Lake District Holiday 2014

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The first week in June was our week-long trip to the Lake District, where we climbed all of the English Furth Munros, the tallest 6 peaks in England. We also had a relaxing stay in Keswick and Grasmere/Rydal.

Sca Fell, Helvellyn, and Skiddaw

Monday

We were up at 4am to get the train from Tim's place in West Hampstead to Euston for the 05:30 to Ravenglass via Lancaster and Barrow-in-Furness, arriving at 10:55.

The reason we wanted to get there so early was to catch the heritage Ravenglass and Eskdale railway along the hillsides in one of journeys timetabled to be hauled by a steam train.



Due to the narrow gauge of the tracks, the steam trains were actually miniature scale replicas!

The terminus station of Dalegarth was the nearest station to where our first B&B was situated, but still 3km or so away, as the crow flies. We walked there via a detour to Stanley Ghyll Force, a waterfall that, were it not for the temperature, could have been in a jungle in Laos. It was definitely worth seeking out.



We rejoined the River Esk and walked upstream until we reached Wha House Farm, our B&B for the night.

Tuesday: Sca Fell, Scafell Pike, Broad Crag, and Ill Crag

Tuesday was our biggest planned walking day, with the need to walk four out of six of the fells we had planned, and reach Langdale valley, on the other side of the mountain range, by the end of the day.

Our accomodation was ideally placed to begin the walk, and we started by walking along the beautiful Eskdale Valley, upstream along the River Esk.

About 5km along, we left the riverside and begun our climb up the hillside, giving us a fine view of the valley we had just walked through.



With Sca fell and Scafell Pike peaks still shrouded in cloud, we reached the point where we split from the main path to the Pike, as Sca Fell was a small detour to the West. Getting to it involved scrambling up a narrow rocky passage with water streaming down through it, to Foxes Tarn, where we had a short break before scrambling up some extremely slippery gravelly slopes to the top of Sca Fell.

The clouds hadn't broken, and there was but a single other fell walker at the top, who kindly took a photo of the three of us.



It was chilly at the top and, judging that the cloud wasn't going to pass any time soon, we descended back down to Foxes Tarn and then to the point where we had left the main path.

Another scramble up some even slippier scree took us to Scafell Pike, which was considerably busier; despite the fact that we had only seen a couple of other people on our route, there were routes from several other villages and hamlets around the Lakes. Still, I was mightily proud of myself for having reached Scafell Pike, which has been something I've wanted to do for some years now.

I enjoyed my short time as the highest person in England, if not the UK (see you soon, I hope, Ben Nevis). The clouds hadn't cleared entirely, but there were enough gaps in the cloud to give a pretty decent view.



After the scramble to Sca Fell and Scafell Pike, Broad Crag and Ill Crag were a sinch, having a prominance of less than 60m each. However, as the weather was clearing, Ill Crag in particular gave us a stunning view of the Eskdale valley.



We then had to descend about 800m over 11km horizontal distance to reach Langdale, which was so much harder than the climb up that far. We made it to our stay for the night, a lodge in the Greenhowe caravan site, which turned out to be surprisingly luxurious, and I had a bath before dinner, a hot chocolate, and bed.

Wednesday

We had planned to continue our journey on foot and walk Helvellyn on Wednesday, but we were all exhausted from our 26km walk the previous day; plus the weather wasn't forecast to be particularly good. We had a spare day so we decided to walk Helvellyn on Friday after Skiddaw on Thursday.

Instead, we walked to Grasmere village, where we took shelter from the rain in a cafe for lunch - tasty soup - after which we rode the bus to Keswick, where our next B&B was booked.

We spent the afternoon walking around Derwentwater, a large lake to the South of Keswick. It was a nice walk, and we got the ferry back to Keswick from the far side!

Thursday: Skiddaw

Skiddaw was the shortest of the six peaks we walked to over the holiday, but rather than taking the regular tourist route, a gentle well-worn slope with a car park at the bottom, we approached from the West (although opted to take the easy path back down again) where not only did we have a very pleasant walk through some hilly woodland, but also had a more challenging last couple of hundred metres up to the summit, with slippery loose slate underfoot.

The clouds closed in at around 500-600m and after that the wind got up and it started raining too. I felt like I definitely got the full mountain-climbing experience here! Visibility at the top was probably not more than about 10-20m.



The wind was slightly less deafening behind the stone windshelter at the peak, but even so we were the only people there and we didn't stay there for long.

After reaching the bottom (along which we passed a guy attempting to make Skiddaw's main route up a more challenging one by cycling it) we went up Latrigg, a small mound with a good view of Keswick, before walking to Castlerigg, a stone circle with particularly picturesque views all around it.



Having walked (horizontally, at least) as far as on Tuesday, we got back pretty tired, but enjoyed a meal out at a local gastropub, where Tim and I had cumberland sausage and mash, which was delicious.

Friday: Helvellyn

Moving Helvellyn to Friday turned out to be a great decision, as the weather was perfect. From the top we could see as far as Scotland to the North.



The walk up was also pleasant, and not too busy. The Air Force does training exercises in the Lake District, and as we were part way up, we saw a fighter jet zooming past in the valley below. It's not often you see a plane flying by from above!

As we were about to reach the peak, another jet plane flew past - this time immediately above us - and did a barrel roll as it went over. It was close enough for us to see the pilot inside the cockpit. Show off! They rather made our day.

After we reached the peak we saw a rescue helicopter doing training exercises on the nearby Striding Edge, lowering a rescue worker onto the knife-edge ridge and then winching them back up again. The helicopter flew overhead too where we could see the rescuers waving to the crowd that had formed to watch their routine.

We walked back down again and saw Tim off by bus to Penrith railway station. Now we had a couple more days, in Grasmere, to relax!



Saturday and Sunday

Having been unable to find the way to Buckstones Jum, a waterfall with a natural bathing area, on Friday, our B&B host pointed us in the right direction, so we got up early on Saturday morning to get the place to ourselves.

It was lovely being out in the fresh morning air, while somewhat dreamily climbing up the route to the fall. However, when we got there, we had the place to ourselves and a wonderful view down the river and into the valley.

The water was astoundingly cold and I didn't manage more than a paddle, but Emily happily had a swim, which I imagine would have woken her up with a start. (But she says it was lovely anyway!)

After having breakfast, we went out to Rydal Caves, a couple of natural caves, one of which we could get into via some stepping stones through the water in the entranceway.

It was nice to look out at the rain from the relative dryness inside.



We spent the afternoon having a lovely nap with rain outside the room, then went out for a tasty dinner in Grasmere.

On Sunday, before making our way home, we had time to walk up one more hill, not to the summit this time, but to Alcock Tarn, which was a pleasant tarn with excellent views of the town below. I took a panoramic shot of the view:



On the way down, we had a paddle in a rushing stream to cool off our feet.

So that's it! Our walking holiday in the Lake District. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and was very pleased with myself for getting through it all withouth too much exhaustion. Plus we got to see epic sheep everywhere.