Lake District Trek Rosthwaite to Threlkeld via Watendlath

The end!

This was the last day of our Lake District Trek . Jolly good breakfast, complete with soya milk for my corn flakes, at the Royal Oak in Rosthwaite. A good start to the day.

After a few hundred yards along the valley floor we headed up to Watendlath Tarn. The old packhorse bridge at Watendlath was closed, damaged by the December storms, but there was a temporary wooden bridge next to it so we crossed the river with dry feet!

There was a chilly old wind as we climbed up the slope behind the Tarn so I stopped to put on my waterproof, the only windproof that I was carrying. It was still quite bright.

There was a pretty good path to the top of High Tove which we reached as the rain started. Proper rain driven by strong winds of over 25mph.

The next bit to High Seat was horrible. Peat bog with deep soft areas. We had to weave around to find a way through. I was jolly pleased that my boots (Meindl Dovre Extreme GTX) were 10 inches tall so no problem keeping my feet dry, unlike Al with normal height boots.

We reached High Seat after a couple of hours, now with the rain beating down. The next section was a bit easier. No deep boggy bits but it was very wet. We passed lots of people coming the other way. Looked like there was some event on, must have been over 40 people in 4 or 5 groups.

Bleaberry Fell was similarly wet but the rain eased off and stopped as we made our way down. Interesting at times, rain, wind and sunshine, all at the same time. A bit over an hour of rain in total.

There were a few hillocks to the side of the path as we descended and it was brightening up so we went up a couple of them. The last was called Falcon Crag. Quite a view with nice light over Derwent Water and Keswick so I pulled my Mamiya camera out of the rucsac to take a few pictures, the only ones of the day.

We called in at Castlerigg stone circle on the way to Threlkeld. Lots of people here. Just a few phone photos as I already have lots of photos of it, summer, winter, normal, infrared, with and without snow in the background (visit davebutcher.co.uk to view them!).

From here it was a short hop to the end, the Horse and Farrier in Threlkeld, which was where we started 5 days ago. I celebrated with a Snecklifter or two!

Our evening meals were good but having 5 dogs in the pub, which is effectively a restaurant as all tables are booked for food, spoilt it. I’m allergic to dogs. The place was packed so I just had to rely on my Ventolin spray for my asthma to get me through the evening.

It was about 50 miles and 12 mountains/hills in 5 days. Just 1.5 hours of rain in total, this compares with 7 days of rain in 8 in Snowdonia last year! I also took 46 proper black and white photographs, all on Ilford 400 Delta 120 film, with my Mamiya 7 camera and 65mm lens.

We also managed about 14 miles to the gallon…..of beer.