It has been a couple of years since we last had a short break to the Lake District, in fact Meg and Gracie were just six months old at the time and today they are very nearly three years old! Where has that time gone?  Having looked at the diary we decided to head off to Borrowdale for a few days with Meg and Gracie. 

I took Meg and Gracie for a good long walk early on Sunday morning, the plan being to tire them both out so they would sleep whilst we pack the suitcases and load everything into the car. Needless to say as soon as they see the suitcases they both stuck to our sides like glue.

We left home just before lunch, stopping at Scotch Corner for the compulsory cup of tea and bacon & egg sandwich as well as giving the dogs a bit of a break to stretch their legs. We had a good journey along the A66 arriving in Keswick just after 2.30pm. We usually stop at the Great Wood along the Borrowdale road to let the dogs have a good run but as they were both hard fast asleep we continued our journey down the narrow valley road to the hotel.

Having booked into our room and unpacked the car I took Meg and Gracie for a walk across the fields, over the ‘Chinese Bridge’ and along the board walk to the edge of the lake. The walk to the lake usually takes about thirty minutes but with all the rain they have had earlier in the week the ground was quite saturated with lots of standing water in the fields which made negotiating the track quite tricky in places. The view looking northward towards Keswick and Skiddaw is beautiful as is the view looking south towards the tiny village of Grange and Castle Crag.

The following morning after a night of heavy rain, I took the dogs out for our usual walk across the fields to the ‘Chinese Bridge’, unfortunately the flood water had risen several inches overnight and the water level was preventing me from getting anywhere near the gate to cross the fields, so I had to backtrack somewhat and follow a path back towards the village of Grange. In the ten years or so we have been coming to this hotel this is the first time we have been able to walk across the fields due to the flooding, that said looking at all the debris trapped on the wire fencing, I think we have been quite fortunate. This is the Lake District after all, rainfall over the area varies widely. Keswick for example has an average rainfall of around 60 inches a year, whilst Seathwaite in the heart of Borrowdale has an annual rainfall of 130 inches a year!   We returned to the hotel after a somewhat wet morning walk, fortunately the  hotel provides doggie drying towels which is great so I kept ours in the car as ‘spares’ After breakfast I put M & G into the car and  we drove the ten minutes or so into Keswick for a bit of shopping and coffee. The rain had stopped for the time being so after our coffee we headed back to the car and drove the short distance to the ‘lakeside’, parking in the car park next to theatre on the lake. The sky was looking quite grey and menacing, we watched the heavy clouds forming at the far end of the lake as we walked along the shoreline down to the ‘Friars Crag’ viewpoint, within minutes of us setting off on our walk the rain hit us and although we were well wrapped up in our waterproofs it made for quite an unpleasant walk for twenty minutes or so.  By the time we reached the seat and viewpoint the weather and visibility was that bad I didn’t even attempt to get the camera out of my rucksack. Our last visit to the same viewpoint several years ago was spoilt by the rain and today was no different. We turned around and headed back to the car, on reaching the car I dried the dogs down before we decided to head back to the warm fire and comfort of the hotel for afternoon tea.  Needless to say the rain continued for the remainder of the afternoon and well into the night.

Tuesday morning was grey and overcast. After a hearty breakfast in the hotel we decided to have a look for the ‘Hundred Year Stone’ on the shores of Derwent water just a little further South than ‘Friar’s Crag’. I packed the car and drove the short distance along Borrowdale road towards Keswick and parked in the National Trust Car Park at the ‘Great Wood’. From the car park we crossed the main road and walked down a few steps to follow a track which led to the lake shoreline. Following the track along the edge of the lake we had some excellent views looking across the lake, Catbells, Causey Pike, Skiddaw were all clearly visible, in fact at one stage the sun managed to break through the grey mist. The autumnal colours of the surrounding trees looked beautiful, across the water ‘Rampsholme Island’ and ‘St Herbert’s Island’ looked quite stunning, the autumnal leaves were a beautiful yellow golden colour and glistened in the morning sunlight.  After about ten minutes or so we reached ‘Calfclose Bay’ where the stone is situated, unfortunately the split ‘Millennium Stone’ was two foot under water! I could just make out the top of the stone as the waves broke over the top of it. We explored the area for another thirty minutes or so, making the most of the dry sunny weather before heading back to the car. Keswick for brunch after which we had a look around Keswick St John’s Anglican church. The church with its distinctive spire can be seen from various viewpoints around the town. It is just a few minutes’ walk from ‘Moot Hall’. It was consecrated on St John’s Day in 1838. The outer walls of the church have been constructed of pink sandstone from the nearby Eden Valley, the main structure though built of local stone. I always enjoy looking around old churches and this one was no different. The church was  decorate to celebrate the centenary of the end of the First World War, with cascading ‘woolen’ red poppies cascading from the roof which made quite an impact. The local people of Keswick knitted over 12,500 woolen poppies to make the feature. Inside the church were nice displays from local groups too. It was nice to sit and contemplate for a few moments and light a candle remembering our deceased parents. As we came out of the church the rain had returned so we headed back to the hotel for a cup of tea and scone.

Wednesday morning came around too quickly; Meg, Gracie and I were up quite early this morning, it was still quite dark as we set off for our early morning walk, unfortunately  as a consequence of all the rain recently, running off the mountains and into the streams the water level in the fields opposite our hotel were significantly flooded which prevented us from doing our usual walk over the ‘Chinese Bridge’ , so we headed towards the small hamlet of Grange and walked around the outskirts of the village, it was very wet underfoot, so wet in fact that although the dogs were wet through they were still quite clean and by the time we got back to the car and hotel I managed to get them dried off with the spare dog drying towels we brought with us before we went back in to the hotel for breakfast.

It was home day today so after our breakfast I packed the car and headed for home.