Ennerdale to Borrowdale

The Lakes 2003, part 5
Friday 18th July 2003

With Christmas already a distant memory and even the New Year celebrations in the past, it's time to continue recounting my holiday in the Lake District from 2003. This was only the second time I had ever visited the Lake District, but this was not a walk to be remembered.

The night before this walk I had been at the Black Sail Youth Hostel where they had one of their legendary curry nights, which was incredible with a stunning array of seven different curries, but I spent the whole next day suffering from the consequences. My digestive system was in a terrible state all day, which is always a sign that they were good, proper curries (it’s curious how supermarket curries never have this effect). In addition to this I was very tired following five hard walks in six days, plus I was in desperate need of a shower and a chance to wash my clothes, so I cut the walk short on this day. I headed up Ennerdale onto the Tongue first thing in the morning into a strong wind and low cloud; there was now no sign of the good weather that I had been fortunate to enjoy for most of the week; that the heavy overnight rain had finally stopped was small consolation. With great effort I managed to drag myself up the broad, grassy, pathless ridge of the Tongue until I finally reached the Moses’ Trod path beneath the Windy Gap where I turned left.

Staying on this path I blindly followed it through the clouds, across a fence and over the gentle northern slopes of Brandreth and Grey Knotts until I neared Honister where the cloud level lifted and I was given a view of the Hopper Slate Quarry ahead and Buttermere in the distance to my left. After passing through Honister Hause I followed the course of the old road down into Borrowdale. As I descended the sun came out to reveal what turned out to be a glorious afternoon, but I didn’t feel like doing any more walking so I rushed to the Borrowdale Youth Hostel and spent the rest of the afternoon there. All I needed now was a good night’s sleep so I could resume hill walking the following day in full vigour. Looking back at this walk more than ten years later the only thing that strikes me as odd about it is the route. Why did I go up to the Moses’ Trod instead of climbing the path beside Loft Beck? I had to climb higher on the route that I took and travel further. My notes that I made at the time don’t explain and I can’t remember.