Day 3/6 Cumbria Way 127km - Skelwith Fold to Rosthwaite - 15 May 2010

24.2km, took 6.5 hours

A very comfortable night's rest at the Farm and a good breakfast started my day off. Fantastic weather indeed - breezes and stronger winds at higher elevations and valleys; sunny :). I had a brief look around the Farm's huge garden before finding my track back to the official route at Skelwith Bridge.






The classic view of Elterwater was like a picture. Beauty! Even though the initial route to Elterwater village was flat and packed with the weekend walkers, the scenery was superb! I detoured slightly to Elterwater YHA to purchase a bottle of water. I would need that for the tough bit to come in the later part of today's walk.







The next section of the walk up Great Langdale to Dungeon Ghyll was at its glorious best. It felt like a mini Great Wall of China, climbing across the fellside, curving gently left until quite suddenly the Langdale Pikes appeared in all their rugged glory. It was a splendid sight all the way, and the descent to Dungeon Ghyll was fantastic as well.






















The best section of the Cumbria Way continued with an easier (but rocky) walk into the vast rock cathedral of Mickleden, followed by the most challenging part I was looking forward to: the zig-zag, steep, sharp climb over Stake Pass into the wild Langstrath valley! Langstrath is one of the bleakest and stoniest of Lakeland valleys, almost treeless and with little on the smooth fell sides to excite the walker's eyes. It was better than expected; also more tiring than expected. I panted my way up to the top, and paused several times to catch my breath. The view back was astonishing! Wind picked up with more ascent. It reminded me of the Devil's Staircase in Glencoe/Scotland, but I thought that the Stake Pass was more challenging.
































After reaching the summit of the Stake Pass, the descent into Langstrath nearly killed me. I was intimidated by the height from the top, plus the exposed, steep zig-zags down. It was delightful but not very appealing to me. 152 m down in less than 400 m. As rated by the painter, W. Heaton Cooper, it is the "wildest, rockiest, most colourful and interesting mountain stream in England".












It was a great relief when I reached the foot. The next section was along a rough and stoney track which measured wearily through a wasteland of weathered blocks of stone. It was painful on my toes/feet, even though the path looked straightforward.







The lengthy track finally joined Greenup Gill where I met another walker resting (Edward from US). He asked for the direction to Rosthwaite which was also my destination for the day. I noticed he was using the Inn Way Lake District guide book. We struck up a conversation and walked to Rosthwaite together. Edward bought me a pint at the pub at Rosthwaite. My Carling! After chilling, we headed to Borrowdale YHA which was located at the outskirts of the village. It was a lovely hostel - one of the better and bigger ones. Had my self-prepared dinner with Edward in the dining room, before I started my revision there later in the night. I have to repeat this: The walk today was superb! Have fallen in love with rambling, and how I wish I could do it for a living!