Got up early this morning and organised our packs so as to leave Paul’s rucksack empty for our coats and lunch. We had breakfast and afterwards I rang Keswick to get John to bring out a loaf of bread for our sandwiches. We were out of the hostel by 9.15 and we had arranged to meet John at the crossroads at 10.00.
At about 10.15, Fr Noel arrived with a car load: Sisters Cecelia and Winnie, John and two people I had not met before – Clare and Paul. We threw our rucksacks into Fr Noel’s car – he was headed for the one day cricket match in Old Trafford – New Zealand V England (England won) but he said he might leave our packs into Keswick first if he had time. So off we set. It was a little misty.
John was well – he had just started a strict diet and was hoping to have lost a stone and a half after a week (after today’s walk). We made great progress up Robinson and had very few breaks on the way – except to let John catch up with the main group – Winnie kept rushing ahead!
After Robinson the mist began to clear. We had a fairly difficult (well not for all of us!) climb up to Dale Head above Honister pass, but we got there by about 1.10. John said “lets go down off the top before we have lunch” – I tried to warn him that down off the top was a long way down – but down off the top we went and it was after 1.30 before we stopped for lunch! Sr Cecelia didn’t bring a loaf of bread – rather brought 3 pack lunches (3 sandwiches) each – great, plus 2 hard boiled eggs and Rise and Shine - a feast.
After our statutory lunch break of one hour we had our last climb up to High Spy – it was fairly gradual. After that all the way home was down-hill (except for a little climb for Cat Bells) Poor John was quite fagged out after the day. So when we reached the foot of Cat Bells he decided he would go down to the lake from there and get the boat to Keswick. Martin went down with him while the rest of the party went up Cat Bells.
We all met up on the same boat anyway! We had a nice trip across Derwentwater to Keswick. Then we walked up the Castlerigg Manor.
The manor was full with a handicapped holiday group but Eddie managed to throw us up a lovely feed of ham and chips and tomatoes and ice cream and apple for afterwards.
After that we tried the Castlerigg Campsite for a place to pitch our tent – however it was completely full due to the Keswick Convention which was on at this time. So we went back to Castlerigg – I was reluctant to ask, but Fr Foulkes offered to let us camp in the grounds – it’s not normally allowed! We pitched up with a little difficulty – the ground was very hard. Then we went back to the manor and had an enjoyable evening in the bar. We retired after a cup of coffee in the still-room. Sister Sheila rang from Suffolk at 10.00 and we arranged what exactly Paul and Sheila would do.
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