Day 4 A day of rest

May 26, 2024

The rain was back today, apparently because that’s what happens on Bank Holiday weekend in the Lake District.

The weather didn’t bother us too much, as we were having a designated rest day in Grasmere, except that we had to load up the washing and catch the bus into Ambleside to the nearest laundrette. We did get a little damp in the process of walking around Ambleside, but the accommodation at the Quaker centre where we are staying has a great drying room, and everything is now ready to be packed again in preparation for the walk from Grasmere to Glenridding tomorrow.

Ambleside and Grasmere are both quintessentially English villages, the buildings erected from the characteristic slatestone of the Lake District, also used to build the drystone walls that dot the fields. The effect is beautiful. Some buildings have a rough-cast render which may be painted white or cream, as is the case for the guest house where we are staying, Glenthorne, but in the majority of houses and public buildings the stone is left exposed. One property we have walked past on our way into the village has a very unusual shape on the end that meets the lane that keeps catching our eye. It looks like the end has been sliced off. Very different and eye-catching, as are all the buildings here.

We have had an ongoing weight problem with our luggage. Our carefully curated test packing and re-packing before we left home, was a little undone by the fact that we have acquired a couple of books along the way, thanks to a raffle Wallsy won at the Literary Society weekend in Windermere. When we arrived at Ennerdale Water, it was to find that the bags had been weighed – the maximum weight allowed by the company who is moving them on for us is 20kg - Wallsy’s was 21kg, even though we had packed as advised to meet a requirement of 18kg. We have no idea how his bag gained 3kg in weight.

Anyway, we did a bit of a rejig and believing mine to be well under 20kg, moved a couple of books across and donated another that we had doubled up on. to the library at our accommodation. We had brought our Coast to Coast guide with us, but had also been given a more recent copy by S-Cape Travel on arrival at St Bees, so we left ours behind. It wasn’t until we had put the bags out for collection the next morning, that we noticed mine had also been weighed and they had recorded it as 20kg! Oh well, we thought, they won’t weigh it again, we will get away with a little extra in mine as long as Wallsy’s is now lighter.

We were wrong! Arriving at Grasmere yesterday, we were greeted with a red tag on my case saying it was 21.7kg! Our only choice has been to move the books, and some superfluous clothes, including Wallsy’s now defunct boots, into an extra bag for them to take and store for us until we have finished the hike. Problem solved!

The other thing we did in Ambleside today was to find and purchase a new pair of boots for Wallsy. The Keens he had bought prior to our trip to Germany in December, gave out on day two of this hike, water seeping in between the sole and the upper where they have apparently begun to part ways! He’s not a happy camper, so the only thing to do was buy some new ones, which we hope will last the distance.

Apparently I’m not the only one who doesn’t appreciate wet feet!