Welcome to my website 🙂  I’ve started this blog to chronicle my somewhat erratic and mishap prone hill walking.. Not to mention the inevitable post walk drinks! Some nice views and hopefully amusing anecdotes will be thrown in for good measure..
Wainwright walks 116: Windswept on Wetherlam!
- Hills: Wetherlam
- Classification: Wainwright (196)
- When: Sunday 2 November
- Who: Me, the mountaineering minion, and Tiny Paddington
- Distance: About 8 miles
- Weather: 4 seasons in one day. Sunshine, hail, showers, the lot.
- Conditions underfoot: Very wet underfoot at times, though wet paths rather than bog for the most part. Although there was some bog on the descent.
- Post walk drink: Malbec. Definitely in red wine season now.
- Post walk watering hole: The Crown, Coniston – later the Golden Rule, Ambleside
- MAMBA factor: Relatively high. Saw about 10 people max.
- Uses of the arse crampon: Â Missing in action though I would probably have needed it if I had come down the way I went up (again)
- Mishaps: Weather (again); a navigational cock-up; transport (on the way home)
Unlike the last blog post, where I swithered for quite some time as to what the heck to call it, the title for this one pretty much wrote itself. Although I could have considered various others, including Cold in Coniston (which it was) Wild Weather on Wetherlam, or even just Weather on Wetherlam. However windswept definitely felt appropriate, as I definitely was – in fact wind was probably the dominant feature of the weekend.
Once again this was one of those trips that was borderline as to whether it would actually happen. A few days out the forecast was to say the least not great. I usually book accommodation with free cancellation for the weekends which are a bit of a punt and sure enough I had – but rather than it being free cancellation within a couple of days of booking I would have had to have cancelled it two weeks beforehand in order to get any of my money back, which I am not sure I had realised when I booked it. Nevertheless with forecasts of high wind and rain I decided that if the forecast got worse or didn’t improve sufficiently to make a punt at a hill possible I would just write off the cost of the hotel and get a refund for the train ticket (I don’t usually buy advance tickets as I like to have flexibility as to when I travel).
However, with a couple of days to go the forecast seemed to have actually improved a bit. Rain on Saturday 1st was forecast to clear up mid morning and leave a nice afternoon; the Sunday looked like being more or less dry all day. So the gear was sorted and carted in to work, the winter gear having been dug out of the loft and the mountaineering minion and Tiny Paddington crucially transferred to the larger winter rucksack. It looked as though the winter gear was going to be needed as even if the weather was actually dry, it was still going to be windy with MWIS suggesting wind chill below zero on the summits. I arrived in Ambleside shortly after 6 on Friday 31st in torrential rain and having sorted myself out had some pub food and an early night. The plan was to get a bus to Coniston and do one of my remaining fells there, on the basis that the forecast did what it was supposed to do and clear up; I’d had notions of heading to Lorton and doing Whiteside, my final remaining North-Western fell, but saddling myself with a bus journey of the best part of two hours in either direction plus some road walking to get to the start point did not seem sensible with a marginal forecast and reduced daylight hours. The alarm was set and I was conked out by 10pm.
Wainwright Walks 115: Robinson – squashing in some North-Western Fells
- Hills: Robinson, Dale Head
- Classification: Wainwrights (195 plus a repeat)
- When: Saturday 12 July
- Who: Me, the mountaineering minion, and Tiny Paddington
- Distance: Linear route, approx. 8 miles
- Weather: Glorious sunshine and quite warm at times (though not at others)
- Conditions underfoot: Fine once on the actual ridge – some slippery conditions on the ascent and a giant patch of bog as well.
- Post walk drink: No idea but it was a pale ale of some sort. Wine to follow.
- Post walk watering hole: Keswick Craft Beer Bar
- MAMBA factor: Medium. Loads of people taking selfies at Moss Force, a few people on the way up Robinson and a few on the ridge but surprisingly quiet really.
- Uses of the arse crampon: Missing in action though I would definitely have needed it if I had come down the way I went up!
- Mishaps: I guess that depends on whether the weather over the previous few days counts..
As to the name of this one?! Sorry. Well I did squash the hill in, somewhat improbably, and it seemed a better option to refer to Robinsons orange squash than references to Mr Crusoe or Baldrick (Tony Robinson) or far right politics (Tommy Robinson..) I suppose beer might have been an option (Robinsons Brewery)..
