Explore with Amie

If you’d like a practical look at what we packed and how we planned the Cumbria Way, please check out my recent post The Cumbria Way: Packing and Planning Guide. This takes you through the logistics of the route including where we stayed and how we broke down the route into 6 and a half days from Ulverston to Carlisle. In this post, I’m going to focus more on how I felt about each stage as well as recommendations and learnings based on our experience. Let’s start with day one.

Day 1: Ulverston to Torver

Day one saw us setting off quite late which I think was the first mistake of the trip. By the time we had done a final bag check, headed to a cash machine (essential to pay for campsites) and stopped off at the Tesco Express in the town centre for that day’s lunch it was well past 10 o’clock. Then, it was time to take pictures at the monument that marks the start of the Cumbria Way. It’s not a particularly pretty monument but the pre-walk photograph shouldn’t be missed. With all this out the way, it was probably 11 o’clock by the time we started walking which wasn’t ideal. I found myself to be quite nervous at the start of the day as, having booked everything, I felt the pressure to make sure everything ran smoothly.

Walking out of Ulverston, our spirits were high though. The sun was shining and once you’ve walked out of the town, you’re presented with great views looking back to Hoad Hill and the John Barrow Monument. The route is also fairly well way marked as you wind your way through farmers fields in this first initial stage, walking towards the Lake District National Park.

Naturally, walking through farmland has the added consideration of cows. On one occasion, we approached a field to see a herd directly across from us, blocking the exit to the field with their calves. Because they had young, we weren’t hugely enthusiastic about walking towards them so, instead opted to climb into the next field, walk alongside the boundary wall and then climb back over at the end. Funnily enough, almost as soon as we had exited the field, another pair of walkers approached and walked straight at the cows who happily moved out of the way… We had spent some time deliberating about what to do and yet we could have probably just walked straight through. You never know though!

I also underestimated the distance of the day too which didn’t make the rest of the group particularly happy. I had said that the distance was 18km however, this was before we had planned campsites so I had measured the distance only between Ulverston and Torver. Our campsite was around half way between Torver and Coniston so the extra 5km alongside Coniston Lake wasn’t factored in and it felt like a very long day when we finally arrived at 8pm. At this time, the midges were lively and the pub was shut. It was a slow start to the trip indeed.

Another personal mistake I made on day one was not eating enough. I barely had any breakfast because of the nerves that I mentioned and ate only a sandwich for lunch with no additional snacks. That, plus the distance and weight of my pack meant that I really struggled on day one. I think lack of energy was a huge factor in that and I definitely endeavoured to eat more the following days of the trip.

I have been overly negative whilst talking about day one but I would be lying if I said that I didn’t struggle. I definitely look back and see what I could have done differently. At the time, I really wondered whether I would make it to the end of the Cumbria Way. That was silly as you do just have to keep going and take each day as it comes but, it was a shock to the system. You’ll see that things quickly started turning around.

Day 2: Torver to Chapel Stile

Having another 20+ km to do on day two, we aimed to set off a little earlier. But, setting off early is always a challenge when when you have tents to dry and pack away, so it was still around 10:30am by the time we started walking. My sister, Megan, who was with us on the trip, was in full drill sergeant mode that morning and she was determined that our pace would be faster than the day before so that we could go to the pub at the campsite. So, off we went into Coniston which is a great spot to resupply and have a toilet stop should you need it.

As soon as we set off, most members of our group had pain in their feet. This may have been due to getting so wet the day before, as our feet became quite soft and then, of course, we continued to walk on them. I could feel the bottom of my feet and a giant blister beginning to grow on my heel. Usually, my Scarpa boots are perfect and I’ve never had a blister from them before so I do think getting wet had something to do with it. I popped a blister plaster on and then on we went.

Heading out of Coniston, there is a short climb, and then you head into woodlands. The terrain is vastly different on day two, and the variety greatly helped our mood and progress. It included woodlands, fields, waterfalls, tarns and rivers. One of my favourite parts of the day was passing Tarn Hows, which is a very popular spot in the Lake District but not one that I had ever visited. Belted Galloway cows are free to roam around the water and are an incredible sight! The surrounding hills and the bright summers day made for a great first visit to the tarn and showed it off in all its glory. There is also a cafe here so we had a snack break with an ice tea which went down a treat. From then on we were playing games and singing to pass the time – I highly recommend.

