On Friday we had a family visit to Black Sail Youth Hostel at the head of Ennerdale. My son Rupert, Ann & our two grand children walked in from Honnister Pass over Hay Stacks while Wendy and I took the easy way up the track from Ennerdale Youth Hostel. There is an exciting project to “wild” Ennerdale, with no traffic, other than a couple of Landrover replenishment runs a week for the hostel and the minimum of Forestry Commission vehicles doing a bit of thinning and minimal forest management.
Rupert borrowed the Hostel Warden’s bike to meet us as we walked up and accompanied us for the last hundred yards before reaching this lovely little hostel, surely in the best setting of any on the UK. Gable Crag on Great Gable is at the head of the valley.
The interior is fabulous – it’s homely, simple and best of all, you can get a superb cooked meal, in this case a great curry and as you can see, they sell wine, beer and soft drinks.
That evening, after supper, we walked up the valley towards Boat How and Boat How Craggs on the right of the picture. Rupert got up at 5am the following morning to stride up to the top of Boat Howe Craggs, getting back for breakfast.
Our family, with our wonderful hosts, Hostel wardens Martin and Suzy, whose warmth, friendliness and superb cooking make the hostel the wonderful place that it is!!!
The Galloway cattle that have been encouraged in true wilding project because they are the closest one can get to the kind of cattle that would have been grazing in Ennerdale hundreds of years ago and because they are beneficial for the natural environment.
Rupert and Ann setting off to cross Gable and Green Gable on their way back to Honnister.
While the children came with us back down the track to Ennerdale Youth Hostel where we had left our car. We took the track on the south side of the River Liza, which is wonderfully quiet andy has some great views and a really nice boulder an easy 4 mile walk.
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