Keswick

Our Plan A for the full, middle day of our two-night break had been to tackle the challenge of a climb up Haystacks, inspired by the recent TV series about Wainwright's walks. The idea of a picnic lunch beside Innominate Tarn, where the great man's ashes are scattered, seemed very appealing.

Sadly, though, the weather had other ideas. The late-March day dawned to rain. The mist was well down, covering even the lower fells. The view from our hotel across Derwentwater was strictly limited. Catbells kept appearing vaguely through a grey screen, then vanishing again.

There is no point in climbing to a high place if you can see nothing when you arrive there. So it was on to Plan B: a walk along the shore of the lake and return to Keswick by launch. Even that, though, had little appeal. The rain was just too heavy. If a downpour comes on when you're already on your route, that's just part of the deal. To set off in one, on a day when the sky promises little improvement, might be to some people's taste - but not ours.

So it was on to Plan C: a drive around western Cumbria, ending up at Whitehaven - a once-important port and still filled with fine Georgian buildings but past its best and decidedly in need of a boost (we who hail from Bradford know all about such things). There was a bitter wind blasting in off the grey sea and we didn't linger long.

The next morning, the day we were due to head home, the weather was marginally better, though still a long way from being suitable for a Haystacks adventure. The rain had cleared but the cloud was still well down. So the lakeside walk seemed the best option, with a classic waterfall at the end of it which would surely be worth seeing after such a wet previous day.

We set off from the centre of Keswick, strolling along past Hope Park towards the lake and passing, en route, the Theatre on the Lake where, that week, the stage adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men was being performed.

This is a splendidly-located modern theatre, restored after a fire, with fine views from its first-floor coffee shop which is open to passers-by.

Our route lay ahead, past the landing stages from where the round-the-lake launch departs regularly throughout the summer season ( at weekends only in the winter). The mist had cleared enough for us to see the shape of the multiple humps of Catbells across the lake and to realise that this was the right way round to tackle this walk.

We could have taken the launch to the Lodore landing stage and walked the four miles or so back from there. But then Catbells would have been behind us (splendid Skiddaw would have been ahead, but on this day it was shrouded in cloud)). This way we were treated to a slowly changing view of the popular walking fell on the western shore of the lake.

The good track led into woodland for a while, with a detour to the little headland of Friars Crag and views of Derwentwater's islands, before skirting the shingly shore, passing along the way some elderly trees with claw-like roots clinging to the soil.

As we passed, we heard muffled laughter and a child shot out from between these roots, followed by another. Clearly there was a sloping tunnel through from the grassy bank above which was being used as an improvised, dusty slide.

Soon we were in woodland again, in a marshy area known as The Ings where winter winds had toppled a fair number of huge trees. They lay on their sides, their tangles of shallow roots rising like precipices from the ponds created in the space they had vacated. Blobs of spawn showed that the frogs had been quick to take advantage of this new habitat.

The good track continued into the open again, passing a couple of houses before skirting the grassy headland of Stable Hills then following the shoreline past Callclose Bay (where stands the National Trust centenary monument, a boulder cut in half and engraved on both its faces) and continuing through trees again. We were very close at this point to the road which runs from Keswick and up to Borrowdale - a busy route served by buses, for those who might like to do this walk and make the outward or return trip by this mode of transport rather than lake launch.

The road has a pavement running southwards alongside it from close to this point, if you prefer the noise of accompanying traffic to putting your ankles at risk walking along the lake's stony shore. We stuck with the stony route, though, which after Barrow Bay swung away from the road again around another headland before joining a sunken causeway with the road just over the wall and emerging near the National Trust's Kettlewell car park.

Here we crossed the road, going through a stile into Lowcrag Wood with woodland rising steeply to our left and craggy outcrops high above as we followed the winding path to the back of the Lodore Hotel.

From here we followed our ears and the waymark signs to Lodore Falls, where Watendlath Beck tumbles 120 ft down the cliff and climbing paths leads upwards.

The previous day's rain hadn't had as big an effect as we had expected. The fall was OK but not spectacular. It was noisy enough, though, for the long-haired young man standing alone and staring at the water to be unaware of our presence as he swung a ball on a cord rhythmically in each hand, performing some ritual of communication with the spirits of the water.

Then he headed up the steep path, picking his way nimbly towards the distant skyline. We gazed upwards at the mist still swirling around the crags and decided against following him. An upward slog followed by a walk through Ashness Wood and a visit on the way down to the much-photographed Ashness Bridge was tempting, but the cloud was descending again.

Instead, we headed back to pass the Lodore Hotel and cross the road, passing the Mary Mount Hotel on our way to the jetty to wait for the Keswick Launch to arrive and transport us back to Keswick. Catbells was still visible, but only just. Skiddaw never made an appearance.

Later, as we drove down past Kendal, the afternoon sun came out and the cloud melted away. Lakeland had tricked us this time around. Next time, though, we might manage Plan A.

Fact File

• Start: Keswick centre
• Time for 3-mile walk: A couple of hours at a stroll, plus return launch time
• Going: Easy.
• Toilets: In Keswick, at car park next to theatre
• Refreshments: in Keswick, or at Lodore Hotel or Mary Mount Hotel
• Keswick Launch operates around the lake, providing both clockwise and anti-clockwise services. Catch the anti-clockwise one for the quickest return to Keswick, clockwise for the longer, more scenic route. Tickets between selected points are available but a round-trip ticket allowing you to hop off and back on throughout the day coasts £7.90 for adults, £3.95 for a child, with family tickets at £18 (ring 017687 72263 or visit www.keswick-launch.co.uk for times).