Patterdale to Shap

 

 

Patterdale 

Today according to Tim was *******!  There was some discussion last night as to whether it would be too dangerous to do the walk today as it went over some very exposed parts of the lake district and to the highest point of the whole walk which is Kidsty Pike about 2600 feet.  The weather forecast was for very high winds and rain.  The plan however was to leave very early in order to get the high parts of the walk in the morning before the worst of the rain arrived, so we left the house at 6.45am and got to Patterdale about 7.50.  The walkers set off in the dry but soon got some very windy weather as they tramped up the hills, and the rain arrived a couple of hours into the walk.  At times the men had to hang onto the girls to stop them being blown over!  There was a short discussion about turning back but it was decided that it would be almost as bad to go back so they kept going - getting wetter.  It was a long walk of about 16 miles which took them around Haweswater and to the dam, then onto the village of Shap which marks the end of the lake district and near the M6 motorway.

Angle tarn.

 

The start of the day saw us packing up the van with all our belongings as we moved accommodation today.  After dropping the group off at Patterdale, Carol and I drove over to Kirkby Stephen to find the new houses at street farm.  We have one large house which sleeps 8 then 2 small houses which sleep 3 each.  We unloaded the van and sorted out who was going to sleep where and also the kitchens.  After much needed coffee we discovered it was only 10 o'clock - the early start gave us a lot more time!  We had an early lunch then set off to drive the 6 miles into Kirkby Stephen itself.  We found the famous fish and chip shop and ordered the food for our dinner tonight which we would collect later. 

 

 By the time we had wandered around the town (in the rain) it was time to fetch the walkers from Shap which was about half an hour away.  We actually had a phone signal so were able to speak to Jacqui who said they were about 20mins away.  Well a lot longer than 20 mins went by and eventually the phone went and we were told they had come out into the village a lot further along the road having taken a few wrong paths!  So we went and found the extremely soggy walkers who really were feeling the cold by then.  They had had hail; wind and rain all the day; they also found a bit of snow on the higher ground.  So we arrived back at the houses and everyone had lovely hot showers and hot cups of tea - no stopping at the pub today!  Hopefully tomorrow will be better :)