Day 3: Ennerdale Bridge to Stonethwaite

After a big English Breakfast, we left Ennerdale Bridge at 8:45 AM. 

As we set out for the flats of Ennerdale Water and Ennerdale Forest, clouds and fog ahead promised an exciting day when we reached the mountains. 

The weir at the bottom of Ennerdale Water

The waters were calm but the skies were ominous.

Walking the northern shore of Ennerdale Water, a momma sheep and her baby lamb were caught between a local man out for a stroll ...

and us ...

...with fences to the one side and the lake on the other.

Our first encounter with the magnificent stone walls built by shepherds over hundreds of years stretching across both lower meadows and high mountain slopes in unimaginably isolated places.

Lunch break

But we've got a long way to go yet, so ...

We walked for what seemed like an eternity along the flats of Ennerdale Water and Ennerdale Forest (where lots of logging of evergreens has been done in an attempt to restore the Fels to native species of trees and bushes). [Photo to come]

Finally, we emerged from the forest at Black Sail, a lovely hostel, created from a former shepherd's bothy [a small hut or cottage, especially one for housing farm labourers or for use as a mountain refuge].

[Photo to come]

Peter contemplating the next stage of our walk...up Loft Beck, which, you may recall is supposed to be a stream, but when it rains, as it has been this past few days, it can be a roaring creek.

We start up Loft Beck, which proved to be quite a climb over boulders and through streams feeding into the beck.

Looking back down just part of Loft Beck.

The view from the top of Loft Beck; it had just begun to rain, so visibility was somewhat limited.

But between our GPS and the cairns left by previous travelers, we managed to find our way across the mucky and featureless landscape of Grey Knotts.

Emerging, finally near the wasteland around Hollister Slate Mines

This old mining vehicle is no longer in use, replaced by modern trucks.

Some of the slate, which is used throughout the area for buildings, signs, etc.

It was 4:45 PM. We'd been walking since 8:45 AM with just a short lunch break and we were soaking wet, exhausted, and feeling a bit lame, so we decided to take a bus the last 2.5 miles down into Stonethwaite where our B&B (the Langstrath Hotel) awaited us.

Looking out the window of our room, we were greeted by some local sheep....a breed unique to the Lake District called Herdwick.

Note the appropriate message on the appropriately slate sign over the seat in front of our hotel: