St Bees to Shap Trek - Day 4

Jolly nice day today despite BBC weather forecasting end of the world storms! It was a short day of just 9 miles so we had a leisurely breakfast and left hotel at 9.30am, in sunshine.
Straight up hillside to reach Great Rigg at 11.15am. Views back over Grasmere with a bit of light and interesting clouds. Used a dark yellow filter to helpwith tones in the clouds.
Another half hour saw us on Fairfield, one of the biggest peaks in the Lake District at just under 3000 feet. A bit too dull for photos but still good views (the first time I have seen the views in 4 visits to the top!).
Then over Cofa Pike and on to St Sunday Crag, just an hour from Fairfield, where we stopped for lunch (Eccles Cakes for me). Met Wendy and Trevor again (from Letty Green - I can remember going to parties here in my youth!) and Anne from Australia. They were all putting on waterproofs ready for the approaching rain that we could see heading our way.
Then downhill all the way to Patterdale and the White Lion Hotel. It was just 2.45pm so we decided we would have a couple of lunchtime pints: Bass and White Lion bitter.
It was dry pretty much all day, with just a few minutes of light rain. So much for weather forecasts!
Just 1 day to go to Shap where we finish.

Grasmere Beer Review

The novelty of having phone signal has prompted me to do a 2nd post today. It's mainly a beer review - Al and I had a bit of a session!
First it was into Tweedies Bar for a few beers and a meal. All were jolly nice. I started with a Cumbrian Brewery Grasmoor dark ale. Oaty and smooth and jolly nice (best of the night and probably trip too). Then on to Coniston Old Man in reasonable condition before trying the Orkney Raven summer ale, foolishly I thought being called Raven it would be a dark ale, how wrong I was. This was champion beer of Scotland but no idea why. It was very bland and could have been anything.
I finished the early session with Old Peculiar, tasty as ever but preferred the Grasmoor. Special note: Al had a Yates Bitter, normally I steer clear of Yates beers as I have had too many bad pints but he insists this one was good and deserves a mention. So there it is - probably the first and last mention of Yates beers in this blog!
Just been having dinner with Al and he reminded me of a story I forgot to recount. At the Shepherds Arms in Ennerdale Bridge Al's bed was next to the bathroom door. Every time I went to the loo in the night he woke with a start and thought there was an earthquake. It turned out to be a loose floorboard rocking the bedside cupboard! What a sensitive flower he is.
Al has just discovered the way to see emails from more than the last 2 weeks. He has just downloaded emails back to 2003. I hope Carol doesn't see the mobile phone.bill!
Met up with a couple of fellow walkers in the Red Lion to end the evening. Trevor and Wendy were from Letty Green where I used to go for parties in the '70's and Al's wife used to live. Small world.
We finished with a couple of Dent Brewery beers: Ramsbottom, followed by Kamikazi. 2 strong beers and both jolly nice. The evening went a bit hazy after this.
Patterdale tomorrow, hopefully over Fairfield.