6 Rosedale Abbey
Pickering, Y018 8RA
North Yorkshire, UK
Distance: 19 Miles
Time Taken: 10 hours.
Weather: Cool & cloudy turning to rain at noon.
The Famous Honnister Pass.
The Walk
My penultimate day of my Coast-to-Coast walk started with a quick scan of the heavens to see the Mountain tops were clear of cloud; and so I was quickly off to the trailhead as soon as breakfast was over at the Scafell Hotel.
I counted my blessings in that I'd managed 10-straight days of walking with just rain on the first morning and the odd shower here and there in between.
In the main, I'd been blessed with ideal June walking conditions; cool and clear days with huge amounts of summer daylight starting before 5am and ending well after 10pm each day; just perfect for tackling the Coast-to-Coast.
The sharp climb out of Borrowdale up the Honnester Pass road (B5289) had me reaching the famous Slate Quarry on the Col of the road within a couple of hours.
I was cheered to see a poem by James Hinton carved into a piece of the famous Honnister Slate!
Nice Poem in Light of the Historic Brexit Vote Taken a Couple of Days Earlier.
From Honnister, the hike continues up onto the high Fells with great views towards High Stile, Great Gable and Red Pike coming into view. And you can even see Haystacks; where Alfred Wainwright's ashes were scattered above Buttermere following his death in 1991.
This section of the walk has some of the best views - on a clear day - in the whole Lake District.
The View to High Stile and Haystacks with Buttermere and Crummock Water.
But, as with all sections of the Coast-to-Coast walk within the Lake District National Park, the route suffers from a lack of finger-boards pointing the way to weary walkers. So constant map reading is essential if you're not to wander off the trail in the larger expanses of featureless Fell.
Paying extra attention to the possible routes on the ground; and checking closely on the map - having learned my lesson yesterday - I was soon walking downhill into the Valley of the River Liza on what I thought was the correct path.
Confirmation came as I approached the Black Sail YHA in Ennerdale.
I now felt confident that the higher mountains were behind me and my concerns about the weather on the fells began to dissapate.
And not a moment too soon!
Because, within ten minutes of making a coffee at Black Sail YHA, the cloud closed in on the Mountains behind me and the rain began to pour; and it poured for the next 30 hours!
Just So Happy!
It rained all afternoon as I traversed the lower Ennerdale Valley and walked the length of Ennerdale Water.
But I didn't care; as I now knew the hardest sections of the walk were all behind me and the finish line was just a day away!
I arrived at Ennerdale Bridge in a somewhat wet state and decided to book into a B+B for the night.
My hosts were really excellent and I even got to watch thier resident Barn Owls on closed-circuit TV.
Brackenwray Farm B+B
Kinniside, Ennerdale Bridge
Val & Steve Sullivan
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01946 862604
10 Rose & Crown Yard
Off Flower Gate, Whitby
North Yorkshire, Y021 3BE