W3 Rosthwaite to Grasmere - sunny !

Firstly Scafell Hotel in Rosthwaite did a great meal for us last night, especially as we were the only people in the restaurant ! Then we woke up to blue sky and we could not believe it - no rain all day !! Not that stopped Andrea getting wet - one crawl through a bog and quick dip in mountain stream. Again it was a "strenuous" ranked day - 11 miles of either up or down. -up involved a bit of rock scrambling. As a Dutch couple said "we get older, more things ache but we just have to carry on". At least with the sun blazing down, my Panama type Barbour hat came out to keep the sun off. So another 11 miles cracked off, the equivalent of 67 floors climbed and a mere 44,000+ steps.

Longer story
Scafell Hotel was great - sociable, good food and wine (Tanners wine range is good) plus a bath, and best of all, a heated towel rail. We woke up to dried socks etc. After a lovely breakfast we set off at 9.10 with a comment from the head waitress that its only 5 hours to Grasmere: as we were to find out, she must be some sort of mountain goat. We certainly found it tough but it lulls you into a lovely steady climb with great scenery such as these cows - note BLUE SKY !!!

After a 500m climb and a bit of scrambling we made it to the top of the scrag, just beating the Americans - Speedy from Cheltenham had already overtaken us. It is a bit of an A road in walking terms however because there are a lot of other people - in the Lake District everyone seems to do Ennerdale, Grasmere and Patterdale. Any way here is Paul on the mountain near the top - the other two people in the shot had whizzed up but were resting:

At the top is a bog. Its an interesting one because you think you are going to be on solid ground and then suddenly you are wading on all 4's. Andrea perfected this skill with great wading. Paul was more boring, staying dry. The walk down to Grasmere never seems to end: it is a relentless slog down a rock strewn path where for the first time we both ended up silently focusing on the task in hand

We ended up at the Silver Lea's B&B in Grasmere at 3.30 - over 6 hours later. And we overtook people ! We even managed to meet some new people, such as the Dutchman who is camping his way on the Coast to Coast Personally I would stick to the B&B's: Silver Lea's very welcoming for 2 exhausted walkers. Tweedies was similarly welcoming with some good beer and food. I think we deserved both given both legs and feet are complaining. Another strenuous day tomorrow, so off to bed early.