Troutbeck Tongue and a String of Cockups!

April 2014
Our April Lakes trip was a bit of a shambles – all my fault – I just don’t seem to pack my brain recently! First off was when we drove to Staveley near Windermere for our weekend’s booked accommodation at The Old Rectory. This was the Saturday night of the start of the Easter Holidays so due to be a busy one…

(Photos are a mix of Richard’s and mine as marked – click on for full size/resolution)
We called in at one of the pubs for a drink and to ask where Church Street was as we couldn’t seem to find it either on the town map or walking around checking by the various churches. The barmaid seemed puzzled – she didn’t know a Church Street. She asked the barman – I thought he was sure to know as he seemed more local. Nope – he didn’t know it either. He asked for the name of our B&B and said he’d look it up on t’internet… He came back a minute or so later and informed us we had several hours drive to get to it! I’d inadvertently booked our accommodation at a Staveley in Derbyshire! I had no idea there was another Staveley apart from THE Staveley in the Lakes!

The next hour or so was spent in a phone box calling the accommodation to cancel (and of course to pay for our first night – they weren’t best pleased), then to ring around the local accommodation to try to get somewhere for the night. We seemed to be completely out of luck – even the really expensive places were full! In the end I ran out to the information board outside and saw one place we hadn’t rung yet – down Kentmere at Green Quarter. Lucky I rang when I did as they were just off out – they had a room for both nights they said but could we hurry down there.

Five minutes later we were booking in at the truly beautiful (both in form and location) farmhouse of Maggs Bank. I vaguely remembered rushing down off the end of the Kentmere Horseshoe for refreshments there on a hot day a few years back. She said that, not only do they still do teas but they also allow cars to park cheaply (proceeds to charity) in their yard to do the round.

We went upstairs happily to unpack – cockup no.2 soon hit me. I’d completely forgotten to bring any of my medication or my washbag and we were away for a week! Oh well, my asthma was well-controlled (I thought). Also the bathroom had all sorts of useful stuff including, luckily, a toothbrush and paste pack.

As mentioned in my previous post, both Richard and I are fairly lame just now, both having groin strains, so we had to stick to easy walks. The first day we just did Sallows and Sour Howes and I had a bimble onto Green Quarter Fell/Hollow Moor afterwards past Skeggles Water.

On the Monday we were due to move on to The White Lion Pub in Patterdale so we decided to do Troutbeck Tongue on the drive round. For a change, it was a gloriously warm and sunny day 🙂 We parked up at the main road layby just above Limefitt Park and booted up for the short stroll up the main road to the footpath into the bottom of the valley. We didn’t realise at this point that, just over the wall, a nice new footpath had been made to keep you off the road.

No matter, we were soon leaving the busy road down the stony path between two hedges. This was a walk I used to do quite often with my mother back when she was fit – happy days!

At the bottom of the stony path, you join a lovely flat lane which heads up the middle of the valley towards the Tongue.

Troutbeck Tongue is above the barn

I was amused by this pollarded tree which I called ‘The Shaving Brush Tree’ – I got Richard to take a photo…

Soon you leave the lane just before the farm (good job too as, when my Mum and I passed through there a few years ago, we found the farm dogs pretty wild and savage) then strike up across the field to rejoin the track after the farm.

I couldn’t remember how we used to access the end of the fell but, as that is the most exciting way up, I was determined to take Richard up that way. I remembered last time me and my mother having to climb an awkward fence on the steep fellside though…

I was pleased to see that, after we rounded the corner and the wall under the fell ended, there were tracks heading steeply up the side of the steep nose. I could see the fence up ahead though and, as Richard hates climbing fences, and it isn’t easy anyway with groin strain, I hoped there would be a stile – luckily there was.

As we puffed steeply up the hill I found that my supposedly well-controlled asthma was a myth – only controlled by the daily preventative inhalers I take. Pretty soon my chest tightened up and I was coughing and wheezing badly. To my great annoyance, Richard started to draw ahead and I couldn’t keep up with him at all – it used to be the other way around! 😦

Oh dear!

I eventually staggered up to the summit, by now very asthmatic and also my leg had started to seize, and collapsed at the cairn for a rest and a coffee…

After I’d sat coughing for a while, we decided it was time to continue – I took this photo back to the summit and past Troutbeck to Windermere…

After a long walk along the top of the fell, we found the path which cuts back underneath back to our initial valley of Hag Gill. It should have been a really pleasant walk back down the valley but my leg was now almost completely seized and my chest was awful – what a shame on such a lovely day. I decided we’d cut across to the other track down the valley on the way back for interest.

Looking back

This route takes you past what I fondly call ‘Thunder Barn’. When I was initially ‘doing the Wainwrights’, I’d walked along the Dubs Track and was a few minutes from the summit of my first fell of the day, Yoke. At that point it started to thunder so I immediately fled down into the valley (which is much lower than my starting point had been on the Dubs Track). Good job I did – the thunderstorm was exceedingly fierce and lasted for an hour and a half. I found the handy barn and hid in it peering out of the windows at the ridge and seeing my proposed hills getting repeatedly and regularly struck by lightning!

After the storm abated, I gave it another half hour just to be sure and then, by now late in the day, I headed up Scot Rake to the far end of the ridge to walk back along my hills to the car. I got back to the car at 10pm! Richard kindly opted to take some photos of my barn hideaway for my report…

Thunder Barn!

(photo Richard Wood)

(photo Richard Wood)

(photo Richard Wood)

The track back was both wetter and busier – there were many folks from Limefitt Park caravan site strolling along in the sunshine…

Last look back (my photo)

We’d originally planned to do another hill in the afternoon but, with my chest and now-rigid leg, we decided to take the rest of the day off – Richard wasn’t bothered anyway as he felt we’d done enough for the day. We ended up booking in at The White Lion and then strolling down to St. Patricks Boat Landing at Glenridding and admiring the lovely, calm Ullswater where Richard took this beautiful photo: