Day 2; the night at Gillsthwaite YH was not the best; a dorm with a snorer and a room of 4 next door who were opening and closing their door until at least 0130.... 
We agreed to get up at 5.30 and after porridge and tea, we headed out on the crux of the mission at 6am.
A fairly benign 4 miles further east until just after Black Sail YH when we ascended swiftly up across the first of 3 mountain passes scheduled. No real views of the Lakeland centrefolds of Pillar, Haystacks and the likes but the rain held off and the cloud was above us, so...

As we traversed the high ground we got fabulous misty views back across Ennerdale and also Buttermere - just magical. 

Then after she got her ankle nipped by an unrepentant dog walker's dog, we descended to Honister and grabbed cracking bacon roll - doughy inside, crusty outside, decent bacon, no fat, chunky = winner. £3.50 mind) 

From Honister it got busier and we wove fairly gently down to Seatoller and Rosthwaite - still a dearth of shops. Tourists were in evidence as were lambs and we didn't stop in Rosthwaite, but put the head down and ploughed on.

The second climb proved more difficult; rocky and endless; then we popped over the top onto the moorland and eventually found a way off to drop down towards Grasmere. Oh it was slow and painful. My right knee hated the descent; her left knee similarly sore and she had an ankle issue too and blisters were coming through so Compeed was deployed.

Nearly five hours to cover 7 and a bit miles. So at 3.45 and with a further 7.5 punishing miles up to Grisdale Tarn and the drop down into Patterdale, we abandoned for the day. (Not helped by the complete lack of sleep for both of us the night before) We quickly worked out that if we got a tourist bus into Windermere, we could then get a local bus back up to Patterdale. She was so relieved. We listened to endless comments about Wordsworth before hitting Windermere and spent our hour before the next bus getting dinner, breakfast and more plasters.
A great bus journey up past the 3rd highest pub in England and we arrived at our destination not how we intended but able to fight another day. 

Dinner was chicken with a mushroom sauce and a mountain of saute potatoes (I also rattled up some chicken tomato cous cous for the next day's lunch) before we retired with a bottle of red and one of Wainwright beer (brewed in - Birmingham??)

A tough day but also not a disaster - we'd previously walked Grisdale up to the tarn from Patterdale so it's only 3-4 miles left undo for now. And. We have a reason to come back for a day trip! Bonus...