Watendlath and its tarn

I think this was the most enjoyable day I've had all summer so far. Again Sal was with me and we called in at Surprise View on the way up as she hadn't been there before. There I got talking to an old local, sorry I'll rephrase that, an old local pounced on me and then began to rant about the wind turbines which had been installed at the top end of Bassenthwaite Lake. He then moved on to local government corruption before finishing off on the Tory Government and their corruption. He kept referring to David Cameron as Camairon so at first I was at a loss as to what he was going on about. Eventually the penny dropped though so I joined in with my four penneth. Sal couldn't understand a word he was saying so she discreetly strolled off to take some photos looking down on to Derwentwater.

We carried on along the narrrow road up to the hamlet of Watendlath and it's tarn. We both needed a bit of a leg stretch so we put our walking shoes on and, after watching the local sheep being sheared, we headed off along the path which eventually takes you up to Dock Tarn. Instead of going up to the tarn, we cut off this path and followed a rather flat and boggy path across the wetlands to eventually joined the bridleway coming up from Rosthwaite in Borrowdale. I took her on a slight detour so that she could see the view down to Borrowdale which is one of the loveliest in the district. Unfortunately the weather wasn't really much good for photography but there will be plenty of other days for us to make a return trip. I suppose the next time, we could come up from Borrowdale, drop down to Watendlath and then follow the valley path before coming down via High Lodore Falls and the woods. This is another splendid walk.

We finished our stroll off with a nice pot of tea for two sat outside the Caffle House Tea Rooms and watched the small birds raiding the scraps left by the cafe clientele. One small, scruffy baby blue-tit had its beak firmly wedged in someone's left over strawberry jam and was having the time of its short life! We both agreed that we'd had a lovely afternoon, made better by heading off and avoiding the crowds which this popular place attracts.