Sunday 21 September: I surface in my room in Keswick and can’t quite believe my eyes. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and there is not a cloud in the sky. Whilst this should not have come as a surprise given the weather forecast, it still felt like one after the last couple of days of wild weather!
I’d been wondering if this trip would actually happen and, if it did, whether I would actually be able to get any new hills done. As my trip got closer the forecast seemed to be getting worse and worse and the actual weather had by all accounts been awful for a couple of weeks. There did seem to be a chink of hope in the forecast for Sunday, and possibly for the Friday a couple of days out but I seriously considered bailing out of the trip a couple of days beforehand. That said I had accommodation and a train ticket booked so in the end decided just to go for it and see what happened.
Friday 19th was not to put to fine a point on it awful. I hadn’t set an early alarm, as the chink of hope for even vaguely decent weather was to be in the afternoon, if it happened at all – which as it turned out, it didn’t. It chucked it down all day, plus I was knackered. Quite simply there was no point trying to go out in torrential rain and it was becoming clear from the state of the rivers that even if the weather did improve anything which involved crossing streams was likely to be problematic. I ended up working for about half the day and reading for most of the rest of it! The forecast for the day after did not look much better although the supposed weather window for Sunday was still holding.
Wainwright walks 114: Heatwave in Hartsop!
- Hills: Gray Crag, Thornthwaite Crag, Mardale Ill Bell
- Classification: Wainwrights (194 plus 2 repeats)
- When: Saturday 12 July
- Who: Me, the mountaineering minion, and Tiny Paddington
- Distance: 9 mile linear route
- Weather: Scorchio. Fortunately there was a breeze on the tops. The valleys however…
- Conditions underfoot: Bone dry.
- Post walk drink: Crafty Pale Ale
- Post walk watering hole: The Crafty Baa, Windermere
- MAMBA factor: Medium. Probably saw about 15 people on the hills. A few more people at valley level.
- Uses of the arse crampon: Â Missing in action.
- Mishaps: Trains; sunburn; melted food; a stupidly early alarm (if that counts)
I think it is fair to say that on seeing the weather forecast for what was a planned assault on the last of my Far Eastern Fells I couldn’t quite believe my eyes. Usually I am looking at the forecast wondering how to avoid the worst of poor weather and not get totally soaked and/ or blown about. Instead, what I am looking at is the 3rd heatwave of the summer with temperatures of up to 30 degrees forecast at valley level and up to 20 degrees at 750m. Eeek!
Now there is such a thing as being too hot to walk. I’ve walked in some pretty warm conditions before, probably the hottest being an ascent of Stuchd an Lochain in Scotland on a very warm day a number of years ago. I’d also done Eagle Crag and Sergeant’s Crag on a hot day and ran out of water, fortunately when about a mile from the end of the walk and on the flat, so not a disaster. Probably the forecast weather was on the limit of what was walkable but clearly some common sense needed to be exercised. Namely, nick Stuart’s hydration bladder (which is a 2 litre one) as the 1 litre I usually take was not likely to be enough. Second, plan an early start! I am not an early starter usually but the only way to make the walk I had planned a sensible option was to start early – no make that really early – for me.
My plan – such as it was – was to pick off my one remaining Far Eastern Fell, Gray Crag which has a reputation of being a steep bugger and is one that got away on a previous walk. I would then go over Thornthwaite Crag, with an out and back to Mardale Ill Bell which I had done, or thought I had, two years ago in pea soup fog and not been entirely sure I had found the right cairn. I would then descend to Troutbeck where I could pick up a bus (or alternatively wait in one of the pubs for a taxi if the bus times did not work). Linear walks are always nice not least if there is a nice pub at the end! My accommodation for this trip was in Windermere to enable use of the 508 bus which goes over the Kirkstone Pass.
Wainwright walks 113: a (Mell) break in the weather!
- Hills: Mellbreak
- Classification: Wainwright (193)
- When: Tuesday 3 June
- Who: Me, the mountaineering minion, and Tiny Paddington
- Distance: Not a clue. Probably about 6 miles.
- Weather: Seriously windy. But at least it stayed dry until I was back on the flat.
- Conditions underfoot: Soggy on the flat to say the least. Fortunately the steep bits were pretty dry.
- Post walk drink: A swift half in Buttermere – can’t remember of what. Then Keswick Brewery Thirst Quencher
- Post walk watering hole: The Buttermere Court Hotel for the swift half, later the Fox Tap, Keswick
- MAMBA factor: High. Saw two blokes way ahead of me on the way up – no idea where they went. Had the summit to myself – nobody else was mad enough to be up there.
