Lake District weekend - day four - final walk

From http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/

The forecast for today was better and it was certainly very pleasant when we headed off from Rosthwaite back to Keswick. The first bit of the walk was straight upwards, which meant there were plenty of "photo opportunities". We climbed above various cloud layers and reached the first valley top of the day, where we posed for yet another team photo:

We were advised that there was a coffee shop at the foot of the hill, so, in keeping with the casual spirit of the weekend, we stopped off for scones with gooseberry jam - lovely - and we weren't the only ones to think so. Soon there were birds swooping everywhere, looking for a nibble - you could feed them by hand. We finished our scones and put the trays on an adjacent table to allow the birds to finish off the remaining crumbs:

Chaffinch, I'm told

We moved on and eventually came across Derwent Water:

Our tour guide's confidence in his map-reading skills had obviously been dented, and he was regularly spotted checking and re-checking directions:

There was a pretty little bridge and much-photographed viewpoint, at which there was an art class, but it was so busy, that I couldn't get the correct angle for a photograph:

Having come back down to lake level, the next bit of the walk was fairly steeply upwards, with some scrambling involved - especially from me. The skies were darkening:

The showers came in as we got nearer Keswick and the route got busier. We got a little wet, but it wasn't bad, and the sun came out again for the last bit of the walk in to the town, where we headed for Dave's car and dumped our bags, then went for a coffee and the Sunday papers prior to finding a suitable pub to watch the Man U - Chelsea match.

Dave drove us back to Rosthwaite after the match - we couldn't get a hotel in Keswick - and we changed and headed back to the Riverside Bar for dinner again.

Here's the stats and the map from our walk:

After dinner, we again retired to the hotel bar for an end of tour dram:

Dave and Ken were heading off at the crack of dawn - Dave was driving back to his office in Reading and he was dropping Ken off so he could catch an early train back to the North East. Ian and I were in so such rush - but that's another story.