coast to coast 2011
coast to coast - day 2
Brackenwray Farm, Kinniside (Near Ennerdale Bridge) to Langstrath Hotel, Stonethwaite
14.92 miles 2,913 feet.
Start: 08:30 Finish: 17:15 Elapsed time: 8:45 Cumulative time: 15:45
Day 2 dawned with steady rain which didn’t stop until I had reached the end of Ennerdale Water after about an hour and a half into the walk. Leaving Bracken Wray I made my way through Ennerdale Bridge and along the southern shore of Ennerdale Water where I encountered Robin Hood’s Chair. This seems to me to be a most inappropriate name for what is a rocky chimney like descent/ascent. As it was raining, I didn’t bother to take any pictures of this rocky descent which, in part, had me sliding down on my backside and hoping that I wouldn’t slip about 30ft to the bottom. This “stock” picture gives some idea of the degree of difficulty showing walkers coming up from the shore line on a dryer day.
It
was at Robin Hood’s Chair where I first met Lynne & Pauline. They
too were making the best of the scrambling descent and whilst I
couldn’t help them, I did at least wait to see them safely down. We
met up again at the end of Ennerdale Water for the first break of
the day and to remove waterproofs as it had now stopped raining.
After Ennerdale Water the route crossed the River Lizza and took me
through a long stretch of forestation. A sign indicted that it was
3¾ miles to the Black Sail Hut and it seemed to take an eternity to
get there. The views opened out approaching Black Sail and I could
now see Red Pike, High Stile & High Crag to my left. I had walked on
all of these summits on previous visits to the Lake District but
today I was happy to be in the valley bottom. Ahead of me was Green
Gable and Great Gable (been there, done that) and to my right was
Pillar (still to do).
By the time I reached Black Sail Hut I was ready for another break
in preparation for the almost 1,000ft climb up the side of Loft
Beck. I spent 30 minutes or so at the hut chatting to the warden and
making myself a cup of tea (50p in the honesty box). The hut gets so
many visitors that it has to restrict the use of it’s toilet to
overnight guests so it was the open fellside for me. The sheep seem
to relieve themselves on the hills so why shouldn’t I? The warden
kindly pointed out the path alongside Loft Beck and I remembered
Simon’s warning from yesterday to turn left and not to carry
straight on. When I met Ash & Ant later in the day I learned that
they had carried straight on up “Tongue”, almost to the bottom of
Green Gable before meeting someone who was able to tell them where
they were and to point them towards Honister.
Having climbed Loft Beck, I found myself on open ground with
Haystacks to my left and Brandreth to my right (done both of them).
A fairly straightforward, if rocky, path took me towards the
Honister Slate Mines and the road into Borrowdale. By the time I got
there my feet were really painful from the damage caused coming off
Dent yesterday and I was looking for an easy route for the 2½ mile
and 900ft descent that lay ahead. I had 3 choices, to follow an even
stonier path to Sea Toller, to walk down the road or to thumb a
lift. The latter won out and luckily enough the first car that came
along stopped for me and gave me a lift down to the Stonethwaite
junction. I hobbled the last mile or so under my own steam and was
relieved to fall into the Langstrath Hotel. This was by far the best
accommodation on the walk rating 9 out of 10. The food and drink was
excellent if highly priced and even more important my room had a
bath and I was able to soak away the aches and pains of the day.
Whilst hitching a lift may not seem in keeping with the spirit of
the C2C, I was later to compensate through the use of off-route
accommodation and a diversion from Kidsty Pike. Had I not taken a
lift for a couple of miles then the whole walk might have been
jeopardised by further injury. The following picture shows the
extent of the bruising on my toes added to which I had blisters on
the bottom of the little toe and my heel on both feet. My personal
method of dealing with these is to pop & drain the blisters and to
apply Germolene which has an antiseptic element as well as healing
properties. I was later to use Compeed & Zinc Tape. Thankfully, the
blisters weren’t too much of a problem and had pretty much healed by
Day 6 or 7. I walk hundreds of miles without normally getting
blisters and can only put it down to a combination of thicker than
normal socks on Day 1, the heat and the descent off Dent.