Day 5: Rest Day Patterdale

After my invigorating walk over Helvellyn and Striding Edge I have planned a rest day for Friday.

Staying at the Grisedale Lodge at Grisedale Bridge,

on the road between Patterdale and Glenridding on the edge of Ullswater.

 

I am meeting my cousin Mike and his partner Jen who are coming up from Leigh near Manchester at the White Lion in Patterdale around 9pm.

At this time of the year the sun goes down about 10:30pm so at 8pm when I walked up the road to the pub it was like the middle of the day, bright sunshine but a little chilly in the evening breeze.

The White Lion is literally on the edge of the road, stagger out of the front door at the wrong time and a bus could hit you.

For dinner I enjoyed a beef and ale pie washed down with Theakston Bitter and chatted to a Melbourne couple that had made the village by 1pm as they took the low valley route. They told me there was a group of about 12 or more Aussie women coming up the trail today. These “ladies” are members of the WOT Club.

Women On Top. Basically they are men haters. And we should take care.

The pub thronged with walkers some Coast to Coasters but mostly day walkers, hiking around Ullswater or the circuit from Patterdale up Striding Edge, Helvellyn then returning to the village down Swirall.

Mike and Jen arrived on time and we had a couple of ales before walking back to the Lodge and calling it a night.

In the morning we enjoyed a hearty English breakfast then walked up the road to Glenridding and Ullswater.

Ullswater is the second longest lake in the Lake District, nearly 12km long.

It was here in 1955 that Donald Campbell broke the speed record on water (325km/hr), a record that today is held by an Aussie Ken Warby since 1978, nearly 200km/hr faster.

Steamers have plied these waters since the 1800’s carrying mail, slate, lead and paying passengers.

Today we have paid our fare for a round trip to Pooley Bridge at the far end of the lake.

The weather again is glorious and the lake looks a picture of perfection, with sailing craft and adventure motorboats around every bend. 

The banks are dotted with little cottages and mansion houses with manicured gardens.

Arriving at Pooley Bridge we took tea in the Bridge Cafe and watched the world go by, some window-shopping and a new T-shirt for Mike then it was time to head back on “The Lady of the Lake”.

To our surprise we saw a sheep swimming across the lake, not unusual by the reaction of the locals. At first I was confused but then I realised it was a "ewe boat".

After disembarking we headed back down the road to Patterdale and the Hotel beer garden. Seeing fellow walkers that were just arriving from Grasmere after having a lay day there yesterday.

The trail conveniently for the hotel drops down off the fells into their car park and continues on the bitumen between the front door and the beer garden.

Mike, Jen and I relaxed with a beer in the afternoon sun and the almost full garden most of which were Pepsi drinking motorcycle riders on tour. They left shortly after en masse.

Mike & Jen

Then all hell broke loose. The WOT women marched off the fell and around the front of the pub, like a legion of Centurion soldiers. There is something very unnatural about so many women in close proximity to each other when not one of them was speaking.

They were intimidating. The air was tense.  All the grown men in the beer garden winced and tried to avoid eye contact as this column of femme fatal, if you can call sweaty hairy-arm-pitted women femme fatal, marched around the pub and up the road.

You could cut the silence with a chain saw.

We resumed drinking and when finished headed across the road to the White Lion for dinner and some more ales.

Suitable fed and watered we headed back to the Lodge, as we passed the Patterdale Mike said “one for the road” so we went into the bar and stayed for a couple of hours, needless to say we had more than one.

Finally home at around 11, tomorrow I have to climb Kidsty Pike at 780m, goodnight.