Cumbria Way Day 4 & Chapel Stile to Kendal Day 1.
Distance today: 12.1 miles.
Total distance: 593.2 miles.
Accommodation: campsite.
I think the Great Langdale Campsite is worthy of another plug. I probably wasn’t in a fit state to fully appreciate it last night but is a lovely campsite in a wonderful location and with great facilities. You can even get fresh croissants at reception. I definitely hope to return under more relaxed circumstances. I still wasn’t feeling brilliant today with the sense of queasiness refusing to go away. I think both my phone and my power block must have been empathizing because they were also taking a long time to get back to full strength. Perhaps what we all needed was an easy day. With that in mind, I decided to make Ambleside my target.
Theoretically I should have been using the Cumbria Way until I reached Chapel Stile but I ended up finding various other paths which still allowed me to avoid the main road most of the way to Skelwith Bridge. The last section was pretty familiar as Penny and I had walked it a couple of years ago. Come to think of it, that was the only part of the whole trip that I had done before. The Lake District continued to live up to expectations. While the basic landscape components might have been the same as yesterday – flat valley surrounded by steep mountainside – everything was a lot softer and greener. Still beautiful but less desolate.
From Skelwith Bridge to Ambleside, there wasn’t much option other than to follow the busy A593. There was the occasional path running parallel with the road but I was definitely happy when I reached the town. I found a pub to hole up in for a while, nursing a cup of tea while my phone charged. I had thought about treating myself to a hotel or Airbnb but couldn’t find anything that offered value for money so I ended up going to the Rydal Hall campsite. It was about a mile and half out of town in the wrong direction but it was in a nice setting. There was definitely a Christian vibe about the whole place but with just 3 other tents in my field, the campsite was fine. I finished the day with a veggie pasty and a chocolate twist courtesy of Ambleside bakery selling things off cheaply before closing.
