Down I go!

Once up the other side there was a very convenient seat from which I took this moody little number!  The wind was getting up at this point.....

...... as you can see!

As luck would have it the Waverley Paddle Steamer went by as we walked along the cliff path.

Exposed to Weather, you're not kidding - as it started to rain here!  Luckily the rain didn't come to much and we finished our walk walking through harvested fields.  

Before returning to Swanage we went to take a look at Woodhenge, something that has been created by the landlord of the local pub in Worth Matravers and has attracted much attention locally.  It was brilliant.