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Wednesday 13 August 2014

Slips, trips, falls and amazing views






This was by far the toughest walk we did in our week in the Lake District, but that said it was also the best, most rewarding and fun!
The walk started from the National Trusts Bowder Stone car park in Borrowdale.
No sooner had we parked the car than the first slip of the day happened, Isobel my daughter in her wisdom thought it would be a good idea to jump from one damp moss covered rock to another, this resulted in an early lunch as the ice pack from the cool bag was needed on a grazed shin!! Tears mopped up and half the picnic later it was time to consult the walking book for our starting instructions.
The walk sets out from the top end of the car park through a gate and along a faint trail through the trees passing to the left of a large boulder. This proved to be a good photo stop, so as I was readying my phone to take the picture my wife decides to climb the boulder to show off her rock climbing skills, just before I was ready to take the picture she slipped and gracefully slid down the boulder landing in a nice heap on the wet grass. Now as you can imagine this amused the kids no end, the only downside was that I had failed to capture the incident.
Once the laughing had subsided we continued past the old quarry face over a faint ridge and into a wooded area where the trail started to climb fairly steep in parts. The path was slippery in places especially when wrestling one of the dogs as well, which was the cause of the next fall. Archie our youngest son slipped while holding one of the dogs, Archie stopped whereas the dog didn't.. resulting in a bent finger, yet more tears and another injury stop.
The path continued uphill before levelling out for a brief spell before another steep climb to the summit of Kings How. 
At the summit the hard work is repaid many times over by the views of the valley and Derwent Water in one direction and Borrowdale in the opposite direction.
Amazing view from the summit at Kings How
At this point it was pointed out that as my eldest son was nursing an earlier scooter injury I was in fact the only member of the family without a holiday war wound, the pressure was on me for the descent!!
The descent is through more open ground and as we found at this time of year tall Bracken. At times the Bracken was taller than the children but this seemed to add to the adventure of it all for them.
There is a family in there somewhere
At points the descent is steep and slippery and at one point a couple of ramblers appeared from deep within the Bracken asking for help in finding their way, quite impressed with ourselves for not losing our way we pointed them in the right direction before following the trail back down to a road.
Perfect spot for a skimming competition
Instructions in the book said to walk along the walk a short way before heading pubs path to the right towards the Bowder Stone but we made a detour across the road to the river for a spot of stone skimming and to give the dogs a chance for a swim to cool down before joining  the path to the stone.
Once the Bowder Stone had been conquered the path leads back to the car park. From here it's a short drive or walk into Borrowdale and a chance to try out the local tea room .
The children recommend the flapjack




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