We had 20.7km for day two and, even though this was less than day one, it was again the final kilometres that were the hardest. This involved walking along River Brathay into Chapel Stile. The day had the added pressure of a campsite that could not be booked in advance. We were quite concerned about this however, Ed, one of our group, had actually stayed there before and argued that the site was massive and was sure that there would be enough room for us. I was skeptical but he was right! This campsite was huge and had a lovely pub, The Wainwright Inn, just down the road. I hobbled my way to the pub that evening on very painful feet but it was well worth it for the pint and pub grub.

Day 3: Chapel Stile to Borrowdale

We woke up in the pouring rain at Chapel Stile. Luckily, the campsite had a very handy shelter near the facilities that we could sit under whilst we had our breakfast. Alex and Ed kindly put down the tents whilst the rest of us started heating the water for our porridge. We had known that the weather was going to be bad so, that took away some of the damp mood but, it is always quite miserable setting out in the rain. Unlike on day one though, we had prepared with our waterproofs on ourselves and our bags.

Day three was a real turning point for me. Understandably, the first few kilometres of each day were always hard, as I needed to get into the flow of walking and out of my head a little bit to enjoy the walk. This became incredibly obvious on day three, when I struggled my way to the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel and was quite upset by the time we arrived. All I could think about was how hard it was and how far we still had to go. But, I didn’t want to quit and so pushed through and kept going. I would learn throughout the rest of the trip to push through these initial struggles in the knowledge that it would get better and I would enjoy myself once I was in the rhythm of the day.

One thing I haven’t mentioned so far is my hiking poles. The Cumbria Way was the first time I had ever used them. I used two poles for day one and two but didn’t feel like they were helping; instead I felt like they were forcing me to go slower. This was probably due to my inexperience but, on day three, I opted to just use one of them and that was much better for me personally. Using one seemed to fit better with my walking and really felt like it was propelling me forward rather than holding me back.

Day three also features the first climb of The Cumbria Way. There is never any significant elevation gain if you’re taking the official route; however, there are two sections that could be considered hilly. One is Stake Pass, which climbs out of the Mickleden Valley and down into Borrowdale. Like with day two, we used singing and games to pass the time as, the foul weather and low visibility weren’t enough to dampen our spirits. In fact, I was enjoying this day very much! It felt like we were well into the Lake District at this point, surrounded by the magnificence of the mountains.

17km later we arrived at Chapel House Farm in Borrowdale which was probably my least favourite campsite of the whole trip but, it was by no means bad. The owners were friendly and the campsite was nice and clean with good facilities. We arrived in good time too – the first time since the trip began! That meant that we could once again head to the pub for some food. We visited the The Langstrath Country Inn and were surprised to find that we’d actually been there before with my sister! Last year (or perhaps the year before that) we camped at a site in Seathwaite and were disappointed to find that it had no clean drinking water and the facilities were subpar at best. The toilets had no lights or toilet roll; at that point, you may as well be wild camping. We made sure we weren’t staying there this time but I hadn’t realised quite how close to it we were. The pub, on the other hand, had decent food and pints on offer which is all we needed. It was a little on the expensive side but that is expected from the Lake District. Plus, it wasn’t quite as painful to hobble there as the previous night!

Day 4: Borrowdale to Keswick

As I discussed in the Packing and Preparation guide, Ed was actually leaving at Keswick as he couldn’t get the full time off work. This meant that we had a short distance on day four and so, we decided to add in a detour up Catbells and boy was that a brilliant idea!

We were blessed with fantastic weather on day four and, after the drizzle of the day before, we were even more appreciative of the blue sky and bright sunshine. We were also well into the routine of packing up each morning and managed it in record time, making our way back to the trail for around 10am. The Cumbria Way is very much low level here and passes through woodland and alongside a river.

As you can imagine, the highlight of this day was undoubtedly reaching the summit of Catbells. At 451 metres, this isn’t the tallest of the Lake District fells but it is an incredibly popular one because of its accessibility from Keswick. I hadn’t walked up before so this was a fabulous opportunity to tick off another Wainwright.

It was a very clear day with not a cloud in sight and so the views from the peak were pretty spectacular. You could see across Derwentwater to Keswick and had views of lots of the fells in the lakes. Surprisingly, for a random Wednesday around lunchtime, the peak was very busy and I can guess that on a weekend in the summer its even busier! It made me even more grateful that we’d taken the opportunity to bag it as we would have been in those weekend queues for the summit on another day. This was a big difference to the rest of the trail when we had come across only a few other hikers, other than at the campsites. It was actually quite nice! Plus, it was a bit of an ego boost when people exclaimed about how much ‘luggage’ we were carrying up there. Multiple people referred to our rucksacks as ‘luggage’ which I found quite amusing.

