Day 6 – Derwent Water, the Catbells and the Honister Pass

We started the day with a “proper” English breakfast, cooked by Richard and served by Linda at the B&B. We had fruit, rolls, toast, jam, butter, coffee, orange juice, ham (bacon, they called it), sausage, eggs and a stewed tomato. We passed on the cereal, milk, yogurt, beans and mushrooms but we could have had them if we wanted! After breakfast, Linda talked us out of hiking the Catbells, a ridgeline hike that climbs hundreds of feet above the lake but is very slippery. Also, the clouds had mostly obscured the tops of the fells (mountains) and so we figured if you can't see up from down, you wouldn't be able to see the views of “down” from up! Good logic, so we thought. We opted to ride the Keswick Launch around the lower part of the lake then disembark for the hike along the lower shoulder of the Catbells. It was not as big a hike but was judged to be “doable” in the clouds and predicted light rain. The launch, by the way, is a beautiful wooden boat, about 50' overall length, for ferrying passengers on the hour-long, seven-stop route around the lake.

We disembarked at the only stop available – after weeks of drought the region was now seeing floods and the landing spot we wanted was underwater! Oh well – but it made for a longer and by the time we got back – much wetter walk. We hiked around the NW edge of the lake and stopped in for a coffee and scone at a small cafe at a boat rental along the lake. The scone – which we ate with clotted cream and jam (yum) – was fantastic and the stop gave us a much needed reprieve from the rain which was by now a pretty steady downpour. Apparently there are three kinds of British rains – umbrella rain, raincoat rain and then umbrella AND raincoat rain. This was the latter!

As we walked back to Keswick though the outskirt streets we noted that nowhere in this Northern Lakes region did we see McDonald's or other commercial chain stores or restaurants. Keswick has not been “Americanized” and still retains a lot of genuine English character. We commented several times that we really felt like we were in the England that we had read about and seen on TV, rather than some watered-down version of it. Interesting! We made it back to our room by mid-afternoon after about a four-mile walk around the western and northern sides of the lake.

After drying out for 30 minutes or so back in our room, we took the car for a round-trip around the lake, over Honister Pass. We got a bumpy start as some of the roads became one-lane and we were already having a rough time being on the left. When the buses and trucks (lorries) came zooming up it was bit scary, but we managed. The pass itself was amazing – rain by now was pouring down in sheets and the road was very steep. We passed the Honister Slate Mine at the top of the pass then descended along with major rivulets of water into the small town of Buttermere. We took a different mountain pass home and found massive waterfalls pouring out of the hillsides – truly beautiful but photography was almost impossible due to the downpour.

We made it back to Keswick then rounded our day out with a bowl of “Hungarian Goulash” and pints of ale at the Dog and Gun pub. Sleep was no problem that night...