Ten mile walk with a height gain of 530 metres.

Leaving the bustling metropolis of Rosthwaite (several houses, a post box and a phone box), we headed up the valley to Lining Crag, following Stonethwaite Beck (a small stream).  Nice walking on a defined path but a bit rocky in places).  Steep haul up to the top of the crag but fabulous views back down the valley.

Then a boggy walk across Greenup Edge to the highest point of the day (boggy bits on top of high hills does my head in!).  Had lunch looking along a ridge line to Helm Crag, which was our afternoon walk.  Was bizarrely the first place for a couple of days we had mobile reception.  Walk along the ridge to Calf Crag, the Knott and finally Helm Crag was great – but in a few places it was very steep – eyes definitely on the path!

Then long haul on very rocky, uneven and steep path to Grasmere.  As a bonus, the room in the hotel had a bath – bliss!

Below are: leaving Stonethwaite, the Tardis to Grasmere (if only it had been true!), Lining Crag – we climbed that, the view back down the valley towards Stonethwaite from the top, lunch stop on Greenup Edge, the view down the valley to Grasmere, standing on the summit of Helm Crag, and the start of the long descent to Grasmere – this makes it look easier than it was!

For the next few days you’ll see walking posts from me and posts about other things from John as he tried out the NHS and then rested his ankle!

   
   
Some additional pictures: the Black Sail YHA hut; and idea of the state of the path up Loft Beck that John had to haul himself up; the view of Buttermere and ultimately back towards the Irish Sea from the very top!

Luckily the path did improve a bit further up!

Distance of 14 miles, height gain of 685 metres.

A combination of bad internet connections (the Lake District is apparently notoriously bad) and long days has made blogging difficult.  Anyway, the stretch from Ennerdale Bridge (two pubs and not much more) to Rosthwaite dawned bright and sunny.  We walked alongside Ennerdale water, then further up Ennerdale Valley to the Black Sail YHA hut (the most remote YHA in the UK).  Unfortunately, somewhere along Ennerdale water John hurt tendons in his ankle .  There was no option but to walk out so after drugs and strapping, he soldiered his way up Loft Beck and down to the Honnister Slate Mine.  Luckily, the owner of one of the B&Bs the group was staying in that night was able to come and pick him up – the walk into Rosthwaite from Honnister was arduous – lots of rocky slopes – and another one and a half hours!  We were so late in we went straight to the pub another mile on at Stonethwaite for dinner: good thing it was a walkers’ bar!
   
   
More photos to come but these are: heather in bloom on Ennerdale Water; Loft Beck, the climb out of Ennerdale to Honnister, and the Riverside Bar at Stonethwaite – dogs are generally welcome in the Lakes.

(John at the St Bees Priory Church West Door)

Up early-ish to get organised for the train to St Bees via Carlisle.  All went smoothly except the long weekend holiday appeared to have brought the train spotters out in force, particularly on our Carlisle to St Bees local train!

Arrived in St Bees early in the afternoon and after checking into our B&B, went for a walk around the village: which didn’t take long as it consists of one shop, three pubs and not many houses!  The main reason to visit is to walk.  Visited historic Priory Church and checked out the real ale options at the pub.  Met the rest of the group for a briefing from our guide this evening and had dinner together at the Manor pub.  Ales: Mountain Folly and Tribute.  

We start the serious walking 8:45am tomorrow.

  
(John at the Manor – after lamb shank, chicken curry and ale)

 (John plotting the route) 
After a reasonable night’s sleep set out to explore a slightly drizzly Manchester.  Headed first across town to the Craft and Design Centre.  Lots of artisan jewellery but I was more tempted by some ceramics – unfortunately it’s too early in the trip! But  had a half decent flat white at the cafe -flat white coffee being a rare thing over here!  Then headed back in the general direction of the city centre, exploring side streets and admiring some of the grand Victorian buildings.

After lunch at a historic Victorian pub in the centre of town (Mr Thomas’s Chop House, which had fantastic original Victorian wall and floor tiles and more real ale), it was back to the hotel, along the way doing some jobs: books for the trip – we are fundamentally paper rather than e-reader people and water bottles, then dinner at the flash restaurant in the hotel.

Next: off to St Bees to meet the group and start the walk.

In the air, somewhere near Manchester.  Arrived uneventfully and explored the city a bit yesterday.  Lots of urban regeneration happening, and lots of grand Victorian architecture.  Off for a bit more exploring today, then train tomorrow morning to the start of the walk at St Bees Head.

Yesterday we took advantage of the Brisbane public holiday to got to the ‘Ekka’, aka the Royal Queensland Show.  It’s the Brisbane equivalent of what in NZ we used to call A&P shows – farm animals, traditional crafts and baking competitions, sideshow alley for the kids etc.  We get a public holiday for what’s referred to as ‘People’s Day’.  For years we’ve been meaning to go, but the lure of a lazy day at home has been too strong; that and the fact that around the Ekka Brisbane generally gets strong westerly winds that drop the temperature.

Anyway, yesterday was a beautiful and unusally warm winter day, so off we went early.  Once again John was the only bloke in the quilt show – missed you Caroline!  But then we surveyed the photography competition, baking a preserves, cats, sheep, cows, sheep, goats, chooks, vege displays etc.  Having arrived at 9am we were ready to go by 12, but not before a beer in the Stockman’s Bar!

So above are the prizewinning giant pumpkin, prizewinning preserves, and two of the more striking quilts from the quilt competition.

The traffic getting out of the Napa Valley was horrendous – like being in peak hour traffic in the city!  I wasn’t too worried until I heard the driver radio to his base that this was abnormal and what was going on?  But we arrived only about 20 minutes late at the airport and I have never been so pleased to see my plane!

With a bit of a delay as life intervened, this is the last of the posts about my trip to see Caroline.

After coming back from Mariposa we had a few days in the Napa, chilling out.  On Monday we had lunch at a lovely place overlooking the valley, and then hit the outlets at Napa City.  I picked up a couple of things at Gap and J Crew.  Even with the Australian dollar not quite as strong as it was, the prices were very reasonable.

And on Tuesday we headed into San Francisco to see the High Style exhibition at the Legion of Honor museum.  It was a travelling exhibit from the Brooklyn Museum’s costume collection – flash frocks from the last 100 years!  It was the first day so Caroline and I certainly weren’t alone as we oohed and aahed our way around.  The workmanship in some of the clothes was fabulous, as was the embellishment.  The shoes, from the 1930s through to the 1950s looked surprisingly modern.  A real highlight was the room given over to an American designer, Charles James, whose dresses were in amazing fabrics like lush velvet, and very sculptural – and in some cases feats of engineering!

After that we had lunch overlooking the garden of the nearby de Young museum and took a quick trip up the tower (great view of San Francisco), checked out a small but lovely exhibit of weaving from Laos, and on hour way came across a lovely exhibit of cloaks combining glass and flax weaving from a young NZ artist.

On Wednesday we spent part of the day at Caroline’s friend Trina’s with her Wednesday quilt group, and then it was time to head for the bus at Napa City .

Photo loading isn’t cooperating today so only two: the view down to Lake Henessey from Pritchard Hill (taken on a walk with Caroline) and the view from the de Young Museum across San Francisco.