Langstrath

Day 3 of the Cumbria Way, 19.5 miles from Dungeon Ghyll to Keswick.

The long path down.

This is the view that greets you after you’ve crossed over the top of the steep Stake Pass, looking down Langstrath which leads to the Hobbit-sounding Borrowdale and eventually Rosthwaite.

We knew the climb up Stake Pass would be steep and slow going with our backpacks on, but neither of us were prepared for how long the hard going stretch of valley path would take on the other side. Unfortunately things took a turn for the worse when TheOak stumbled about 10miles in, his knee taking the brunt of the heavy thwacktumble on a rock and buggering up his fun for the rest of the days’ walk. Then the proverbial muck hit the fan when the jetty for the ferry we’d planned to take was closed and we realised we’d now missed the last one from the jetty further along, adding another 5.5 miles to our walk before we got to our campsite for the night.

I was very tired but fine to carry on the next day, but sadly TheOak now had a swelling knee and stiffening wrist that didn’t agree, so the decision was quickly made to stick together and head home in the morning. The next section up past Skiddaw house and over High Peak will have to wait for another day.