A second day of bright sunshine following the torrential weather that caused weekend flooding in Borrowdale and Buttermere; I thought I'd go take a gander. Of course, I kept the boat on the roof of course just in case I somehow ended up grabbing a cheeky pootle down the Greta while over there!
Well, despite everything, the Greta was as dry as a witches tit, as were Newlands, Langstrath and Gatesgarth Becks - any of which would have been worth jumping on and walking the shuttle. The upper Derwent was full of gravel beaches, Grains Gill looked like late summer - in fact everything that wasn't lake fed was dog low. Lake fed rivers on the other hand were still way up, but I didn't fancy a long bouncey float and a taxi back to the car!
What was surprising was the number of drystone walls that had been breached by the flood waters of the weekend. Between Castle Crag and Rosthwaite there must have been a dozen or more walls that had been blown out, with trails of rock spread, like blast debris, up to a hundred metres across fields on the downstream side of the walls. Sticks and vegetation was trapped in fences and bushes anything up to 5 feet above ground level across the widest part of the upper Borrowdale valley; it really must have been carnage. Buttermere seemed to have fared better with little sign of flood damage.
Red Pike and High Stile above Gatesgarth Beck
The countryside was recovering well though and had a fresh look about the place with a sprinkling of early snow across on the Helvellyn ridge and Great Gable.
A dusting of snow on Great Gable, looming above Haystacks
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