Their story, in their words…
Walking the Cumbria Way was a hugely gratifying experience despite the twists and turns along the way. The four of us started day 1 with an early morning train to Ulverston where we would begin our walk at around 11am. We were aiming to walk 24km to Coniston water, however the walk ended up being longer due to changes to the route made by the local farmers and poor signage along parts of the walk. The walk took us into the Lake District, we witnessed the changes in environment going from rolling hills of fields to a more exposed and wild environment. Our day ended up taking longer than planned with us getting to the campsite at around 9pm.
We left Coniston water on day 2 with the thought that the walk would be simpler due to it being the shortest of the days although it was a tougher day than expected. After spending an elongated lunch at Tarn Hows we realised we had a lot more to do than we first expected. We ended up getting to the next campsite in the beautiful Great Langdale valley by 7pm although our enjoyment of the views was hampered by the torrential rain that confined us to our tents for the rest of the evening and the night.
Still raining in the morning, we had to push on as we had our hardest day ahead of us in which we were to go deeper into the Lake District away from any roads that we could use in case we had any problems. We had to walk through the valley and then up a steep climb to ‘Stake Pass’. One of our group members had been struggling with the bag and the intensity of the walk and this climb took a large toll on them. After stopping for Lunch we made our way down into the next valley, we had made up a lot of distance but still had about half of the day’s walk until we got to the campsite in Keswick. Our next part of the walk was very stunted however as the mentioned group member started to struggle significantly. It got to the point eventually when we still had around 8km to do and it would’ve taken us until about 11pm until we actually reached the campsite. We decided to make the decision to get the last bus of the day to Keswick for our teammates sake. Despite our problems this day was hugely rewarding, with beautiful views constantly along the isolated walk.
The final day we sadly said goodbye to our teammate who made the decision to go home from Keswick. The first half of the hike up to Skiddaw house saw us climb constantly upwards until a long stretch along the Lonsdale crags. Another group member (out of the 3 of us remaining) had been having slight problems with their shoes during this but after our lunch at the house these problems became much more significant. His feet had become very painful and it became hard for him to walk. Due to the isolated nature of this part of the hike we had to keep on going. We walked through a long valley filled with wildflowers and then up steeply to the highest point of our walk. The scenery turned very bleak and the walk turned marshy but the views at High Pike were very worth it as you were able to see back towards Scafell Pike, North towards Scotland and Yorkshire to the East. At this point our group member was struggling a lot as he had been walking for hours in pain- we had to make our way down slowly towards the nearest public road. Luckily we were able to get him a lift to the campsite while we finished the last stretch of the walk.
Overall it was a hugely rewarding and a unique experience (despite the setbacks). It was not something we would likely have done without the foundation’s help but personally it has given me the desire to do more hikes like it. The walk was stunning throughout and we met many helpful, kind locals along the way! We ended up walking 97 km and ascending 2715m over the 4 days.
