No excuses today - all fair on the weather front, so Ken's plan was for a full(ish) day walking with a lunch stop in the middle. First of all we had to endure the rather tense bus ride along the windy, narrow roads to Great Langdale. Our driver was well used to the route and very patient and skilled in dealing with regular traffic coming towards us and squeezing past.
The bus terminates outside the Old Dungeon Gyll, where we remembered eating 12 years ago then getting a right royal soaking on the way back to our hotel at the New Dungeon Gyll, where we stopped for coffee this time:
Coincidentally, nearby there was a meeting that day that piqued Gordon's interest:
Gordon spent a little time there with Daisy but we were a little too early as most of the entrants hadn't yet appeared.
The pre-lunch part of the walk would take us back to Elterwater. Ken knows us well and continues to accommodate our increasingly limited abilities, so, although there were a few ups and downs, there were no great hills involved - it was a fairly straight-forward walk through Langdale. We soon came across a waterfall:
Stewart hadn't forgotten the tradition of the noon drams and had come well equipped:
Nearing Elterwater, we walked down towards a slate quarry:
A novel - and surprising - decision was made when we arrived at Elterwater. In previous years, we would all have headed straight back to the Britannia Inn, but this time, we crossed the street to the local cafe for soups and bread, with sausage rolls for some. Quelle surprise, but a brief reprieve for our livers.
Heading back to Ambleside, Vicki took a team photo of the rest of us:
As we walked along the trail, Jeb stood up on a large rock and took photos of each of us passing:
Not long after this my knee started troubling me. Time for a rest:
The way back to Ambleside was up and over the hilltop. The up part wasn't really a problem but the down part was pretty steep and was painful for me - I trailed way behind the others, who, if they hadn't had to wait, would probably have been back at base 40 minutes or so earlier than they did. I retired to my room to rest and recuperate but a few of the others went beer hunting.
Dinner that evening was at the delightful Lucy's on a Plate restaurant (https://www.lucysofambleside.co.uk/). Our hostess was quite a character and took our team photo and, before we knew it, we were presented with this personalised dessert menu:
That was the outer - this is the inner:
The stats and route for today were:
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