Postcard from Cumbria – Day Two – Brothers Water Loop

.Yesterday was fairly heavy going so we opt for a more leisurely, low-level walk today. It’s along the bottom of the valleys and follows what could have been that of the knight mentioned in Witch of the Westmoreland in the ‘Day One’ post. He’s mortally wounded and making his way through these narrow tracks with ‘hawk and brindled hound at hand’ and needs to find the witch in order to be healed. He’s been and bathed in Ulswater, trying to stem the blood, and the ravens in the nearby fields have told him that there is none but the “Maid of the Winding Mere” who can save him so he’s turned his stallion’s head and is now riding through the night with some urgency.

We are walking these lower tracks and passing some of the most beautiful rhododendrons in the brightest of colours, from electric blue to the most vivid yellows. We pass waterfalls that are a little subdued through lack of water, but that which is still flowing produces a natural stimulus to our senses.

There’s a return point at the end of the track, and we split into two groups, one to return and the other to continue around Brothers Water. With a cheery wave, we split and make our way to the track that hugs the lake edge. It’s littered with tree roots and occasional stones, so extra care is required.

At a natural break in the shrubs, we find ourselves on a gravelly beach and stop to gaze at the flat, calm surface mirroring the trees and mountains around it. You can’t buy moments like these, and we stay for several minutes.

The track rises and falls in the shrubs, then leads us through a campsite that reminds me of numerous holidays and festivals where the only thing between us and the elements was a thin piece of treated material, sometimes supplemented with a flysheet if your tent was posh! It’s not like that now with tents that have separate rooms and blow themselves up in seconds using tiny compressors that are battery or car-powered, or tents that sit on top of your car with a little ladder to enter them. I’m a three-pee-per-night sort of person and couldn’t handle that now.

The return to our accommodation remains on easy tracks, and the simplicity of this walk is well appreciated, along with the half-hour picnic lunch sitting on grassy mounds and gazing across the valley.

This is a lovely walk with great friends.

Enjoy the snaps. G xx

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