Day 5: Patterdale to Shap

Weather: Gale force wind, driving rain and sleet

Distance covered today: 27.4km (17.0mi)

Last night's B&B: Old Water View

% Complete: Cumulative distance: 34.3%:  105.3km Total Ascent 2006m Total Descent 1925m

GPS satellite track of today's route: Day 5 (click!)

Pride and falls come instantly to mind.  Just as I was thinking I had things decently under control, the wheels seriously came off the enterprise today.  Just last night when the hotel’s electricity failed before I had posted my blog, I was feeling pretty smug about managing to cadge a ride on a neighbouring hotel’s connection.  Little did I know!

The weather forecast for today indicated a cold front over Northern Ireland and Scotland, with some effect on the north of England, but moving off as the day progressed.  I was sufficiently optimistic that I didn’t even don my heavy water-proof over-trousers.  By coincidence I bumped into Mike and Paula (first met above Ennerdale Water) and we walked amiably enough together for a while, but I gently pulled ahead as the weather deteriorated and the wind strengthened.  A while later, I was in full mountain rain gear, adrenalin pumping, finding it difficult to keep upright. The wind around Angle Tarn was becoming steadily fiercer. An unexpected gust blew me sideways and I was face-down in the bog.

Now seriously alarmed, I considered my options.  I was having great difficulty reading my map and my satnav.  The wind, from the South West, was in my face and my glasses were misting over on the inside and covered in rain on the outside.  Any attempt to clean them proved futile in seconds, and it is seriously essential to be able to map read on those fells.  I was sheltering behind a wall, when a party of three joined me.  Listening to their conversation, I recognised that at least two of them were experienced fell-walkers and I asked them to allow me to accompany them.  They readily agreed.

We gained height, while the weather steadily deteriorated. By now the rain had turned to sleet, and my face was stinging. We breasted The Knott at 739 metres and kept going up.  The wind was to starboard now, and twice more I was swept off my feet, but fortunately nowhere near a down-slope to port.  David and Gay, the experienced fell-walkers, were concerned for my welfare. I found it very difficult to match their speed either on the up-slopes or the down-slopes.  They and the third member of their team, Marilyn, from Canada (inevitably), were most considerate and kept stopping so I could catch up.  I was trying to be careful not to allow my heart-rate to rise too high, but I didn’t want to keep them waiting. The result was that I was leaping a little too energetically from rock to rock, and inevitably lost my footing completely. In an attempt to arrest the fall, I strained a muscle in my groin, which pestered me for the rest of the walk.

Eventually we reached Kidsty Pike at 780m, the highest point on the Coast-to-coast. The wind was demented and I thought it would tear my pack cover to shreds, but at least we were on the way down.  Of course we could see absolutely nothing of the view, but Marilyn had usefully suggested that I stow my glasses on the basis that unfocussed vision was better than no vision and I had no need to read the map.   Again I was slow, but the wind was now behind us, dropping slightly and the rain was less intrusive from the rear. After a painful if uneventful descent, we finally made the shores of Haweswater.  Here I experienced the final indignity of the day. I was trying to clarify a route through a puddle for the team when I hit my head on an overhanging branch, and stepped forward involuntarily into the depths;  water up to my knees and throughout my boots.  Still 13km to walk! Wet feet are an excellent precursor to blisters, but fortunately, I had a spare pair of socks in my pack.  Further indignity as I changed socks while the others waited and waited…..

Later, looking back at the placid Lake District fells from the rolling hills of the start of the Eden Valley, I had mixed emotions.  I felt relief at being out of that maelstrom, and surprised disappointment that my acquaintance with Lakeland has been so very brief.

Leaving lovely Patterdale

The southern end of Ullswater just visible as we gain height

Angle Tarn and its peculiar islands. Raining hard now!

Well above the cloud base. Things were starting to deteriorate

My walking partners after the ordeal. No possibility of photos in the extreme zone!

Nearing the end of Haweswater. The rain had finally stopped

A last view of the Lakeland Fells. We were now back in English farmland

Approaching Shap Abbey

My Canadian walking companion, Marilyn

Shap Abbey

Elevation profile of the day