The descent of Catcalls was much more fun than the way up which was a straightforward path. The descent involves a very minor bit of clambering. In some instances, when I felt like the bag was shifting my weight and making me less sure footed, I did a little bum shuffle and it was all okay. It was fairly easy but required a bit more concentration than the climb upwards. Sadly, there is quite a bit of erosion at the top of Cat Bells, probably more than I have seen on any other mountain in the UK and it reiterated the need to stick to footpaths as much as possible.

We then had a lovely lunch stop alongside the banks of Derwentwater – mainly because we went the wrong way and ended up at the boat crossing but, we’ll pretend it was intentional. We walked the last hour and a half or so into Keswick to the YHA where we would be staying the night. With only 15km (and a mountain!) on day four, we arrived in the early afternoon and so managed to all have a shower and a refresh before heading out for dinner at my favourite restaurant in Keswick: The Round.

Up there with one of my favourite burger restaurants of all time (alongside the beloved Byron Burger), The Round is inspired by the Lake District Rounds which are long-distance trail running routes that people aim to complete within 24 hours. The burgers themselves are also all named after the fells too which I love. They’re just delicious. I’ve been to The Round only twice and sampled four of their burgers because each time I can’t decide so encourage someone to half and half with me! I’ve never been disappointed. Even Megan who isn’t too fussed about burgers most of the time, really enjoyed it! The atmosphere in there is great and the staff are always very attentive – even if they’re all wearing headsets to talk to each other (weird but smart). I highly recommend The Round anytime you’re visiting Keswick.

Going to sleep that night with the knowledge that we didn’t have to take a down a tent and were actually in a bed – what a treat!

Day 5: Keswick to Caldbeck

After a very productive morning in Keswick which included breakfast from Greggs, a visit to Go Outdoors and Booths to stock up on meals, plus waving goodbye to Ed at the bus station, we rejoined the trail. We’d already gotten some steps in walking laps of Keswick!

The Cumbria Way skirts Latrigg as it exits the town which is another fell that I haven’t bagged yet. It wasn’t something we were going to add into this day though as we had a hot, long walk ahead. We had discussed making the diversion up Skiddaw however, we thought that wouldn’t be sensible in the end. The temperatures were climbing to 27 degrees and they weren’t the only thing going up. The day would include the hardest climb of the trip towards Lingy Hut.

Before that though, we headed to Skiddaw YHA (the highest bunkhouse in Britain!) and had our first break of the day. We had hoped to be able to head inside out of the sun but, the hostel was closed and building locked up. Instead, we sat outside in a spot of shade and reapplied suncream. It was incredibly hot and I had already dunked my sunhat into a stream to try and stay cool. That is a top tip when it is hot: dunk your sunhat into water wherever possible. Alex wasn’t wearing a hat so he was just dipping his hair in!

From the YHA, it is a long and flat walk skirting the valley. Megan aptly nicknamed this part of the trail ‘Death Valley’ as it was baking hot and there wasn’t much going on. It was quite difficulty because of the monotony and the knowledge that we had quite a big climb to come. As I mentioned, the route passes the bothy, Lingy Hut which marks the end of the steepest climb before going on to High Pike, the highest point of The Cumbria Way at 658m. The climb to Lingy Hut is tough, especially in such hot weather. Have I mentioned it was hot? The path hugs the gill so it involves a lot of moving from rock to rock, almost like climbing stairs in certain areas whilst avoiding tremendous amounts of bog in others. By the time we reached the top, about 100m from Lingy Hut, I had to sit down as I thought I might throw up! After a short break though, I was ready to plow on to Lingy Hut.

This bothy came at the perfect time. We could sit inside and have lunch. I am calling this lunch but, the time was certainly not lunchtime. We ate our meal deals that we’d bought that morning from Booths at 5pm… I wouldn’t necessarily recommend waiting so long to eat a proper meal but we had two snack breaks earlier in the day and were eating dried fruit as we were walking so I’d actually eaten much better than I had on day one, despite the lateness of the hour.

