Wast Water Weekend

 

Friday

The forecast was for a great weekend weather-wise so we couldn't resist another trip up to The Lakes.  As it was so busy last weekend we thought we'd head out to the western part of the Lake District National Park and although it does get quite busy it's a more remote than the main tourist spots. The plan was to spend the weekend kayaking and SUPing on the lake with a nice low-level walk in Nether Wasdale on Saturday afternoon.  

By the time we arrived at Wast Water on Friday evening quite a few of the day trippers were just leaving and we were able to find a spot to park up to get the SUP out and enjoyed a couple of hours paddling.

Wast Water

The lake is 3 miles long and a one-third of a mile wide.  It's the deepest lake in England at 258 feet deep.

Wasdale Screes

The Wasdale Screes are an area of loose boulders directly underneath Illgill head and Whin Rigg, rising from the floor of the lake to a height of almost 2000ft, they loom ominously over the water on the south-eastern bank of Wast Water.

I've been fascinated by the scree slopes ever since our first visit to Wast Water in July 2010 when we hiked up Scafell Pike and we've revisited a number of times since then.  The poet William Wordsworth was far from complimentary when he described Wast Water as 'long, stern and desolate'.  I love it here, it's one of my favourite places in the lakes, so tranquil and beautiful.

Rare seal spotted in Wast Water

Saturday

We were up early and headed off to Wast Water for an early morning SUP before the crowds arrived.

When Charlie was a pup we'd taken him in the kayak a few times but with lockdown and not being able to get out as much as we'd have liked we hadn't been able to get him used to it so we thought we'd spend a bit of time this weekend training him to stay in the boat.  We bought him a float coat just in case he got into difficulty in the middle of the lake, this way we'd be able to pull him out if need be.

First of all we got him to sit in the kayak for treats on dry land

Come on let's go!

We thought he'd try to jump out straight away as he loves swimming but he was happy to sit in the kayak which was great.  

After a few hours playing on the lake it was starting to get quite busy so we decided to head off to do  the Nether Wasdale Wander a series of 14 caches on a 4.25 mile walk.

It was a lovely low-level walk, mostly in shade.  We saw lots of fresh cowpats and hoof prints on a short section of the walk but thankfully we didn't see any cows.

After having something to eat we headed back to Wast Water, it was fairly quiet again and we enjoyed a couple of hours playing on the lake before heading to our overnight spot.

View from the SUP

SUNDAY

Up early again and back to Wast Water for an early morning paddle.

We'd spotted a cache about a mile the other side of the lake and thought it would be fun to paddle to it.

We eventually reached the shore and went off in search of the cache.  

There were a few previous DNFs so we didn't' hold out much hope and sadly we couldn't find it.  Oh well, we'll just have to come back another time 😊

 

We enjoyed a gentle paddle back again and by now the sun was getting quite intense so we spent a couple of hours back at the van, relaxing before heading out for another paddle.

There's barely a phone signal and definitely no data connection so it really does feel that you are away from it all when you come here.

We'd been putting it off for as long as we could but it was time to head back home.

We have plans for the next few weekends so it'll be a while before we can get back up to the Lakes.

Dale Head, Hindscarth & Robinson

The forecast this weekend was for sunshine and clear skies in The Lakes so we decided to head back up and tackle the hike we'd planned for last Saturday but had turned back due to the heavy rain.

We parked up at the National Trust car park at the top of Honister Pass.  Dale Head stands at 2470 ft (754m) but given that we are starting from an elevation of 1167ft (356m) we only have just over 1300 feet to climb.  Doesn't sound too bad when you say it quickly 😄.

We set off at 7:10 and the sun was already quite intense but we hoped to get the walk finished by midday.

The walk starts in front of the Youth Hostel and is marked clearly by a sign pointing to Dale Head.

Looking back at Honister slate mine

The only way is up

Dale Head summit

It was fairly easy going and after about an hour we reached the summit.  

GC3QR2V

After enjoying the views and finding the Geocache we continued along Hindscarth Edge.

Hindscarth Edge

Fantastic views of the Newlands Valley

Impressive views all the way along Hindscarth Edge of Honister Pass and out towards Buttermere.  On the left of the picture you can see Fleetwith Pike.

