coast to coast 2011

coast to coast - day 4

Ivy Dene Guest House, Grasmere to Fairlight Guest House, Glenridding

7.02 miles 2,231 feet.
Start: 09:15 Finish: 14:15 Elapsed time: 5:00 Cumulative time: 27:00

This was by far the worst day of the walk, as far as weather is concerned, with rain for almost the entire walk. So much so that I didn’t take any pictures of my own and have resorted to using a “stock” picture of Grisdale Tarn.

It must have been a day for staying in bed as I had a procession of walkers following me up Little Tongue Gill. Leaving Grasmere there was a short road walk and fell climb before coming to the bridge above Tonguegill Force. This bridge was closed for repairs forcing me to abandon my intended route up Tongue Gill and to walk up Little Tongue Gill instead. This was quite a pull and near the top I was overtaken by Eric & Sherry who I would see again over the next few days and at Grisdale Tarn I met Marion who I would later walk into Orton with me. Ash & Ant overtook me on the descent from Grisdale Tarn. This was another one of those long valley descents which take far longer than they should. I’d walked this part of the route before and knew what to expect. Despite being overtaken by a number of walkers, I managed to get to the Fairlight Guest House in Glenridding before my luggage had arrived. Ant & Ash were staying here too. It was okay and rated 6/10 largely due to the communication problems encountered with the Indonesian (?) staff who spoke only pigeon English. I had an evening meal in the Travellers Rest pub just up the road.

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