Wainwright's Coast to Coast - Day 10

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Rosthwaite to Ennerdale Bridge

A Nine

 Distance: 19 Miles 

Time Taken: 10 hours.

Weather: Cool & cloudy turning to rain at noon.

Honnister pass 

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!

Brexit Flag

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.

day ten mountains

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!

Day ten Graham

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.

Highly Recommended

Brackenwray Farm B+B

Kinniside, Ennerdale Bridge

Val & Steve Sullivan

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

01946 862604

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