Day Three - Rosthwaite to Patterdale

Time Departed: 8.45am Time Arrived: 7.00pm Distance: 25.8kms Percentage Completed: 22.8% Weather: Overcast at first, driving rain, some sleet, cold Accommodation: Home Farm B&B Today was even a greater challenge than yesterday. Neil, Henk and I were keen to try and do an alternate route to Patterdale along Helvellyan range if the weather improved. Ron and Chris did not want to do this route and so we set off in two groups from Rosthwaite. We were keen leave as early as possible to put us in a good position to choose whether we would do Helvellyan or not. There was a long, steady climb out of Rosthwaite up Greenup Valley alongside a fast flowing beck, Greenup Gill with numerous waterfalls.

We had the wind on our back and we were grateful for that. The challenge came when we started ascending Lining Crag. It was a long, steep rocky climb to the summit and we were pleased to get to the top. It was here that we farewelled the very wet Borrowdale.

The weather had turned worse and we had rain, hail and sleet as we climbed higher and higher and this came and went throughout the remainder of the day. The climb down wasn’t easy as most of the path was stony and water was running down the paths. We decided to have lunch at twelve o’clock as it had been sometime since breakfast and we needed to keep up our strength. We only stopped for about fifteen minutes as we became very cold particularly our hands. The walk into Grassmere was stony all the way which made the walking slower.

We reached Grassmere at two o’clock and we headed for the first tearoom. We tried to be as quick as possible as we knew we had a further 12 kilometres to go and another summit to climb. The tea hit the spot. Henk took the opportunity to ring our B&B to let them know that we would not be in until about six or six thirty. The climb out of Grassmere was even more difficult than the climb out of Rosthwaite. We passed a young couple whom we had named “The Yellow Group” as we could see them way in the distance with their yellow backpacks. They led the walkers in the morning. They were returning to Grasmere for the night as they felt they didn’t have the stamina to get to Patterdale. After completing the walk it was a wise decision. Neil led the way to the summit at Grisedale Haus, Henk was second and I tagged along at a flagging last! The wind now hit us head on and there were times I couldn’t move forward because of the strength of it.

When we reached the summit I was in need of food but Henk and I had eaten our supplies. We still had about eight kilometres to go. Thank goodness Neil had a packet of nuts and seeds which we readily gobbled up whilst slumping down behind a ledge to get out of the wind. When we moved from the summit we came across Grisedale Tarn which is a particularly dark lake. We walked passed it and started the descent into Patterdale with Grisedale Beck keeping us company all the way down.

It was not an easy descent with a very stony and wet path for the majority of the way. By the time we reached our B&B we were exhausted but pleased that we had done it against the challenges of the weather and the ascents and the descents. We also were pleased to hear from our B&B lady that Ron and Chris had decided not to walk the Grasmere to Patterdale section as the time was against them as they had started later than us. They spent more time in Grassmere having a good look around. This included a large cream tea! They caught a taxi to Patterdale and went straight to the pub. The B&B lady’s husband had met them there and word had got back to our B&B. We quickly showered and headed into the small village with the clock striking eight as we walked through to the far end to the pub. Ron and Chris were looking very refreshed after sitting in the pub for a few hours. It’s not how we could have described ourselves. As we left the pub the clock was striking nine thirty as we walked our way back to the B&B in the dark showing Ron and Chris the way.