Braithwaite, Keswick and Derwent Water, June 2019

A four day activity break, walking and kayaking, with me and Tod.

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Day 1 (Wednesday 19 June)

Today's walk was intended to be a loop starting and ending at Cat Bells car park.

However, the so-called car park was impossible to locate, so I parked on the lakeside road and we climbed up to the ridge south of Cat Bells and carried on south to High Spy.
This picture was taken between Hause Gate and Bull Crag on Maiden Moor.
A view from Blea Crag which lies south of Maiden Moor.
Having decided to turn back after reaching High Spy, we pass Eel Crags, here looking west across the Newlands Valley.
We are sitting on the slope just below the top of Cat Bells, having our lunch.

It was a lovely sunny day, with superb views over Derwent Water towards Keswick.
From the same point, this time looking to the southern end of the lake.
Tomorrow we would kayak down to Myrtle Bay, which is not quite at the end of the lake.
Day 2 (Thursday 20 June)

In the morning we drove in to Keswick and bought a few items before visiting the Pencil Museum on the edge of town.

This well-preserved Morris J Van sits outside the museum.
Tod and I decided to head south for the bottom end of Derwent Water, seeing as we'd already explored around all the little islands back in 2016.

There was a stiff breeze blowing to the north at times, so progress was quite tough in the last 20 minutes or so.
Looking west from the lake to the ridge on which High Spy (left) and Cat Bells (centre) are situated.
After about an hour's paddling we hit land at Myrtle Bay and disembarked for a rest and a snack.

The distance from Keswick was nearly two and a half miles.
On our return journey, with Skiddaw and Little Man in the distance almost directly ahead (these are my feet of course).
Day 3 (Friday 21 June)

Today we both agreed to swap the original day's object (Helvellyn) with a much more leisurely walk from Braithwaite to Keswick on the back roads and footpaths.
Again, the weather was sunny and the views on the way were very pleasant.

This photo was taken at the Landing Stages south of Keswick.
The ducks were out in force and there were quite a few tourists about.

There were regular boat trips around the lake-shore all day and we had to look out for them on the days we were kayaking on the water.
Our stroll continued on the eastern shoreline of Derwent Water.

This location I think is Strandshag Bay with Lord's Island close to the shore in the left of the picture.
On the shore a bit further south, after this point we turned around and headed back to Keswick, where we had lunch near Crow Park before returning on foot to Braithwaite and our guest house.
Day 4 (Saturday 22 June)

Our last day saw us visiting the Threlkeld Quarry and Mining Museum in the morning and Nichol End Marina again in the afternoon.

The museum's engine shed and entrance area with the magnificent Blencathra mountain dominating the background.
The short trip on the narrow guage railway ends at the old quarry where the Vintage Excavator Trust keeps its collection of vintage excavators and dump trucks.

Here are some of several dozen tracked excavators in the collection, some of which are fully operational.
The Hunslet diesel locomotive, used to haul 5 or 6 small coach/wagons with benches.
An old Euclid dump truck, which lives just outside the area of the quarry and museum site.
In the afternoon we returned to the marina to hire a couple of sit-on canoes once again.

Today we just paddled between the four small islands and several piles of semi-submereged stones.

Afterwards we had our customary coffee and cake at the cafe.

In this photo we landed for a few minutes on St. Herbert's Island, which would have made a very pleasant retreat for someone wishing to escape life's manifestations of stress and mayhem, such as Brexit and Donald Trump.

A nice way to end another short break for us in the Northwestern Lake District.

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