Weekend Walking with Experienced Walkers
Kathy and Greg are both busy executives and experienced walkers. They have walked frequently in Spain, France and Austria but never before in the Lake District. They wanted a weekend ‘away from it all’ and to see what the mountains closer to home had to offer. They drove from Shropshire on the Friday evening so as to make an early start on Saturday. After driving through a deluge and the usual trials of the M6 Saturday was unexpectedly pleasant as far as the weather was concerned, and MWIS predicted a high cloud base with increasing visibility. What’s more this was to improve on Sunday.
Grasmere is my favourite village on the tourist trail and a good base for anyone who is new to the Lakes, so the day was centred round the area. Our walk started at White Moss and encompassed a wide variety of terrain and scenery. The exact route can be found in the Cicerone Guide and many other books. (References will follow) Initially we climbed up to Alcocks tarn on overlooking Rydal and Grasmere. After starting in deciduous woodland the track opens out on to moorland, crossing the old coffin trail about midway up. Although not very high the views across Easdale valley and beyond are suitably spectacular, especially on a good day, and opened the lid on the box of delights which should tempt any walker to revisit the area. We dropped down the valley and came across an idiosyncratic sculpture park of stones in the river valley. It certainly made us smile. Who knows who built the mini sculptures, may be just walkers like ourselves added to them but it was so fitting for the environment it deserved an ‘Arts Council’ award, or at least a grant! Unfortunately the very nature of it and its venue certainly meant that as soon as the winter storms set in it will be washed away. But then that was part of the appeal. Crossing the valley we sampled the delights of ‘tea and cake’ in the village, followed by a spot of ‘retail therapy’ in The Edge hiking store. For my dog it was an opportunity to rest. Splaying out in total abandon across the middle of their floor. A good thing they are a ‘dog friendly ‘ store. The walk back to White Moss was pleasant and not strenuous. The shadows were lengthening and the moon was up so the sun on the hills displayed the hills in much glory.
