Field Hopping

We parked at Wray Castle and the sky brightened a little as we put on our boots. The Cabin Boy put out some bird seed on to the top of the fence posts and within seconds the crows swooped down and caused mayhem. Dropping down to the lakeside we came across a lone fisherman sat in a small canvas shelter. He'd got a number of rods set up, but nothing seemed to be biting. At High Wray Bay we made our way up the bridleway to the High Wray road. After a short walk along the road, we headed off over a stile and into a field. The grassy ground was saturated and care was needed not to take a slide. Blelham Tarn became visible to our right but we couldn't get a good view of it because of intervening trees. Our field hopping progressed south westwards until we got to Hole House. I was expecting some sort of a hole to be there, but I couldn't find one. I had planned to head off over fields again to Loanthwaite Lane, but the recent experience of the saturated fields put me off. Instead, we followed the road to the west of Latterbarrow and then turned off on to Loanthwaite Lane. As I was just patting myself on my back for avoiding the wet fields, we came across a section of the road that was flooded. You can't win them all. Luckily we all had gaiters on and so the water didn't spill into our boots.

Outgate

We headed off over fields again towards Outgate. A rain shower started and then the sun came out at the same time. Well, the forecasters did say sunshine and showers; although they didn't mention they'd occur at the same time. In a small section of sparse wood we came across quite a few mushrooms that were enjoying the damp conditions. 'I wouldn't mind putting some of those in a pan and frying them up' said the Kapitan. His thoughts are never far away from food. In a field just outside Outgate, we came across a single Herdy that was bent forward on to the knees of her front legs. At first, I thought she was just bending down to drink water, but when we approached she hardly moved. It looked like a case of Scald which makes their hooves sore. 

The footpath brought us out at the Outgate Inn. Across the road we found a bench that had been commandeered by three large, damp cuddly toys. I wondered whether it would be impolite of me to shift them so that I could sit down. Nearby the Kapitan found an old water pump. This seemed to fascinate him and he tried it to see if it still worked (it didn't). Our next section was along a 200 metre stretch of the B5286. This was a little tricky since it was quite busy (it's the route between Hawkshead and Ambleside) and didn't have much of a verge to avoid approaching traffic. We eventually managed to get safely through to the bridleway that would take us to Blelham Tarn.

Blelham Tarn

The next section was through some woodland and was quite pleasant. Eventually we broke free of the woods and had a slightly elevated view of Blelham Tarn. It is quite a large tarn and apparently has Great Crested Grebes, Whooper Swans and Golden Eye on its list of residents. The path was too far away to get a good view of them though. 

A light rain was still falling when we reached the road that would take us to the entrance of Wray Castle. It wasn't the 'soaking type' of rain though and so I wasn't that unhappy. A man and three dogs came out of the house next to the drive entrance of Wray Castle. He gave me such a bemused look that I genuinely thought that I must have somehow been tarred and feathered at some point on the walk.

A few brave souls were mooching around the grounds of Wray Castle when we arrived back at the carpark. It seemed that the bad weather hadn't put everybody off.

Today's walk had been a pleasant outing. There was a bit of field hopping and road walking involved, but not enough to be problematic. Blelham Tarn was picturesque and Wray Castle is also worth a tour around too.