Great Langdale to Rosthwaite

Today’s walk was quite short, but it included a steep ascent and descent as we went over the Stake Pass and thus over a watershed, to the south of which rivers flow (eventually) to Morecombe Bay and to the north of which they flow to the Solway Firth. It was another dry day, though increasingly cold and windy. I’d slept well but wasn’t in the best of tempers (not helped by a mix up at breakfast time which left us waiting ages to be served) and it took me to the middle of the following night to resolve a number of worries. However, today’s walk was again glorious.

After a mile or so we reached a cairn which marks the division of the route up to Stake Pass (ours) from the route up to Angle Tarn, Sty Head and thus to Wasdale...and the climb began. The advantage of having left the hotel relatively late and let others overtake us was that there was no-one behind us now, and we were right at the top before one other person (and it was only one person) came past us. The climb is described in the guidebook as being steep but short. We were going up a stony track close to Mickleden Beck, but the route zig-zagged and to be honest I didn’t find it that difficult. However, it did feel as if it went on for quite a long time! The view behind us was spectacular.

There was no definite point at the end of the climb at which we could say “that’s it”, but rather a convex curve as the gradient eased off, then about a kilometre of bleak rather waterlogged moorland as we crossed the watershed. Then the descent began! This was on a good path, less stony than the ascent had been, and again it zig-zagged. However it felt quite precipitous in places especially as you changed direction on the zig-zags and given the strengthening wind. The surface had been levelled with small gravel-like stones, which was comfortable underfoot, but at one stage I slipped on the stones and ended up sitting down! I took the opportunity to put on coat and gloves as I had been getting rather cold. Although the descent was challenging, the view down the Langstrath Valley, with its little misfit stream at the bottom, was truly spectacular, and the waterfalls on Stake Beck to our right were also pretty impressive.

No-one overtook us on the steep descent, and we met just one walker going in the opposite direction, who was happy to wait a while for us to pass and who was most relieved when we told him that the climb did indeed lead to the Stake Pass as he’d earlier started off on the wrong path. However there were quite a lot of people about in the valley bottom, and most of them seemed to be crossing a little footbridge over Langstrath Beck. I was heading in the direction of this footbridge when Richard pointed out that the Cumbria Way does not cross Langstrath Beck. I suspect that a lot of walkers follow the wrong path down the valley, which may be easier underfoot (it becomes a track part way), but we decided to be purists on this point. Our path was stony in places and rather damp in others, but we saw just one man who walked along the path whilst we were perched on a stone having a snack, then a family group much further on. Instead of people we had the company of sheep of all varieties - white, black and brown (with Herdwick lambs being born black before turning brown and eventually grey). The excellent views continued in all directions and we passed some impressive glacial erratics.

Eventually we reached the bottom of the Langstrath Valley, where a heron was flying about, and we crossed Stonethwaite Beck and then walked alongside it. The amazing thing is that if you look up the valley from here (which I am sure we’ve done before) there is absolutely no inkling that the delights of the Langstrath Valley are there at all.

We followed the Stonethwaite Beck, past Stonethwaite and the valley which goes up to Seatoller, and eventually to Rosthwaite. We crossed Stonethwaite Beck by way of an old packhorse bridge and turned left into the village (leaving the two men we’d been following at the bus stop - we’ll need that soon enough) and found the Royal Oak very easily. There in the bar were the two men who have been staying in so many of the same places as us. It turns out that they are father and son, one from Sussex and one from south Manchester, where I grew up. They move on to Keswick tomorrow, whilst we have been booked into the Royal Oak for two nights.

We were instantly impressed by the friendliness and homeliness of the Royal Oak; we were shown to a large comfortable room and invited back downstairs for tea and scones. There is no mobile signal in Rosthwaite and getting on the hotel’s WiFi network was something of a challenge, necessary to contract Richard’s Mum (albeit indirectly) and to check the weather forecast in particular for Thursday when we are supposed to be walking from Keswick to Caldbeck. Access to the WiFi became easier when we both worked out the password and realised that the best signal is in the TV room - and when we managed to find the TV room (out the back of the hotel, with more bedrooms). However the weather forecast for Thursday is not looking good. In the evening we had a most enjoyable meal of soup, Lancashire hot pot, sticky toffee pudding (then there was cheese and biscuits but I was beaten) and coffee. Over dinner and afterwards we talked to a number of other walkers, including many on the Coast to Coast which also goes through Rosthwaite. There were some lovely people, of many different nationalities, but the sheer number of them, plus one particularly annoying man, led to the reinforcement of our decision of 13 years ago that the Coast to Coast is a walk to avoid. What a pity; I’m sure it’s a lovely route, but the walkers on it (and possibly also on the Pennine Way) are characteristically different from those we’ve met on other long distance paths.

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