Day 14: Friday 22nd April 2022

Day 14: Friday 22nd April 2022

Our last full day in the Lake District today! We have loved it here. 

Another early start - after having a quick breakfast, we left around 7.40 to catch the 8.20 bus to Kendal, before changing for the Penrith 508 service. It was an amazing bus journey - travelling over the Kirkstone Pass, which is the area’s highest road at 1,489 feet. The views were incredible from the bus, although narrow and it did get a bit tricky for the driver when a lorry came the other way! The bus was extremely quiet though - it does seem to have a much lower number of people wanting to visit Ullswater despite being a beautiful lake. 

Once we reached Glenridding, we looked around the village before a wander to the lakeside. It was quite windy but great to see. All the lakes have seemed very different from each other so worthwhile to visit as many as possible. We then started a three mile walk, leading to a viewpoint on Keldas of the Southern part of Ullswater lake, again a superb view. The footpath through Lanty’s Tarn was closed due to storm damage but the diversion did join back up with the original path and the the rest of the walk passed through farmland and by a river. 

The view from Keldas

We returned to Glenridding around lunchtime. Here we did get a bit stuck on what to do for the rest of the day. We debated getting the bus further out to see another part of the lake, but buses only go every hour towards Penrith, and every two hours back to Windermere, so we didn’t want to miss the bus back and wouldn’t have had much time to look around. The hotel did have good vegan options for lunch but was very expensive, so we just decided to have the crisp sandwich that we had brought as a snack near the carpark - not the best lunch, nor the best spot, but it did make us laugh! 

In the end we decided to get the bus to the Kirkstone Pass, as mum had seen a path from the Kirkstone Pass to Ambleside. As we got off the bus, we noticed the Kirkstone Pass Inn and decided to go and get a drink, as it was in a great location for views and cheaper than the hotel - so it did work out for the best. We shared chips too before starting the walk to Ambleside. 

We walked down the road known as ‘The Struggle’ (luckily for is we were going downhill, but we could tell where the name came from for those going up!). It was nice to reach Ambleside and a good last ‘adventure’ here!

At Windermere station we got some food supplies and then caught the bus home, getting back around 7pm! Pretty exhausted today - walked 20km in total and quite a long time on buses again but so worth it.

I realise over the last 4 days I have mentioned that the view was great for every new place we visited - but the area is so stunning that it is hard not to!!

Tomorrow we drive to Newcastleton, over the border into Scotland!