Around Rydal Water

Distance: 10.5 miles
Ascent:
Weather: overcast, heavy rain shower

We had planned to get the Windermere launch up to Ambleside and then follow the Windermere Way back to Bowness. However we ended up with return tickets for the ferry so decided to walk to Grasmere and back along the coffin route in time to catch the last return sailing.

On Windermere we saw oodles of coots and a mistlethrush as we walked around by the Roman Fort, which was surprisingly unflooded. Then we walked alongside the River Rothay to Rydal Water, where there were a lot of cormorants and a great crested grebe, along with a grey heron.

We had sit and a snack on one end of a bench overlooking the lake where somebody's ashes had been (not very effectively) scattered around it, or rather on it. Which is nice.

We stopped for lunch of sandwiches and tea from our swanky new thermos flask, bought yesterday from the hardware store in Ambleside after enthusiastic recommendations from a chap in a different shop. Our old flask had failed on us at the weekend, and although I would have said that it was quite new it was probaby at least a couple of years old, and possibly its quality had been indicated by its price tag. We'll see if Mr Thermos's flasks last any better than Mr Tesco's. We sat on a grassy bank at the lakeshore and had our tea huddled under a small umbrella.

Walking back along the riverside walk we saw a dipper and some mallards, making it back to the jetty at Waterhead just in time for a hot chocolate from the cafe before catching the ferry.