Date: Wednesday 18th July 2007
Mileage: 10 miles
Weather: Very brief sunshine in the morning, then rain for three hours, then gloriously sunny in the late afternoon and evening.
We had a hard climb out of Grasmere up to Grisedale Tarn. It was very warm and humid in the valley but there were marvellous views back down towards Grasmere. Just as we reached the top the clouds rolled in and the mist surrounded us (very Tom Bombadill and the Barrowdowns). We made a command decision not to climb St Sunday's Crag as it was covered in cloud and more weather seemed to be moving in. We descended to Patterdale via the low level route next to Grisedale Beck. It was a long slow job (for me) picking my way down the steep, slippery, rocky path. After 5 minutes the heavens opened and it chucked it down for a couple of hours. We had to wear our waterproof trousers! I remembered saying before the trip, "Oh we won't need those - it'll be July and it never rains on my walking holidays...." Hmmmm. We ate our lunch under a tree which was nice but a little damp. The rain stopped as we strolled into the village of Patterdale. As it was early we went to the White Lion and had tea and soup. We wandered up to Noran Bank Farm (1/2 mile from the village past a very tatty looking YHA - glad we weren't staying there) and sat in the garden waiting for the owners to arrive. We sat there surrounded by our rucksacks, discarded boots and socks, baa-ing sheep and the most fantastic view of the fells and the route we would be taking tomorrow. The B&B was a very interesting place - built in 1617 and still a working farm run by real Cumbrians. The old dad, who had died a couple of years ago, was head of the local hunt. the dining room was full of memorabilia about his life and it looks like he was a real lakeland character. We had a wood- panelled bedroom and the floors were all uneven - great. The water came from a spring behind the house - it was like nectar.