- Uses of the arse crampon: Â Missing in action.
- Mishaps: Weather and conditions underfoot. Mild insomnia. General knackeredness.
A couple of weeks before this trip, I think it is fair to say that I was feeling a sense of impending doom. There was a settled period of good weather in the Lake District which had lasted for several weeks – everywhere was dry underfoot and water levels were generally very low. Of course, given that we had our traditional week booked in Keswick for my birthday and the beer festival (at which we were once again sponsoring a barrel) it was inevitable that the period of good weather would come to a crashing end either before or during our trip North. And so it came to pass – with the forecast getting worse and worse with high wind and rain forecast for almost every day of the trip and plans getting revised all over the place.
As I’ve said before, I’ve got to the stage in my Wainwright journey where the vast majority of the hills I have left to do are in the category of being either big, awkward or both – a factor of having started out with no intention of ever doing the lot. Consequently, I’ve more or less run out of hills which are suitable for bad or even marginal days; I don’t like walking in poor weather anyway, and particularly not in the wind/ rain combo which was being forecast. It just isn’t fun. 40mph wind, or worse, predicted at height meant that doing some of the big hills I have left in the area, such as Esk Pike, would not be sensible – so that basically left either repeats or looking for something which was doable as a relatively quick blast in the event something vaguely approaching a weather window presented itself. Enter a potential break in the weather on the 3rd… if the forecast held which given it was changing not only from day to day but seemingly every hour or so was a pretty big if.
Wainwright walks 112: (not) too Hart to Handle!
- Hills: Harter Fell
- Classification: Wainwright (192)
- When: Friday 25 April
- Who: Me, the mountaineering minion, and Tiny Paddington
- Distance: 5 miles (though felt like twice that)
- Weather: Decent, though a bit windy
- Conditions underfoot: I imagine this would be a bogfest at times. Generally fine though a few steep bits (which in hindsight could have been avoided)
- Post walk drink: Robinsons Dizzy Blonde, later Malbec (again)
- Post walk watering hole: The Boot Inn, Eskdale (again – well I was staying there!)
- MAMBA factor: Fairly high – saw about 5 or 6 other people
- Uses of the arse crampon: Â Definitely required to get down from the summit tor.
- Mishaps: Depends on whether the lurgy returning the following day counts. Knackeredness (again if that counts).
After the ramblings at the start of my last blog post about dithering over the title of that post, the title for this one practically wrote itself while I was on the way off the hill. One of my favourite songs is ‘Hard to Handle’ though I prefer the Black Crowes cover version to the Otis Redding original (which I’ve been informed is a bit of a heresy but never mind). This was – like Great Gable the previous day – one of the hills I was worried would be outside my comfort zone and too ‘Hart’ to handle as a result but as it transpired, it wasn’t.
After a few libations the previous evening in the Boot Inn (but not too many), I think it was fair to say that I was completely knackered. I had a reasonably early night and for once, slept pretty well, which I often don’t when I am away on my own. However, on getting up on the Friday morning, it became crystal clear that an epic was not an option. The weather forecast was decent enough, and in theory another big walk could have been on the cards – but my back was definitely not happy and I was still wiped from the walk (and possibly also the long drive) the day before. As I noted years ago in a blog post, one of the things about hill walking with an old spinal injury is that I have to listen to what my body is trying to tell me – some days I can do a big hill walk two or more days on the bounce, some days I can do a short walk after a big walk the day before but not more, some days a hill walk of any sort is not an option and some days I struggle with the walk to the bus stop and my speed resembles that of an arthritic tortoise. Had the weather forecast been better for the day after – which was marginal – I might have had a rest day but I really wanted to make the most of the day and what my back was telling me was that a smaller hill, at a slow pace, was an option but that anything big would not be.
That left one option – and only one: Harter Fell. For most of the way up this looks straightforward but I was aware there was a bit of a scramble at the top. I’d originally intended to do this hill from Birks Bridge and have a swim in the little gorge there afterwards, but given I was staying a couple of miles from the usual Eskdale start point of Jubilee Bridge, it seemed daft not to start from there instead. I set out after breakfast and parked in a lay-by at the bottom of Hardknott Pass which I have parked in several times before, most recently when doing Hard Knott itself on a pretty miserable day the year before. Packed and off by about 10, walking up to Jubilee Bridge and picking up the path from there.
Wainwright walks 111: Feel the fear and do it anyway!
