W5 Patterdale to Brampton Grange - Tough

Wainwright (bless him) put a kicker in the tail as you leave the Lake District: the highest peak on the C2C and a long trudge afterwards. Also anyone who says midges only exist in Scotland is wrong: they are thriving on Kidsty Pike primarily by biting me ! We knew it was going to be the toughest day and you do see some memorable sights so we set out at 8 and after various stops got to the Crown and Mitre just after 4.30. Because some people go to Shap and others are scattered at various other places, we have split up from Speedy and the Americans but found others. For those interested in facts, we walked over 13 miles, did over 43,000 steps and climbed the equivalent of 134 floors.

Longer version
After our first ever night in an Indonesian bed which was somehow in our B&B in Patterdale we headed off for Kidsty Pike. Oh back to the bed - not sure why they are so high or why there is only one way in.... well Babu did ask for photos. Yes we needed a stool to get in !

As you climb out of Patterdale the whole valley is revealed: a quintessential Lake District scene that is superb. We set off at 8 so there were very very few people about.

The climb up is a bit of a slog: rather like watching the England football team (I only added that for our Welsh readers who must be gutted after an injury time winner) but eventually after a rather long walk you are rewarded with Angle Tarn. Not sure how many people have ever seen it but its worth the long walk

It was then a case of the long slog up to Kidsty Pike (708m with a huge drop on one side). The mist closed in and there was literally nothing to see apart from the shimmering shadow of a sheep or two. The exertion of the last few days has caused my feet to ache but generally we are both in good shape - just finding muscles we didn't know existed before. Today I was in red - obviously in honour of both England and Wales:

We then had a sharp drop into Haweswater which is a reservoir serving 25% of the needs of NW England: not something to mention to ISIS me thinks. It actually looked quite low but given the amount of rain we have had I thought that weird. So as I was trudging along I came up with a utterly unproven theory that if there is a storm then Haweswater will fill up and save the valleys below. We'll see, certainly Patterdale was badly effected by Storm Desmond in December and is still recovering. So I should leave you with Haweswater:

After we rolled off the hills we thought that was that, only to be confronted with an up and down walk along the reservoir for 7 miles. That is the toughest walk I have done in a long time - also Andrea did not appreciate my singing: which I thought was a great way to keep our spirits up.

I have to say the food up here is great. We are staying in the Crown and Mitre in Brampton Grange and the pub food was superb. I am a bit worried that we are opposite a church (and they have provided ear plugs) but its a great location. Simple walk tomorrow with very few hills... Andrea is currently adamant that we will never return to the Lake District.... time hopefully will mellow her :-)