Cumbria Way Day 3.
Distance today: 19.2 miles.
Total distance: 581.1 miles.
Accommodation: campsite.
The plan today was get to Chapel Stile. This was as far along the Cumbria Way as I intended to go since the rest of the trail took you south towards Ulverston and I needed to go further east. In spite it being Sunday I guessed that Wetherspoons would be open early enough for me to have a quick breakfast and charge my phone. Sure enough they opened their doors at 8 o’ clock and I joined 10 or more bleary-eyed men who had been waiting to get in. They had the look of post-stag do or perhaps post-beer festival.
After the usual problems of finding my way out of town, I joined the trail as it skirted the west side of Derwentwater. For the next few miles, it was a lovely gentle walk with enough changes in scenery to keep it interesting. Streams and rivers, woodland and open moorland all contributed. Let’s face it, it’s an established trail in the middle of the Lake District – it was never going to be dull.
After Stonethwaite, the route gradually ascended as it made its way up to Stake Pass. You essentially follow the course of a river and on the advice of someone I passed, I chose the right side as it was meant to be easier. At some point I realized I needed to be on the left side and was stupidly smug when with some strategic stepping stones I managed to find a place to cross without resorting to taking boots and socks off. Had I kept my nerve and stayed on the right, there was actually a bridge further up. It was hard not to be overawed by the landscape. Walking along the valley floor it felt like I was in a massive mountain-sided amphitheatre. The trees had mostly gone, leaving the beautiful desolation of the fells. I can generally tell how much I love a landscape by how many photos I take and I took a lot. Breathtaking.
The route out of the amphitheatre was a steep zig-zag climb alongside a series of cascades. It was at this point that I started to feel ill. I had the sensation of wanting to vomit but not being able to. My timing couldn’t have been any better. There was no other person around, I was on an exposed mountainside, I had no phone signal, and it looked like the weather was starting to turn. I had no idea why I was feeling so bad. Was it heat stroke? General exhaustion? Dehydration? And then I had a thought. Did the anti-biotics have any side effects? Low and behold, when I read the leaflet that came with them, it warned that one in ten people felt sick during the first couple of days. There we go. Somehow it made me feel a little better.
Theoretically when I’d reached the brow of the hill it should have been downhill from there. Sound familiar? Once again I managed to miss the turning and while not on the scale of the Great Glen Way Misadventure, I was definitely going up instead of down. Not having learned my lesson from the GGWM, I just carried on going, hoping to see a route down after I reached the next brow. It took a few brows. When I finally got to see the valley, it was a long way down and even though I could see the beginning of a path, it looked quite precarious and very skinny. Not necessarily something you would choose to take on carrying a big rucksack while it’s blowing a gale. Sketchy is the word I’d use. Thankfully, the sketchiness didn’t last because at some point the path turned into a series of steep steps. As grateful as I was for a safer path down, I was struggling to understand that people could dedicate the time and effort to construct a whole mountainside of steps and yet not feel the need to add the occasional waymarker here and there. That is very odd.
As I was heading down the mountain I could see the Great Langdale Campsite below. Reception closed at 7pm and I made it with 3 minutes to spare. I’m not sure if it was all down to the anti-biotics but I was a broken man. Completely exhausted. I summoned up enough energy to pitch my tent, have a shower, and put some things in the drying room but that was it. I’d bought a beer at reception but barely had a mouthful before deciding it probably wasn’t a good idea. Things have to be bad if I am wasting beer.