- Hills: Great Gable
- Classification: Wainwright (191)
- When: Thursday 24 April
- Who: Me, the mountaineering minion, and Tiny Paddington
- Distance: 8 miles according to the guidebook.
- Weather: Brilliant – just for once!!
- Conditions underfoot: Way better than expected. Whoever did the stone pitching on the bits which previously would have been steep scree deserves a medal.
- Post walk drink: Robinsons Dizzy Blonde, later Malbec
- Post walk watering hole: The Boot Inn, Eskdale
- MAMBA factor: Quite a few people about but certainly not loads.
- Uses of the arse crampon: Â Missing in action (somewhat surprisingly).
- Mishaps: Minor lurgy; a stupidly long drive after the walk (if that counts).
- Good deeds done: Â route advice for 3 different elements of the same family
- Top quotes from other people: ‘You’re nearly at the top’ ‘How far is it to the lake’?
I spent a fair bit of time thinking about the title for this one. For a while the idea of ‘MGGA’ – i.e. Make Gable Great Again – stuck in my head but let’s face it, this hill doesn’t need to be made great in any way, it already is both in terms of its name and the fact it’s a bloody big and iconic hill. ‘Gable Great, me not so much’ also sprang to mind given that I was not exactly top of my game when I climbed it but frankly seemed a bit dull and Great Day on Great Gable was far too much a repeat of Great Day on Great Carrs from October last year. So I ended up thinking – let’s just go with the reality of the situation. This was one of the hills that had been worrying me, so ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’ seemed apt.
So why had it been worrying me? For one, it’s a bloody big hill and I am not remotely fully hill fit. Two, most of the hills I have left to do are either big, tricky, or both. Three, one way or another I’m getting near the end of my Wainwright journey – I’m either going to do the whole lot, or find out that there are some that I am just not capable of doing. And that bothers me; I’m not very good at failing at things. Try as I might, I’ve never quite been able to forget that – over ten years ago now- a fully paid up member of the hillier than thou brigade told me (not quite in these words but close enough) that I was a pathetic excuse for a hill walker and those words still come back to haunt me particularly when I’m trying to work myself up to doing something I think will be on the more challenging or bigger end of the Wainwright spectrum or outside my comfort zone for some other reason. Logically, I know that their opinion isn’t true and given that I have had a spinal injury, that my parents were told at the time that I was a thumbnail away from ending up in a wheelchair, and therefore I’m bloody lucky to be able to walk at all never mind hill walk, it shouldn’t bother me but unfortunately that isn’t how my brain is wired, so from time to time still does.
I’m not sure if that counts as a rant or not but anyway – on with the walk! Amazingly, Avanti managed to deliver a decent train service on my outward journey for the second time in a row on Wednesday 23rd and I was in my hotel in Penrith in time to get something to eat and have a couple of glasses of wine before a relatively early night. I was picking up a hire car in the morning as I was heading off to the far West for a few days – the completely obvious reason being that is where most of the hills I have left to do are situated, a consequence of me doing lots of my hills by public transport being that the ones I have left to do are where there isn’t any (seasonal Wasdale shuttle bus and the Ravenglass to Eskdale Railway notwithstanding). The forecast was – just for once – decent for the next few days and even more miraculously it looked as though work would not make any significant intrusions! So with all that on the table, and a particularly good forecast for the following day, it was time to nerve myself up and go for one of the big ones. In theory, a decent round of hills would have been possible but I was getting off the back of a cold and knew that realistically a walk of more than about 9 miles probably wasn’t on the cards.
So why nerves for Great Gable? It’s a Lake District icon. You can see it from everywhere (provided the clag isn’t down) and from just about every angle it looks flipping huge and equally steep. It’s also been one that got away twice – both times on marginal days after looking over at it from Green Gable and thinking ‘nah, not today’. It’s also covered in scree and although I had read that a lot of it on the ascent from Styhead is now stone pitched, I hate scree – not so much going up (where it is just hard work) but going down when I worry about losing my footing and ending up either breaking something or worst case scenario sliding over a precipice. So the route up from Styhead was the obvious one. I picked up the hire car with zero faff and was on the road at 9 with the sun shining and the birds singing. A glorious day on the hill was in prospect – so long as I didn’t lose my nerve.
Wainwright walks 110: Glorious gusty Glaramara!
- Hills: Glaramara
- Classification: Wainwright (190)
- When: Sunday 30 March
- Who: Me, the mountaineering minion, and Tiny Paddington
- Distance: 6 miles according to the guidebook but felt longer. Way longer.
