Day Eleven - Derwent Water Boat Launch & etc.

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Today was our last day at Keswick. In the morning, my wife stayed back, so three of drove to a car park near the Keswick Boat Launch, with tours of Derwentwater. It was overcast, windy, and cold, especially if you stood outside. It is a beautiful lake and the stops are almost all hiking trail related.   

Keswick has a Thursday Market Day, so afterwards we spent time there. Rich & I had a brew at the Dog & Gun Pub before all of us headed home. It was a day you just while away. At home we did laundry, getting things in order for the drive back to Scotland, tomorrow. 

At 6 pm we had dinner at the Theatre by the Lake, followed by a hilarious stage production of Little Voice. We sat in the first row of the 2nd floor balcony.  

note - you can enlarge any part of a picture by left-clicking in and then out again.

	Keswick Launch boat at stop one		overcast & windy		hotel at south end of lake		with a waterfall to the left
						sunshine for a minute
	hikers disembarking		Hawk's End stop for Catbells walk		leaving the Catbells area		Blencathra in the distance
		two Keswick Boat Launch boats work the lake		boats go clockwise or anti-clockwise		view of Skiddaw on the way back

KESWICK & DERWENT WATER

The following images from the web help convey Keswick's position in relation to Derwent Water, and, shows the most popular trail at Derwent Water to Catbells, a 1,300 foot climb.  The third image shows how to walk there from town, but the typical short-cut is via the Boat Launch stop 1, at Hawk's End.  

	looking west from Keswick		Derwent Water Boat Launch stops		trail to Catbells, see note
		walking to Catbells		Skiddaw from  Catbells

note - this detail from an OS Explorer map shows how thorough and useful the maps are for walkers. At the top of the image, in the center, is a tiny number 86, which is exactly where Willow Green, our rental house, was located. 

WILLOW GREEN

	living room		dining room		compact kitchen
		reading with a fire		journal entries at night, from my wife's phone		morning view from bedroom
	best view of the Catbells from a week's stay

The house was just the right size for four adults and we prepared many decent meals there. 

Before the trip I had offered by email to pay the owners for extra firewood usage, assuming we would often have a fire going. Once we were there, the generous owners stopped by and gave us a key to the wood shed, with unlimited access to soft & hard wood piles, but the weather was not cold and we only had a fire going on two cold-ish windy & rainy nights.     

There was a pleasant radiator system throughout the house, taking maybe 20 minutes to generate heat, so turning up the dial was my first act of the day (after turning it down all night).  

In the ensuite was a stack of white horizontal tubes, a towel dryer and general radiator, quite the luxury. Even on the lowest setting, it kept the bathroom warm & dry, but we turned it off if we went out.  

As for doing your laundry, the house had a European style combo washer-dryer, which on ECO mode took 3.5 hours to do a small load. Fortunately, LCB found a setting where a small load came out perfect, both washed & dried, after only 35 minutes. She excelled as our resident techie.     

go to next page - Drive to Scottish Borders - Vindolanda Roman Fort & Jedburgh Abbey

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