Day 2 - Ennerdale Bridge to Rosthwaite - 15 miles

Breakfast is unremarkable but we have a nice chat to Deborah and Margie and wish them luck on their walk. We're out on the road by 9am and walk through the village towards Ennerdale Water. It's a beautiful day, we are so lucky as the weather in the Lakes can be rainy and cloudy even in the summer.

St. Mary's Church, Ennerdale Bridge

Gates to St. Mary's Cemetery

We start walking along the side of the lake and the views are amazing. I  just happened to look down at the right time to see the picture below. What the????

Linda and Jen


Jen figures it out, Kate and Harti did part of this hike yesterday after they left us. How lovely!
The walk along the lake isn't hard but the path is rocky and you have to watch where you're going. I hear Jen say something and suddenly there was a woman right behind us - running. A fell runner, a sport for lunatics if you ask me. She bounded by us and was soon out of sight.
 

This is the smooth part of the walk. The crag you can see is called Robin Hood's Chair

The walk around the lake finally came to an end and we were soon on a logging road going into the forest with great stacks of really big logs everywhere. This was a boring part of the walk apart from the fact that we had to watch out for fell runners at every turn as there was a race from Borrowdale to St. Bee's - 20 miles or so up and over mountains etc. Not all of the runners were youngsters either! Maybe we'll take that up next.

We finally made it to Black Sail Hut, the most remote youth hostel in England. This was our lunch stop so we peeled off our boots and socks and enjoyed sitting on a real bench for lunch.

Black Sail Hut chimney and the fells behind

Food? Yes please.

Jeff, Sue and Jen enjoying lunch in the sun

We read the maps and book very carefully as apparently it's easy to take the wrong path at this junction. This is going to be our first real climb. And it is really, really hard especially since we started on the wrong side scrabbling up the mountain sometimes on hands and knees. Finally we seemed to have run out of path and had to cross the beck and lo and behold there were the steps that the book had talked about - a bit easier to navigate!

Leaving Black Sail Hut

Starting up Loft Beck

Yes, I Can!

We did it.

The view looking back over Ennerdale Water made that brutal climb worth it!

We make our way along the tops following the stone cairns that mark the beginning of our long slow descent into Honnister Pass and the working slate mine. Soon the path becomes steeper and Jen's knee (which unbeknownst to me has been bothering her since Dent Hill) starts to cause her a lot of pain. It's a difficult climb down for her but she's a trooper. Once we're on level ground the pain seems to dissipate  but we still have a long way down. She toughs it out but I know it's really bothering her. This spells trouble.

We take it as slowly as possible and finally make it to our B&B, Nook Farm in Rosthwaite. Sarah, the daughter of the house, shows us to our room.

View from our room - Nook Farm, Rosthwaite

We get settled in, have a glass of wine and decide to treat ourselves to a nice meal at the local hotel. We talk about tomorrow and Jen has decided not to walk but to take the van to Grasmere and rest up - she'll be able to rest her knee for two days as we have a scheduled day off there. I am going to do the walk from Rosthwaite to Grasmere alone - well not totally alone as I'll have the GPS!