- Weather: Glorious sunshine but seriously windy
- Conditions underfoot: Mostly okay – some bog but it wasn’t too bad. Minor scrambly bit.
- Post walk drink: Tirril Honister IPA
- Post walk watering hole: The Yew Tree, Seatoller – later the Bank Tavern, Keswick
- MAMBA factor: Higher than expected given the sunshine.
- Uses of the arse crampon: One very minor use to descend a small rock step.
- Mishaps: Trousers; gear; wind (if that counts).
Thursday 27 March, 2.30pm and a miracle is in progress. I’m on an Avanti train to Penrith which is not delayed or cancelled and where I’ve got a seat with no issues, the wifi actually works and there do not seem to be any other miscellaneous transport issues whatsoever. Much to my surprise, the train also doesn’t (a) break down; (b) make an unscheduled stop at Crewe; (c) terminate at Preston due to a landslip in Scotland; (d) terminate at Preston due to a storm; (e) terminate at Preston due to some other miscellaneous reason but actually arrives in Penrith on time with me easily able to catch my bus connection to Keswick, get into my apartment and get some food at a reasonable hour. This time I was in Keswick to meet up with some scottishhills.com (sadly website now defunct) alumni and hopefully get some walking done.
Inevitably with transport for once actually doing what it is supposed to something else was bound to go wrong and in this case it was the weather. The forecast was not great with Sunday looking by far the best day when sunshine was promised but so were strong summit winds. Friday seemed to have a weather window in the morning (if with the possibility of it going completely to pot in the afternoon) and Saturday looked a bit grim to say the least.
This did leave me with a bit of a conundrum as to hill planning. Pretty much all the hills in the Keswick area, or which can easily be reached by public transport from there, which I have left to do are big ones. This was a particular issue for Friday when it looked as though a quick up and down in the morning was what was needed given a threat of hail showers and possible thunder in the afternoon. The morning actually looked pretty decent but a big hill was obviously not going to be an option with that forecast. So with a new small hill not being an option the obvious thing to do was to do a repeat that fitted the ‘quick up and down’ criteria and make sure I got off the hill by lunchtime. This of course also meant an early start (ugh).
2024: a year in review
- Total hills climbed: 15
- Wainwrights: 10 new, three repeats
- Wainwrights done by end of year: 188
- Wainwrights left to do: 26
- Number of ascents of Orrest Head: One (in July).
- Beer festivals attended in the Lake District:Â One
- Beer festivals attended elsewhere: None – obviously slacking!
- New swimming spots: Quite a few although not as many as last year.
It’s taken rather a long time for this post to crawl out of the ether and I did wonder if given it is now the end of March, it was worth actually doing one. I’m not sure why I didn’t do one before – it was probably the usual factors e.g. life, or more accurately work, getting in the way of both time and headspace for blogging.
It also wasn’t a great year in terms of numbers; there are various reasons for that, the main one probably being that I have now done most of the walks where it is possible to string a fair few hills together, and the ones I have left where this is remotely possible are all in the West and some of them are on the tricky side. I’ve also, somewhat inconveniently, left a lot of the bigger ones until last – probably a side effect of having started on Wainwrights as a bit of a sidebar when I was still trying to bag Munros – and in hindsight having done some of the bigger ones when I was younger and fitter might have been a better idea. 20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing but even at 55, not that old relatively speaking, I am finding myself clearly not as fit as I was and not as fit as I would like to be either. I don’t think my hill fitness ever quite recovered properly after Covid when I was stuck in the flatlands of Kent and having some health issues hasn’t helped either: I had another operation on one of my legs in January 2024 and even though it was exactly the same op as I had on the other leg in 2023, I didn’t bounce back as quickly. Getting older is a pain in the backside but let’s face it, is inevitable – but I really don’t like the fact that I already seem to be slowing down.
Wainwright walks 109: 7 hours on the train, 6 hours on the hill
- Hills: Grasmoor
- Classification: Wainwright (189)
- When: Saturday 22 February
- Who: Me, the mountaineering minion, and Tiny Paddington
- Distance: 9 miles (though felt longer)
- Weather: Decent on the way up and down but windy. Pea soup fog on the top of the hill (and freezing)
- Conditions underfoot: Fine – decent paths throughout.
- Post walk drink: A pint of Brakspears Oxford Gold (no local ales on at the pub!)
