After the run, the walk... and being lost.

A magazine article about lakeland tarns mentioned a walk to Moss Eccles Tarn, near Far Sawrey of Beatrix Potter fame. It began near the west side of Windermere where the ferry lands, and set off along the lake shore towards Wray Castle. Here were families splashing about in the lake with or without various kinds of canoe... even an ice cream van doing good business.

Unfortunately the directions turned out to be vague in the extreme. The fact that the map had been last revised a long time ago meant that the forests on the map bore no relation to the forests on the ground, which made navigating even trickier. This meant that much of the afternoon was spent 'lost'.

Fortunately however, the countryside was so lovely, with such far-reaching views, that this turned out not to be a problem. I can't quite explain why but in some way, it was quite different from what I think of as Lakeland, so it was interesting and surprising.

The lake here is Windermere, looking East towards Waterhead.

In the far distance are (is?) Crinkle Crags.

 In the end, the goal of Moss Eccles Tarn came into view, and very fine it was too. A cormorant sat by the water's edge, before working hard to launch itself into the air and flying past very close.

The amazing part of this walk was that once the lake shore was left behind, so were the crowds. At the tarn was nobody else at all, and this on a dry August day within a few miles of Ambleside. Arriving back at the car as the heavens opened, I felt blessed indeed.