Don't look down

Hindscarth summit will be a there-and-back walk before continuing on to Robinson.  In the above picture we will be taking the path that forks to the right to get to Hindscarth.

Hindscarth - 727m (2385 ft)

 

We reached Hindscarth Summit at 9:10, took a few photos then headed back along the track eventually forking off to rejoin the main path and along Littledale Edge.

Littledale Edge

Looking back towards Honister slate mine

A straightforward ascent up to Robinson summit which was only made difficult by the heat of the sun.  

Robinson 2418 ft (737 m)

View from Robinson

After stopping to admire the views and take a few photos and all three summits completed it was now time to descend to Buttermere Moss

A quick time check and we had about a mile and a half to go before we reached Buttermere and if we could do it 50 minutes then we could get the 11:18 bus instead of the planned 13:18, which would've been the next bus.  So we quickened our pace but as we descended in the heat it became apparent that we weren't going to make it in that short time and rushing the walk was just daft as the scenery is simply breath-taking.  So we stopped and enjoyed an early lunch in the shade of a rocky outcrop before continuing down onto Buttermere Moss which was extremely humid and like walking in a greenhouse.  Quite boggy underfoot but nothing too serious.

At this point we met a small group of walkers on their way up to Robinson, they said they wished they'd started out early like us before the heat of the day.

Admiring the view of Rannerdale Knotts and Crummock water

A fantastic view of Rannerdale Knotts, with Crummock water behind.

I find walking downhill much harder than going up, I've had issues with my knees for many years, I had surgery on my right knee in my early 30s but now the other one is complaining all the time so at one point I walked backwards downhill haha yep, it was less painful that way.

This is me ecstatic to finally get to the bottom

Just as we got into Buttermere a bus came past us going North, we didn’t think much of it really as it was going in the opposite direction to what we wanted. We continued toward the Bridge Hotel and saw the road was closed heading North – the very direction from which our bus would be coming. Oh no!  We asked the hi-viz jacketed people why it was closed and more importantly whether our bus would still get through and if not where had the one we’d just seen disappeared to?

We were told that the road was closed to all traffic due to a ‘multi-agency recovery operation’ at Crummock Water. No buses would be going past there in any direction and just as we started to think that we were in for a 4 mile walk on tarmac up Honister Pass we spotted the bus we'd just seen waiting at the side of the hotel. We quickened our pace, or should I say I hobbled a bit faster and we asked the driver which way he was going and when was the bus departing.  He informed us that he was going back to Keswick via the slate mine and should have left fifteen minutes ago!  What a stroke of luck!

We got on the bus and it set off at 12:30 with just three other passengers on board (£5.80 for 2 adult fares).

Honister Pass is steep - 25% hills in places - and narrow, the bus struggled to get through in a couple of spots as idiots had parked in the passing places.

After relaxing at the van with an ice cream from the van's fridge, I had a walk around to stretch my legs and take a few photos of the various slate sculptures.  

Knowing we had these in the
campervan freezer kept me going

Check out Honister.com to find out what you can do at the slate mine.

..hmm what to do next....

We’d planned to go SUPing on Crummock Water but obviously that was a no-no, so we decided to head towards Keswick and see if there was anywhere to launch on Derwent Water. We had a couple of places in mind but the traffic was horrendous.  Inconsiderate people had parked on the side of the road on the east side of Derwent Water meaning traffic could only pass in one direction at a time.  A bit worrying as there is no way emergency vehicles would be able to get through.

It took forever to get  along the road and everywhere was totally jammed with traffic. So we decided to leave the area and head towards Penrith.

Not only had we been very lucky with the timing of the bus, we didn’t see a another bus the whole time we were stuck in the traffic so goodness knows how long we would have had to wait in Buttermere if we hadn’t caught the one we had.

Once we were able to get a phone signal we were able to find out what had happened at Crummock Water and it would see that a man had very sadly gone missing while swimming and the recovery operation was still ongoing.

After stopping for something to eat, we had a pleasant walk around Penrith doing some Adventure Lab caches.

That's all for now, thanks for reading.