- Post walk watering hole: The Royal Oak, Braithwaite – later a couple of pubs in Keswick
- MAMBA factor: Relatively low. Quite a few people about.
- Uses of the arse crampon: MIA this time.
- Mishaps: Transport; the weather on the day before and after; mental lapse when packing
11.30am on 22nd February and I’m about 2/3 of the way up Grasmoor, slowly plodding my way up to Coledale Hause keeping an eye on the weather. Cloud is blowing in and out on the higher tops, the wind coming and going and I’m definitely gritting my teeth. I’m unfit and out of sorts but determined – and aware that the weather, changeable as it is, will be the best I’m likely to get out of the weekend. Nonetheless I’m still wondering if by doing a long walk up a big hill on a windy day for my first hill of the year I’ve slightly taken leave of my senses.
The last hills of 2024 were done back in October with a round of 2 new hills and one repeat near Coniston. Since then I think it’s fair to say that my exercise regime has been limited. A combination of work continuing to be mad, going down with a bug over Christmas and various completely non hill related travel (including a lovely week snorkelling in Egypt and a work event when I was speaking at a conference in Belgium) had led to this and although I’ve tried to drag myself to the gym two or three times a week since the New Year, the only way of keeping fit for doing big hills seems to be to do big hills, which when you live in the flatlands of the South East is not really possible. Feeling unfit also negatively impacts my confidence and it’s fair to say I was feeling pretty nervous about the trip and what I might or might not actually be able to manage.
Of course, it being the first walk of the year, the mishap fairy was bound to make an appearance. The weather forecast was not great to put it mildly and for Sunday looked absolutely shocking. However, it looked as though there would be a weather window on the Saturday when, although it was going to be windy, it was at least forecast to be dry and unlike Sunday, was walkable.
Enter the usual saga about whether Avanti West Coast can be bothered to run something approaching a train service. I get to Euston and get on my booked train with no issues only to be told that it had been cancelled about half a minute before it was due to leave – and on top of this that there had been a landslip somewhere in the south of Scotland and that trains were currently terminating at Preston. So got off the train and went and found an Avanti employee who told me to go to Kings Cross! Now that works for getting to Scotland but is no use at all for getting to Penrith… I then found another Avanti employee who told me that there should be rail replacement put on at Preston and that Transpennine Express services were potentially running (I confirmed this on my phone).
Wainwright walks 108: Great day on Great Carrs!
- Hills: Grey Friar, Great Carrs, Swirl How (a repeat)
- Classification: Wainwrights (187 and 188)
- When: Sunday 13th October
- Who: Me, the mountaineering minion, and Tiny Paddington
- Distance: I actually forgot to check. Probably about 7 or 8 miles given it was a linear walk.
- One that got away: Wetherlam
- Weather: Glorious sunshine but bloody cold for October.
- Conditions underfoot: Generally fine except for some bits of the way down Prison Band and a fair amount of bog on the walk out.
- Post walk drink: A pint of a Coniston ale (can’t remember which one)
- Post walk watering hole: The Black Bull, Coniston – later a couple of pubs in Ambleside
- MAMBA factor: Relatively low. Saw very few people until I got to the summit of the first hill. After that there were quite a few people about.
- Uses of the arse crampon: A couple on the descent of Prison Band.
- Mishaps: The weather on the day before (if that counts). Also, trousers.
After my trip to Keswick in September, where I met Margaret and Carol and for once was blessed with brilliant weather for most of it, I think it was fair to say normal service was likely to be resumed at some point i.e. not everything going to plan. Even by normal standards work was bonkers in the couple of weeks after Keswick, to the extent that I had actually managed to forget I’d got another trip booked, taking a punt on a trip to Ambleside, until it was nearly time to go on it. The reason this was a punt is because I’m starting to run out of hills in that area which I haven’t already done, and certainly ones that can be done using public transport – one notable exception being the remainder of the Coniston fells which I had not been anywhere near for over ten years and which therefore needed to be rectified.
For once, the journey up North went relatively smoothly – I was able to do some work on the train, make the connection at Oxenholme, get to Windermere and get a bus to my accommodation in plenty of time to check in then have a couple of drinks and some food. The accommodation this time was what I usually refer to as a ‘B’ – i.e. a bed and breakfast without the breakfast, which I don’t really mind as I don’t necessarily want a huge breakfast before hill walking anyway. So that was all fine but it was apparent that the weather was not going to play ball – at least not for the Saturday, though the Sunday looked much better.
Mountains and Malbec 