Attempting to Hike Catbells
Monday, May 26, 2025
I ate breakfast at my bed and breakfast (yummy, as usual), finished getting ready, and made my way to the Keswick bus station. I was headed out to hike Catbells.
It was a bank holiday, meaning banks and schools and some businesses were closed. (Kinda like Labor Day for us, but the UK has several bank holidays throughout the year.) So the bus station was very busy. Public transportation is much more accessible and utilized in the UK and encouraged heavily in places like the Lake District because of the environmental impact of cars.
The bus to Catbells was jam packed; standing room only. After about a 10 minute ride, myself and a couple others were dropped off at the base of Catbells. Right away it was an uphill trek.
You can see Keswick at the top of this map and Catbells is on the west side of the lake.
The difference with Catbells is that it felt more dangerous than my other hikes almost immediately. One wrong step and you'd go tumbling down and would not be able to stop.
It didn't take long to have a beautiful view of Derwentwater.
Maybe 30 minutes in is where I stopped. That sounds so lame, but this is what we were dealing with (below).
This made me very uncomfortable to watch because it was essentially a sheer drop if you lost your footing. I probably could've done it because dogs and much older people than me (who looked less agile) were managing. But I don't know. My fear of heights has become quite real as I age. I am going to give myself a little understanding here though because it was quite windy and it had started raining, so the rocks were slippery. Maybe on a beautiful day I would've tried a little harder.
Here's a photo of the rain coming in.
I just crouched down with my umbrella over my head for several minutes while the rain passed. You can see the peak of Catbells off to the far right in the photo above.
A young couple were passing by after the rain stopped and the young man went full photoshoot on me when I asked him to take my photo! It was cute.
He told me to do a pose, so this is what I came up with.
It made me laugh and smile.
I stayed up there for quite a while and then headed back down to the bus stop. It's funny that you're pretty much in the middle of a wooded-one-lane-road nowhere, but there are actual bus stops.
Once again, I found myself in a situation with a bus not arriving when it should've. Myself and probably six other people were waiting for it. I chatted to an older couple quite a bit while we stood around. There was also a young couple with a baby (strapped to the mama's frontside) and a mom/daughter with a dog, so at least I got to smile at a dog and a baby. I think I was there for well over 45 minutes when I decided to finally give up and walk back to Keswick. I told the older man to wave at me from the bus if it ended up showing up.
It was about an hour walk back to Keswick in the rain on and off, through woods and fields. According to my camera roll, I didn't take any photos or videos. Probably because it was raining. I did enjoy the walk, though. You get to see a lot more on foot than you do on the bus.
Made it back into town and definitely needed food. I wanted cream tea, so I stopped into The Wild Strawberry to partake.
This is a lemon/blueberry scone with homemade cream and jam and Earl Grey tea. I also bought a sandwich to take home with me for dinner later. I just love a cream tea.
