Today is known as the most difficult leg of the walk. It’s tough and it’s long….just how I like it! We had to to hike from Glenridding to Bampton Grange. There’s no warming up on this leg. Straight into it and up Boredale Hause. The views at the top of Angle Tarn are your reward. It really is a special little spot, complete with its own mini private islands. The second climb up to The Knot comes quickly, but again there is a reward. You get to experience the High Street, an old Roman road that ran north south. Why on earth did they build it up here though, was all I could think. The answer is that it was built to link the Roman forts at Ambleside and Penrith. It’s one of those paths that just draws you in with a “come hither” stare, but alas we had to turn left, not right to reach our final Lakeland summit of Kidsty Pike….the highest point on the Coast to Coast. From here it was a steep decent down to Haweswater reservoir and if your legs weren’t feeling like jelly before, they were by now!

Haweswater was once a small, unassuming lake but is now Cumbria’s largest body of water, its valley being flooded and dammed. Unfortunately it saw some villages being swallowed up by the inundation, the largest being Mardale, whose walls and building can still eerily be seen if the water level is low enough. Finally our destination of the day, Bampton Grange was happily in view, with its gorgeous little church built in 1726. Just try to stop me imagining I’m in a Jane Austen novel! It was time to say a sad farewell to The Lakes District. We were now in The Eden Valley.

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