Part of the enjoyment here though was that we met a woman taking a break in the hut too who was on the Cumbria Way. This was the first time we’d properly managed to chat to someone who was doing the route and we discussed how she was tackling it. Funnily enough, this woman mentioned that she had met a couple who were walking the route who were also from the same town in South Yorkshire where my sister and I grew up. It was a funny coincidence! We were hoping to meet them at some point during the trip – I’ll not spoil if we do or not… We also spoke to another man who arrived at Lingy Hut shortly after us. Quite spectacularly, this man had walked all the way from Carlisle that day! He was stoping for some food before carrying on as far as he could. Now that is impressive. It would be another full day and a half before we arrived in Carlisle.

After fantastic views at the top of High Pike, we then descended towards the village of Caldbeck. There is a little bit of road walking to end day five and we soon arrived at Caldbeck campsite which was probably my favourite campsite of the trail! It was fabulous. The facilities were great and it was nice and small which I enjoyed. It was another long day as we didn’t arrive until around 7-8 pm at the campsite and so we opted to eat our dehydrated meals. I was surprised that Megan and Charlie had come right around to the idea of eating these and would go on to voluntarily eat them on day six even though we could have headed to the pub! The meals were supplemented on day five by some very kind girls at the campsite who gave us some of their leftover barbecue and some chocolate for dessert. It was very generous of them. The pub in Caldbeck was also so quaint and cosy – we enjoyed a pint here after our dehydrated dinner!

Unfortunately, the only downside to this day was a very drunk man at our campsite who kept making odd noises in the middle of the night. The less said about that, the better. It didn’t affect my opinion of the site though and, they didn’t keep me awake, although the same can’t be said for Alex. The owner of the campsite even apologised even though it absolutely wasn’t there fault!

Day 6: Caldbeck to Dalston

Again, I went into the reasons why we opted to stay in Dalston rather than pushing on Carlisle in the Packing and Preparation post so I won’t go into it again here. I will say that it was definitely the right one though.

Caldbeck Campsite is on the Cumbria Way so we were instantly back on the trail after breakfast. I guess, actually, we never really left it! After a short walk through a woodland area, it was field after field all the way to Dalston. It was very much reminiscent of day one but this time, we were much more prepared or just mentally stronger than we were on day one and so were able to push through. The path follows the river basically all the way into Dalston and there isn’t too much to say about it. The route leaves the Lake District behind.

Funnily enough, we did meet the couple walking the route from our hometown on this day and I can tell you, their pace was quite something. They weren’t carrying anything really which helps of course but, it was still very impressive!

We arrived in Dalston early afternoon and had plenty of time to pushed on to Carlisle however, after walking in 27 degree heat for two days, we were feeling quite tired at this point. Plus, the rest of the path to Carlisle was on tarmac and that always hurts the bottom of your feet more so, we really wanted fresh feet to tackle it. We had prebooked into Cardewlees Campsite outside of Dalston which was an okay campsite all-in-all but it is a little way off the path. It’s the only option to camp in Dalston though and it took a bit of road walking to get there. Unfortunately, this was down a national speed limit road which wasn’t ideal. It wasn’t too bad but, we wanted to just get through it as quickly as possible.

We were at the campsite for about 5pm and spent the evening playing card games, having a few drinks and fruit that we’d picked up at the Co-op in Dalston. It was just a lovely last evening on the trip!

Day 7: Dalston to Carlisle

8km on a tarmac footpath and we were in Carlisle city centre! On the way we met a guy called Bradley who he was on an incredible journey from Land’s End to John o’Groats but via the three peaks…That is really quite the epic trail and he was doing it all to raise money for Mind. We walked with him for the our last kilometres into Carlisle and heard about his journey through the South West and Wales, up Snowdon and then onto the Lake District where he’d tackled Scafell Pike just a few days before. He had some pretty incredible pictures and stories to share! It also put into perspective our journey – it wasn’t like we could complain about our six long days when he was on day 40 something…

Regardless though, it was a great feeling to arrive at the Market Square Monument which marks the end of Cumbria Way. We’d done it! I was so pleased. Charlie joked that he hadn’t seen me smile in a week until we’d reached the end. I love that feeling; I’m such a completion-ist! It was a hard week, don’t get me wrong but I would do it again in a heartbeat. Actually, I wouldn’t do it again because we’ve already done it! I’d do another long-distance trail. In fact, we’re hoping to do one again with the same group next year.

Did someone say Coast to Coast?

Amie x