10/05/17 - Inn Way to Lake District - Day 2 - Rosthwaite to Braithwaite

Start - Rosthwaite
End - Braithwaite
Distance - 11.2 Miles
Key Features - Ascent of High Spy, Classic View over Catbells, Newlands Valley
Geocaches - 5
Pubs - 4 (9 In Total)
Previous Legs - Day 1
A sense of Deja Vu at breakfast, as I take the same table as for last nights dinner, sat next to the same people.  They are all Coast to Coasters and I am the only Inn Wayer.   Without a doubt, they are jealous of my remaining 39 pubs.

Its promising to be another gorgeous day and the walking starts deceptively easy, across the valley floor.  I pick up three good geocaches, including one ironically hidden in an original Garmin 12 Channel GPS receiver.

Borrowdale Valley Floor

But there's no cause to celebrate.  The next reference on the OS map is "Climbing Hut".  This can mean only one thing.  I'm going up.  And up.  Through the Rigghead Quarries and mines until I summit High Spy.

2080 Feet only just makes it a mountain but you try doing it with a weeks pairs of pants and other associated apparel strapped to you back.

Climbing Hut poking out in Top Right Corner

High Spy Summit Cairn

Of course, it is worth it.  There's a geocache at the top - so I can tweet some extreme caching pictures and get nearly 10 likes from my ever growing band of followers.  I also get a good couple of high level, scenic miles in until I am presented with the classic Cat Bells View, jutting out into Derwent Water and the Newlands Valley.

Classic Lakeland View

It's been a tough morning.  I don't reach the first pub of the day until 1:45pm.

Pub 6 - The Swinside Inn, Swinside, Thwaites Lightfoot

And it's an absolute gem.

Sight for Sore Legs

Lovely beer garden and superbly kept beer.  Stunning views all around.

The only problem with it is its painted white and on leaving (for leave I must), I can see it for miles as I make my way up Stonycroft Gill for the day's 2nd ascent to Barrow Door.  A quick Geocache and a bit of a lie down and I have one of those classic walks, seemingly never ending downwards with Braithwaite always in view.

Beautiful Path to Braithwaite

Going have to admit it, I am quite knackered by the time I reach the village.  But the rewards, of course, are there.

Pub 7 - Coledale Inn, Braithwaite, Yates Bitter

There's a really good chance that this will be my pub of the week.   Yates Brewery has become something of a discovery over the week and this was the first place that it was sampled.  The pub is handsome enough, but the views from the Beer Garden are even better.

Could be "Best of the Week"

I'll admit it.  I had more than 1.

The footpath from the fells runs right past the front of the pub, so I pulled up a high backed chair, sat back and like a tubby mermaid, I lured ramblers to their alcoholic doom by waving around my pint and saying how well it was going down in the afternoon sun.

They should have put me on commission, I had a 100% sell rate.

It will take a long time for me to forget this most pleasant of afternoons.

Pub 8 - Royal Oak, Braithwaite, Jennings Sneck Lifter

How's this for co-incidence.  Not only have I stayed here before, I was put in exactly the same room. In the future, it may need a plaque to show that Mappiman the blogger stayed here.  Twice.

Its a perfectly functional boozer, where the food is good quality and plentiful and the beer well kept.

Recommended Base

I could have gatecrashed the landlords 50th Celebrations, but there was one more to discover.

Pub 9 - Middle Ruddings Country Inn, Braithwaite, Fell Brewery Tinderbox IPA

The Braithwaite representative within the Good Beer Guide.

And you can guess it.  I had the first (and on completion, only) pint that I didn't enjoy in the week.

Middle Ruddings

The Fell Brewery Tinderbox IPA was very strong and tasted it and also very cloudy.  6.3% is probably getting uncomfortably close to "sit in a beer garden and shout at passers by" territory.

What are jolly japes in an afternoon, take on a sinister hue as darkness falls.

I retired back to the Royal Oak to see how the birthday celebrations were proceeding.