Friday 31st March – 23.7 km (50.4)
We looked out of the window this morning, turned around to put on full waterproofs and waterproof rucksack rain covers then off we went (after Dan had a full Cumberland breakfast). We arrived at Ennerdale Lake just as the mist lifted and the rain stopped; it all looked rather dramatic and lovely. We continued along a treacherous path (well by my wimpy treacherous standards anyway!) which ran the length of the lake with only one mild interlude. Dan’s waterproof rain cover was becoming more and more sail like from where I was standing (behind of course) and I was becoming more and more convinced that he was going to take off and land somewhere in the middle of the dark waters of Ennerdale Lake, but not sufficiently concerned to warn him! Eventually of course the cover worked loose and went flying away, I was stupid enough to mention this to Dan who then risked life and limb to retrieve the thing…well that’s how I imagined it when he disappeared out of sight to retrieve it, but I suspect it was just snagged on a nearby bush.
We decided, as visibility was not great and it was sometimes hard to stand up in the wind, that we would take the low route through the woods and not venture up into the mountains; this proved to be a sensible choice as we remained dry, if not a little weather beaten from the howling gales buffeting us from all angles. We had our excellent packed lunch in Black Sail Youth Hostel, which was packed with Gold Duke of Edinburghers…they were very polite and moved when we came in to join them…or maybe that was just my socks. I felt old, looking at them all and realising that they were all younger than Brogan and Maddy. After lunch we climbed up through the mist and were guided with a series of cairns until we finally started our last decent of the day. We stopped for a quick coffee at Honister Slate Works (nicer than it may sound!) and then walked the last 4km to Borrowdale YHA…best £29 we’ve ever spent we reckon; it’s lovely, we have our own room and there’s a great, well stocked bar. Just about to WALK 1km down the road to dinner, so it’ll be a relatively late night for us revellers.