Thursday, Oct 4 - A rainy, windy day here in the North East. Watching a weather prediction is like watching someone trying to predict the winner of the Kentucky Derby. There's a lot of local stuff, and one side of England can be totally different from the other side, or the north can be very different from the south. And the forecasts can change by the hour.

We had a pretty good feeling about the forecast for today, so decided to tackle Cat Bells, a peak above Durwent Water. It's at about 450 feet, a good vertical from the lakeshore, and promised to offer fine views of the lake and the countryside. So we took a ride into Keswick, and booked the 11:30 ferry over to Hawse End, where we could start our assault on the peak. It was drizzly, but no wind, so had promise of improving. Didn't happen. The further we were into our ascent, the worse the weather got. To make matters worse, a good part of the climb was over slippery rocks on a very steep slope, so we really had to be careful, watching where every foot was placed.

But we persevered, and reached the top after an hour of hard slugging. Found out that someone had been injured on the way up, and the Mountain Rescue team was hauling the person down. We headed down the other side, making it a circular route, and saw the team proceeding down through the bracken. We made a good choice, as the descent was somewhat easier than it would have been had we gone back down the same way we'd come up. A longer walk, but more pleasant. We were soaked by the time we got back to the ferry pick-up point, as the rain really intensified and the wind howled considerably. But we arrived 10 minutes before the ferry, so timed it just right, as the ferry only comes to that pier hourly. Result: cold, wet, but happy we'd done the hike.

Once home, we dried out, went to the center for a hot tub and an ale, and felt just rejuvenated. So there you go, a little adventure to finish off our time in the Lake District. Tomorrow we'll have a relaxed morning, then set off for Glasgow, to check into our hotel in readiness for our flight on Saturday. It's been a great trip, and we'll have happy memories as we head home. One final report, perhaps. More later. Stay tuned.