This holiday is a youth hostel based trek from Keswick to Upper Ennerdale and Buttermere, and back!

We all arrived at Keswick YH safely, and some women even had time to wander around Keswick before dinner.

Over dinner we started getting to know each other, and afterwards we had a short meeting in the lounge to go through plans for the trek. Most women headed to bed fairly early after their journeys.

After our breakfast, some of the group did some very early morning shopping for trekking essentials!

We then set off around Derwentwater toward Cat Bells and Borrowdale.

The weather was fine, so hats and sunblock came out before the ascent onto Catbells. The views were absolutely stunning as we ate our lunch just beyond the summit of Cat Bells.

Descending from the saddle into Borrowdale, we now took a little path along the hillside to Hollows Farm.

Here we saw the sheep being sheared, so we stopped and watched for a few minutes.

Continuing on into Borrowdale's woods - Low and High Hows wood - we reached the River Derwent which gave us paddling opportunities!

Further on also visited Millican Daltons cave - which was once the summer home of an eccentric Victorian who would invite his friends to stay - for the first outward bound courses!

There was evidence of it still being used as a bivvie site, with a fire and stone chairs and bracken in the stone cot.

From here we followed the River Derwent to Rossthaite village where we rewarded ourselves with tea and some cake at the splendid Flock Inn tea room, sitting in the garden to enjoy the sun.

Finally, we headed off across the fields to Borrowdale YH, our last leg of the day, settling in to our dorms there, and enjoying a good dinner courtesy of the youth hostel staff.

Today was cooler, though the weather was still fine and dry - better in fact, given that we have more ascent today.

We walked up the Seathwaite valley and looked at the graphite mines as we passed by.

There were fewer people around here compared to popular Cat Bells, and after we climbed the steep path beside Sour Milk Gill waterfall, we found we had the hanging valley of Gillercombe to ourselves.

Steadily up and up we went till we reached the top of Green Gable, with superb views down into Ennerdale. We could see Black Sail Hut - our goal for the night.

We ate our lunch on top of Green Gable soaking it all in, then headed down into Windy Gap - the saddle between Green and Great Gable.

From here we took the path down the well-named Stony Cove, and onto the delightfully grassy ridge called the Tongue.

It is a great route down to Black Sail YH giving relaxing walking on the springy grass - just what we needed at this point in the day.

Black Sail is fantastic as always - a simple youth hostel alone in Upper Ennerdale, with superb views of Great Gable, Kirk Fell, and Pillar from the grassy sheep-mown lawn outside the hut.

The new wardens are very helpful, as well as cooking us a great evening meal.

Despite the mist of the previous evening, we were greeted by another lovely sunny day. The sheep are also out to greet us!

After a good breakfast, we bid goodbye to Black Sail Hut and took the path up onto Haystacks via Scarth Gap.

Haystacks is beautiful - so rugged for a comparatively small hill and lots of little tarns on the top.

The views from the top were superb. We had lunch by Innominate Tarn.

There were huge dragonflies here, one was newly hatched and was drying its wings out.

After lunch we headed down to the slate quarries. The views of Buttermere on the way were excellent.

Some women chose to wait by the mountain hut at Dubs quarry and read in the sun, whilst the rest of us took a series of miners paths and tracks up onto the summit of Fleetwith Pike.

The views from here were breathtaking, looking down the length of Buttermere and Crummock Water. We could also look down on Haystacks where we were earlier in the day.

We couldn't linger too long as the others were waiting, so we hurried back to them and took the miners track down.

This brought us into Warnscale Bottoms - the head of the Buttermere valley - and we took the path along the lakeshore to Buttermere YH.

Here we found our luggage waiting for us - brought here by taxi the day before from Borrowdale YH. We settle in, and have a well earned meal at the hostel.

We were greeted by yet another sunny day - we are lucky!

Some women decided to take the bus and go to Keswick for a little retail therapy.

The rest of us chose an easier walk today, taking the path onto a small ridge called Low Bank, where there were great views of Crummock Water.

From here we did a circuit of Crummock Water through the woods and back along the far side of the lake.

We stopped for a paddle. It was one of those sublime days where everything is a picture.

We found a great tree for climbing, and some wild apple trees as well as Holly trees with unripe Holly berries.

It is always boggy here but the stepping stones helped, and we stopped in the pub garden for refreshments on our way back through Buttermere to the YH. Very welcome at the end of a warm day!

This morning we were to leave this beautiful valley. The cloud was low - helping us to leave - and we set off up the path onto Robinson.

By the time we reached the boggy plateau of High Snockrigg at 500m we couldn't even see Robinson, or anything much more than 100m away.

The women seemed to quite enjoy this mystery tour, as we navigated our way across Buttermere Moss, and up onto Robinson.

As we approached the summit we saw an aerial poking out of the mist next to summit cairn. It turned out to belong to a Ham radio enthusiast and his less enthusiastic son!

They were talking to other enthusiasts on neighbouring summits.

We didn't stay long because it was windy at the summit, and soon headed off for the ridge, following the boundary posts along Littledale Edge and Hindsgarth Edge, and meeting a pair of ravens playing on the wind.

On Hindsgarth Edge as we stopped for lunch we attracted a sheep looking for morsels from our packed lunches.

Continuing on with a last ascent, we reached Dale Head summit - and here we turned downhill towards Honister Pass and the Honister Mine tea stop.

After finding that there are very many more uses for slate than most us had imagined, we took the Old Honister Road - a track once used by mineworkers - down into Borrowdale, and back along the river Derwent to the YH.

This was to be our last day of trekking, getting us back to Keswick in time for homeward travel.

For our route to get there we took the path through Rosthwaite, then up the old bridleway to Watendlath hamlet - where we visited the farm tearooms for elevenses.

Now came the lovely Watendlath valley, walking beside the beck and following it down past Lodore falls.

We were in good time to catch the Derwentwater ferry back to Keswick - returning to Keswick YH to collect our luggage which has been taxied there from Borrowdale this morning.

Here it was time to say our goodbyes - the end of a magical trek to the Western Lakes.