A tough day today – which tested most things with perhaps the honourable exception of my motivation! The stff wind could be heard even from our bunk-beds, and the rain started about 10 mins after my leaving at 08:25. It didn’t then stop all day. My Paramo coat leaked like a sieve, and my all day rain pants clearly are not suited to all day rain. By about mile 3 I was completly soaked. Even my feet were swimming, but given the amount of water about that was understndable. Indeed it was almost a relief to be freed from hopping about and to simply wade through. There didn’t seem to be much point stopping to change clothes, instead I just decided to mostly keep pressing on and keep warm that way. My only stop ended up being Borrowdale YH for a sensibly priced coffee. I made it to Grasmere around 15:15 where my first stop was the outdoor shop to get some coat re-proofer – now applied and drying. Sorry no photos today. Impressive streams and waterfall abounded but it was simply too wet to be risking cameras. I took my first wrong path today – actually in the valley floor – but a local helped put me right. Higher up I found it difficult to spot the path at times but constant (but time consuming) cross checking saw me ok. It wasn’t the sort of day to be making big mistakes. I also took the wimps route down the valley rather than down the higher-level ridge to Helm Crag, but at least Wainwright ‘allows’ that in bad weather. Tonight’s beer is bottled Cumberland – good stuff. Good also to be back to a private room in the hostel. Tomorrow might involve only 7 miles – I shall only do one of the summit detours if the weather is good. The body is still surviving well though! There are two newly retired brothers here in the hostel also coasting and also heading to Patterdale tomorrow. They started Thurs so are on a slghtly slower pace, at least to here. They are also trying to put right a previous failure – in their case last year.