Distance: 13 miles
Ascent: 480m
Weather: warm and cloudy, getting brighter later
Shoes and trousers: buttercup yellow
We were late leaving Pooley Bridge, as breakfast wasn't until 9am and there was only one rather harassed waitress. We went along a lane which is part of the Ullswater Way, it was very busy. The weather was warm, cloudy and muggy, with not much by way of views.
Up the stony track there was a procession of people headed for the fells. Runners running, walkers walking, walkers stopping to get the thermos out, cyclists (perhaps over-ambitious with tandem and kiddie bike) walking and a couple of cyclists yapping.
As the ground flattened out onto grassy moorland, paths led in all directions and the people became more spread out.
By the time we'd reached the Pulpit Stones, we were alone with the sheep and birds, as most seemed to be doing routes nearer to the lake. There were lots of skylarks and meadow pippets, curlew, crows and a distant cuckoo.
There are a lot of things in italics on the map here, we stopped to read about the neolithic sites and roman roads. As we did so, a bird was having a dust bath in a dried up rut in the path.
Coming down off the moors into farmland we got covered in bright yellow buttercup residue, saw a redstart, a deer nonchalantly pretending to be a sheep and crossed a footbridge that was both there and functionable.
We avoided some road walking by walking along a road through the Lowther Estate, then turned off through sheep fields, trying not to disturb them as much as possible as they rested under the trees. A very amenable hare posed for photos, then we saw some unusual fungus and a happy bride on her way to church.
There was an impressive but wibbly wobbly suspension bridge over the Haweswater Beck, which is a wide but shallow river that comes from the Lowther River and ends up in the Haweswater Reservoir. We sat on river bank to eat lunch, looking for fish. There were definitely signs of fish but I don't think either of us actually saw what could be definitively called a fish. I did see ripples, a splash, also a funny looking spinning top insect, an unidentified bird and a red flying bug.
Leaving the river bank we went through the village of Bampton, where some people in a campsite where holding a Judyfest, or something, I didn't see the sign and I can't remember what Rob said...but I do know it didn't make much sense. Deciding to make another detour to avoid roads, we took a track which crossed the fells over to Aika Hill, above Littlewater Tarn. We walked around the edge of a large wildflower meadow, with drystone walls and copses, tumbledown barns and a big fancy stile with a handrail. There was a buzzard nearby, and also lots of rooks, crows, jackdaws circling up in spiralling patterns.
Following a grass track, we dropped down to join the road into Haweswater. We had hoped to be able to use the permissive path next to the road by the lakeshore, but it is closed for the time being. Peering over the wall occasionally from the road (which was pretty quiet anyway) the path was a bit more pokey than we'd imagined it would be, so we decided that it wasn't really a loss.
We are staying at the picturesque and finely situated Haweswater Hotel, overlooking the water. We have a very large and comfortable room, and are now out on the terrace with a Black Sheep Ale and an Old Speckled Hen, watching the red squirrels climbing over the ivy covered walls and lawns.
