During our week long holiday in the Lake District we drove north of Hawkshead for 45 minutes to Keswick with the intention to cycle around Derwent Water.
The market town of Keswick is popular with tourists and with its access to Skiddaw and Blencathra mountains is a magnet for hikers. I had been to Keswick before, but that was in 1990! From old photographs, I’m pretty sure I climbed Cat Bells, a popular and fairly easy 451 m high fell back then. Anyway…
Matt, Yvey, Leigh and Dee had brought their E bikes with them so Chris, Russ and myself had to hire a bike each (this was before Ray and Laura arrived). We hadn’t pre-booked and walked into Whinlatter Bikes where we paid £35 each to hire manual bikes for the day.
With 2 x cockerpoos attached to two of the E bikes there is only so fast they can run alongside which meant us 3 manual bike riders would be able to keep up too 😂
The other two miniature sausage dogs were placed in small dog carriers attached to the back of 2 of the E bikes.
When ready and sorted with bikes, dogs and packed lunches, the 7 persons and 4 dogs set off in search of the trail. We had been informed we would need to cycle mostly on the road on the eastern side of the lake as the track was strewn with rocks and wasn’t too accessible by bike. We therefore set off in search of the other side to begin our 10 mile circumnavigation.
We had just gone past Nichol End Marina when drama struck… thinking it would be safe to let the 4 dogs loose, Jess and Chino, two miniature sausage dogs suddenly disappeared!
After an hour of frantic searching they were both found much further back near the main road 😳 thankfully they were both safe and were hastily popped back into their carriers on the back of the bikes. And there they stayed for a while until Matt’s nerves calmed down…
We continued on our way next to the lake and soon found a lovely spot at a lakeside ‘beach’ area where we enjoyed our picnic lunch.
After lunch the sun was shining as we continued along a beautiful shady section of the western side of the lake.
We had a couple of short stops along the shores of crystal clear Derwent Water.
This section was so lush and with so many shades of green it looked almost tropical.
The cycle and foot path was a shared space and today we were the annoying cyclists getting in the way of people walking around the lake!
We arrived at the River Derwent and had to cross the footbridge. Here the river was so still it looked like a mirror reflecting the surroundings.
We stopped at the River Derwent Foot Bridge for a few minutes before the final stretch back to Keswick. We took the road for most of this part which was far easier than the bumpy uneven rocky tracks so it didn’t take long before we were back in Keswick.
We returned our bikes and sat in the sun in the pub garden of Wetherspoons. As it was so pleasant and we were a bit hungry we decided there and then to have some food in there too. This Wetherspoons was called ‘The Chief Justice of the Common Pleas’ and is housed in a former magistrates court which built in 1901.
On the way back we stopped off at Ashness Bridge, one of the most scenic stops of the Lake District. This is a small stone packhorse bridge although would look better at a different time of the day if it wasn’t in a shadow!
We had one more stop at Castlerigg Stone Circle which was built around 4,500 years ago by prehistoric farming communities. The sign said “This site was carefully chosen to impress and draw upon the natural drama provided by the surrounding fells.”
Stone circles were an important part of life for prehistoric communities as they provided a setting for ritual or ceremonial activities.
Summary
Another fab day despite the drama of the missing dogs! The 10 mile cycle route around Derwent Water was fairly straightforward although it isn’t possible without a section of the B5289.
frombluetogreen.com 
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