All good things come to an end

It's the final day of our holiday and time to show where we've been staying. Thornthwaite is a little village just off the A66 near to the bottom end of Bassenthwaite Lake. This is good mountain country, with Skiddaw looking over the lake from the opposite bank, and plenty of exhilerating walks on the doorstep if only the weather could be guaranteed. Our guesthouse, Jenkins Hill, is small and friendly, serving good food (Carole says especially the puddings) and in a tranquil setting. Our room overlooked the front garden, where the birds seemed to be fed as well as we were.

The last day of our holiday was set to be the nicest day of the week, with lots of blue sky and sunshine. A few weeks before our holiday we'd arranged that on one of the better days, Mum and Dad would join us for a not-too-strenuous walk, so today was it!

We did the same thing last year when we took Mum and Dad to Grange in Borrowdale, where we strolled about 2½ miles around the broad flat valley near to the river and the lakeshore of Derwentwater. This time we'd planned to meet up in Grasmere (where there's plenty of teashops), and follow an oft-visited route around Grasmere lake then over to Rydal Water, about 3½ miles. This would be far enough to walk so the plan was to pick up the open-topped bus back to Grasmere village. See Grasmere and Rydal Water in my Walking Blog for details of the route.

Mum and Dad had brought friends Ian and Sue along too. Ian and Dad were both former scout leaders who had organised several summer camps in the Lakes in the past, one of which was just down the road from today's walk at High Close.

Ian points out the view over Grasmere

With the weather fair the view across both lakes were tremendous and ideal for photographs, meaning that progress was slow.

Eventally we made it to the far side of the lake, where an outcrop of rocks on the 'beach' made for an ideal spot for lunch and a group photograph.

After lunch we continued on to Rydal Water and eventually the main road. The open-topped bus service runs every 20 minutes throughout the summer and a bus soon arrived take us back to Grasmere the easy way. Unfortunately the fare isn't cheap (especially if you've forgotton your pass) and the experience of wind in the hair wasn't everyone's cup of tea.

Talking of cups of tea, that was of course our first stop once back in the village.