Day 4 - Rosthwaite to Keswick (9.3 miles)

After the lovely evening meal the previous night, the breakfast was quite modest.  Actually; it was a perfectly adequate helping, just much smaller than I had been getting up until now!  I could easily have eaten it all myself, but Poppy was now getting used to me returning to the room with some meaty offering, so I kindly resisted temptation and saved her a bit of sausage.



Looking north up Borrowdale



Today was effectively a rest day, with a relatively short distance to cover.  The sun was making another appearance this morning too, and Borrowdale looked much cheerier than the previous afternoon when I arrived.  It was pretty chilly though, even though I delayed setting off until nearly 10am.

Poppy avoids getting her feet wet

I headed west out of the village to reach the River Derwent, Most dogs would have walked through the shallow water, but Poppy doesn’t much care for getting her feet wet, so she followed me over the stepping stones.  Turning north, the path roughly followed the river for a little over a mile, through Hows Wood and along the back of Castle Crag.  It was on this undulating path that I put my hand in my trouser pocket and discovered I had ‘stolen’ my room key from The Royal Oak.  I did not want to retrace my steps, so I decided to wait until I got to Keswick to ring them.  I could always post the keys back to them from there.

Looking back along the boulder path by River Derwent

Castle Crag from 'the back'

Knowing I didn’t have many miles to cover today I was bimbling along slowly, but I soon reached the beautiful Gowder Dub, a shallow, rocky area on the River Derwent.  Wainright was not wrong referring to this area as “the loveliest square mile in Lakeland”.

Footbridge, Gowder Dub

Looking north up the River Derwent

Approaching Grange, the CW veered left around the village and past Hollows Farm instead.  I then followed the road for about 600m before heading for Derwent Water.  The area here clearly gets very boggy, and there were a number of broadwalks constructed from recycled plastic.   I sauntered along in the sunshine, through Manesty Park and Brandlehow wood, keeping to the paths closest to the lake.  I did let Poppy off the lead along here briefly. 

Leaving the Grange road, the path heads for Derwent Water



View across Derwent Water towards Blencathra



I had intended to stop a while by the lake to read, but even though the sky was virtually cloudless, there was a really chilly wind, and I gave up after about five minutes.  The views across the lake to snow pockets on Blencathra and Skiddaw were quite stunning.  Just past the Low Brandlehow landing stage the CW headed away from the lake and climbed up to the road near Hawes End Outdoor Centre.  There was a spectacular display of daffodils close by.

Poppy in the hand carving by Derwent Water

Fine show of daffodils by Hawes End Outdoor Centre

Leaving the road, I followed a path through a small wood and across an open area called The Park, where there was quite a gathering of people.  Then it was back into the woods (Overside Wood and Silver Hill) for another kilometre or so.  It is clear from the photo that, despite the good weather, spring was really not very far advanced – the trees were still completely devoid of leaves.

Winter lingers on in Overside Wood



I eventually emerged back on the road again and followed it north to the village of Portinscale. Here I stopped for, if my memory serves me correctly, an ice-cream (or was it a cup of tea?)  Leaving the village, I crossed the suspension bridge and followed a (fairly busy) footpath to Keswick. 

Portinscale

Suspension bridge over River Derwent

In town, I headed for the centre, and after wolfing down a tasty pasty, found a seat and phoned the Royal Oak to confess stealing their keys.  I agreed to post them back to them, so bought a jiffy bag for the purpose.  I also bought a couple of post cards and sent one to work and one to Mum & Simon.  Whilst sitting here, I enjoyed a brief ‘Boxer fest’.  Someone turned up with one, and then another couple turned up with two.  We all made a fuss of each others dogs, although Poppy was the prettiest and most nicely marked, of course!

Keswick under Skiddaw

After my late start, and deliberately slow progress, I finally reached Larry’s Lodge B&B around 4pm.  I took a shower, identified the day’s photos and had a bit of a read.  This was the first night on the trail when I needed to go out to find something to eat.  When Steve and I visit Keswick we often eat at the Pheasant Inn,

Crosthwaite Road

, and so I had half a mind to go there myself.  I knew they allowed dogs in the bar, but also that the floor was rather hard, so I tucked her bed under my arm and headed across Fitz Park which appeared to be in about the right direction.  For once, my sense of direction was right, and I emerged on

Crosthwaite Road

only about 100m south of the pub, arriving at 6.40pm.

Poppy in Fitz Park, Keswick

Amazingly, even at this relatively early hour, every table in the bar was taken.  As I was not starving hungry (the pasty having helped to take the edge off my appetite), I was happy to wait, and chatted to an older man at the bar who was on holiday alone in the area.  We talked about trail walking and he told me  he had walked the Coast to Coast twice, once many, many years ago, and once more recently with his grandson.  He was one of those really wiry types, with not an ounce of fat on him. Anyway, it passed the time until a table became free after about 30mins.

Larry's Lodge, Keswick

After my meal (including a sticky toffee pudding, which I definitely should NOT have eaten!), I woke Poppy up and walked back across the park in the fading light to the B&B.   I watched a bit of TV and took Pops out one more time before going to sleep, although this did involve a half mile round trip to find the nearest bit of grass.