Coast to Coast day 3: Rosthwaite to Grasmere

We awaoke to the sun breaking through. A good sign for the day ahead.

A promising morning ...sunshine

Our B&B, Knott's View in Stonethwaite, was very small. Only half of our party stayed there. The rest, six old "codgers" had stayed at a B&B about half a mile away ... and half a mile closer to the pub!


After breakfast we met the village telephone box which boasted not only a phone service but also texting and internet. There were mutterings of "if only we knew that yesterday". I'm not sure that I would have bothered. I had no phone signal so it was a communication free evening. I had managed to go through the photos I had taken on the first two days so that finishing the blog for day 1 and doing day 2 would be easier.

The walkers minus Sid, and Aussie who had managed to hurt his back before starting the walk, all duly met at the phone box and set out along a path along Stonethwaite Beck heading up the valley towards Greenup Edge Pass.

Eagle Crag - one of Wainwrights favourite climbs ... no, we did not do it!

Water babbling over rocks in the Beck

View back down the way we had come looking towards Stonethwaite at the bottom of the climb

At some stage we met with Greenup Gill. Our guide, an ex geography teacher, explained the difference between a beck and gill. Becks are creeks without significant falls. They can bubble and gurgle over rocks but no real falls. Gill have falls. Greenup Gill certainly had its share.

Greenup Gill

We had been crossing constant waterflows and bogs. This has been a dry summer. What would it be like in a wet one, I wonder.

From Lining Crag, one of the points along our upward climb, there are supposedly views across to the coast. If there were I missed them.

There was a range of interesting geological feature throughout the walk. The area had been carved out by glaciers during thebice age and there was evidence of all sorts of glacial activity from mounds to basins and scarred valley walls.

Along with the wet surface and bogs we had rocks, good when they were placed to help us through the wet and muddy stuff, stone steps and grassy slopes. Definitely varying conditions and always changing.

We took a short break when get got to greenup Edge Pass. There were photos all round.

From the pass we tended in a generally upwards direction aiming for a "prominent" feature on the ridge. Well, it is prominent when you finally get there but not from any distance. The feature was a pair of slender gate posts unattached to any fence.

We stopped for lunch in a sheltered spot just before the path divided to a high route and the low route.

Lunch ... note the sheep grazing behind us ... some black others lighter in colour

During the morning I managed to aquaint my right knee to the rocks I was supposed to be walking over. I was glad I was wearing long pants as I only had minimal additional damage to the knee that I had damed a few weeks back. In shorts it would have been a different story. Trevor had slipped and fallen on the previous day and was save by landing on his pack. I was pleased that I did not land on my pack as I am carrying Thingy in it and I would bein a real pickle if I damaged my computer.

Because we had had poor visability on day 2 and had not been able to see very far at all our guide, Dave, with the agreement of the group, elected to take the high route to Grasmere. According to Dave it was mostly downhill. Ture ... except for the uphill bits which were quite numerous and sometimes steep requiring scrambling (using hands as well as feet).

Trevor on one of the Ridgewalk crags

The Ridgewalk, otherwise known as the high route, went over a series of crags (peaks) before dropping sharply down into Grasmere, well near to Grasmere. We still had quite a walk to get into town once off the ridge.

The views from the Ridgewalk were spectacular and well worth the effort even if the body is not of the same view.

Lakes kept on appearing in the distance and as we rounded corners. I guess that is to be expected as this is The Lake District.

There is a whole string of lakes in the background. How many? Not sure

Near the end of the ridge there was a great view over Windermere, a place we had visited in 1981.

The bogs ... gunky and black ... here is a sample ...

Note the footprints in the black stuff

Day 3 was a short day. We did just a smidge under 16km with 760m of elevation gain.

In Grasmere we were staying at the Red Lion Hotel, part of the Best Western chain. we took advantage of their laundry facilities to wash our dirty clothes. I had two pairs of walking pants with black marks up to my knees.