Benwick Rambler

• Preparation
• Day Zero
• Day One
• Day Two
• Day Three
• Day Four
• Day Five
• Day Six
• Day Seven
• Day Eight
• Day Nine
• Day Ten
• Day Eleven
• Day Twelve
• Day Thirteen
• Day Fourteen
• Day Fifteen
• Day Sixteen
• Day Seventeen
• Reflections

coast to coast - day 5

Fairlight Guest House, Glenridding to The Crown & Mitre, Bampton Grange

13.13 miles 2,985 feet.
Start: 09:15 Finish: 16:45 Elapsed time: 7:30 Cumulative time: 34:30

There was light rain falling as I left Glenridding in the company of Ash & Ant for what was probably the key leg of C2C walk and certainly the highest point at Kidsty Pike (2,520ft). We were chatting away as we passed Side Farm and shortly afterwards I looked at my GPS to discover that we had missed a turning and had gone too far. Backtracking about a ¼ mile we then started the ascent to Boredale Hause. It was at this point that I said goodbye to Ash & Ant as I stopped to take off my waterproofs. It was a busy route with lots of walkers making their way up the path. The following are pictures of the view back to Ullswater and of Angle Tarn.

 

As I passed Satura Crag I shouted to a couple who had taken the wrong path and were heading for Rest Dodd. They then joined me for a short while as we approached the climb up the side of The Knott and on to Kidsty Pike. The Knott was probably the steepest climb of the whole walk and it was here that I met Trevor who I later discovered was back-packing without a tent, just using a bivvy bag/tarpaulin and sleeping rough. I think that the weather got the better of him as he later stayed in the hostel at Kirkby Stephen and a couple of B&Bs along the way.

Although Kidsty Pike (shown below) is officially the highest point of the walk I made a detour which took me 100ft higher on High Raise. I didn’t fancy the steep descent to Haweswater and the shoreside walk.

So, instead, I headed north from Kidsty Pike to High Raise, Red Crag & High Cop before turning east across Bampton Common & Bampton Grange. The route allowed me to take in part of High Street. By now it had turned into a bright sunny afternoon and I didn’t see another walker for the 3½ hours that it took me to make my way to the Crown & Mitre at Bampton Grange (8/10). It made a change not to venture out in search of an evening meal and just to have a few stairs to climb to my room. However, sleeping above a pub does have its drawbacks, not least the noise from downstairs.

At breakfast I got chatting to a group of 4 Americans (Jim, Ann, Dave & Kathy) who I had met on the way to Kidsty Pike. Like many on this walk they had a guidebook with sketch drawings and descriptions of the route but lacked any proper maps. One of them had an iPad and I gave him the web address for “Walking Places” from where he was able to download pdf copies of the 1:25,000 scale map for the whole route.

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