LAKE DISTRICT - JUNE 2017

OK, so...58 left, we're on the final push and on the home stretch to finishing what we set out to complete 5 years ago!! Mr F found us a cottage right over by the Far Western Fells in a little village called Dean just outside of Workington and Cockermouth. It was such a lovely cottage with a master bedroom and a spare room with double bunk beds and in a really quite remote part of the Lakes...

We set off from London around am and stopped off for lunch at Mrs F's Dad in Blackburn and then headed on to the cottage around pm, getting there at 4:30-ish. We debated whether to go out straight away and do a small one just to get the legs moving, but because we were so remote in our location the nearest small one to us was still quite a drive away and about a mile and half up - since we had our Tesco food delivery coming between 7:00-8:00pm we didn't have enough time. Plus Mr F's oil light came on in his car so we decided to go in search for some oil instead. We headed to Sainsbury's in Cockermouth where Mr F hoped to get the oil he needed, but since they didn't sell it, he headed over to a hardware shop to see if they did. Again he had no joy, but the very helpful lady there warned him against buying from the petrol garage due to over inflated prices and called her friend who works in a garage and told him we were coming for oil. We went to where we were instructed to go and found her friends Son who happily filled the engine with oil and only wanted £5 for it...but Mr F gave him £10 being the nice man that he is 😊

From there we took a little drive to Bleach Green car park and had a little stroll by River Derwent, which was really lovely as the sun was setting and we said a Prayer together which was a special moment 😇 We stopped to have a drink at the little and only pub in Dean and by the time we got back to the cottage (had a discussion with the neighbours about where and how to park!) we unpacked and Tesco brought all of our food for the week including our delicious homemade Chilli Con Carne dinner that night, ready for our first day on the mountains the following day. Mrs F added Ibuprofen to the shopping along with twiglets that were never added to the shopping, so Mr F kindly headed out first thing in the morning to get some Ibuprofen for Mrs F, as she was bound to need it at some point during the week with her dodgy joints...

Blencathra From Our Way In

Our cottage, view from outside...

Pictures of inside...

Mr F Already Looking At Routes On The Map

View From Bedroom Window Out The Front...

..View From Bedroom Window Out The Back

View Looking Across Ennerdale Water From Our Little Stroll

DAY 1: GREAT BORNE - 2,019ft
              STARLING DODD 2,077ft
4 HOURS TREKKING IN THE WIND & RAIN

So after a bit of a ropey nights sleep due to the crackly duvet (comfy mattress though) we woke up to a grim looking day of overcast and rain...so we didn't rush to get out of the door! We didn't have hardly any signal due to our remoteness and the Wi-Fi in the cottage wasn't the greatest for streaming Lakeland radio on the App, so we couldn't get any local weather news or fell top forecast. So Mrs F emailed Lakeland and asked them to let us know what the fell top forecast is, but by the time they sent us a link that covered the week, we were eating lunch at a wind shelter on top of the mountain!

We headed out around 11am, armed with waterproofs and ready to embrace the wind and rain. We parked in Bowness Knott car park just up the road from Bleach Green and set off for our first summit, Great Borne. Usually we try to plan our first day to be a gentle ease into the week, but we've never really learned the art of how to do that!

Mr F Getting His Gaiters On

Our Direction...In The Fog!

There was a fell race going on and were little flags along the same route we were taking going up for the runners...fair play to them doing it in the conditions of the whether because it was atrocious! The first part of the trek as usual was pretty much straight up, which for us (Mrs F) was a bit of an ask for the old lungs and legs as we hadn't doe any exercise since our last trip to the Lakes in February (See March 2017 entry) But we kept with it and battled our way through the relentless wind and and rain pounding our faces with the extra added insult of the occasional whip of a rucksack strap!

The little footholds were very welcoming until they disappeared!

Sheep Train!

Heading Into The Abyss Of Fog, Mr F Checking His Satmap 

Mr F's Face Just Says It Al!!

The climb up to the summit was tough one because of how many extra steps we were having to take fro the wind blowing us in every direction which tired our legs out. Mrs F slipped on wet ground and face planted the side of the mountain, literally going from standing the being flat on her front! We finally made it to the summit which we could just about see and stopped briefly in the wind shelter where Mr F was able to get his Wainwright book out without it blowing off the mountain!

Summit Of Great Borne

Onwards To The Next One...Starling Dodd

As the wind and rain was so bad, we couldn't take hardy any photos and the ones that we did had rain spots on them which didn't show a very clear photo. We came down a gully that was much similar to when we came off of Skiddaw Little Man (See October 2016 entry) It wasn't the best first day out on the mountains that we've had in terms of the whether making both the ascent and descent quite difficult. Eventually we made in on somewhat level ground where we took a very secluded walk back through the forest...

Heading Down, Looking Back At Our Walk Off

Through The Forest

We came across a couple of these old ruins which the Satmap called Stone Settlements, which indicated that there once was a little village here at some point in the past...

Mr F's Rain cover for his rucksack gave up the ghost and eventually the bottom of is filled with water which was hanging down and swinging!  😂

We didn't actually get to eat our lunch until we were back at the car at around 3:45! Was had little bits in between, including our usual boiled eggs with salt which we have every time we head out on a mountain as a mid morning snack boost. But we literally could not find a good place to sit out of the rain in a place that wasn't already wet and to honest, we both just wanted to get back to the car since we were not too far from it. 

When we got back to the cottage, it wasn't ideal that we had wet gear on our first day and so fully utilised every radiator in the cottage to dry it all out and stuffed our boots with an old newspaper. The heating was really efficient (once Mr F worked out how to override the timer!) We just switched it on and off by the usual way of the Honeywell and everything was pretty much dry by the next morning.

We had a very welcoming leftover Chilli half and half with chips and it went down splendidly well! Mr F started looking online at blogs and photos of the same route we took but with clear views...would have been a day of great views if the weather was better. But we've done so many Wainwrights now where we're doing them just to be ticked off the list and not so worried about what we can see around us...it's called 'Being on a Mission Regardless!' Plus we travel so far to get to the Lake District from London we don't like or want to waste any days we could be out ticking off more from our list, so we get on it with...

DAY 2: MELLBREAK - 1,676ft
              HEN COMB - 1,670ft

Mrs F didn't have the best start to her day - she woke up during the night with really bad pain in the knuckle of her ring finger in her right hand, which she's never had before but very painful! She had to take Ibuprofen and put some peas on it and guessed it must have been from when she fell...

Mr F made lunch and and we headed out shortly after breakfast, ready to embrace another day in the wind. Thanks be the God, we Prayed for better weather and views and He certainly heard our Prayer and blessed us with clear views and no rain, although it was cloudy...and this lasted if not got better as the week went on. How awesome is our God! 😊

So Mr F looked at the Wainwright book and saw that we needed to park just past a bridge in Loweswater. We noticed that where we were was so secluded that there were more narrow country lanes than anywhere we had stayed in the Lakes and the amount of birds that live in the hedgerows of the country lanes were incredible - we both have never seen so many birds that we had to slow down for and toot out of the way, all week! So we stopped in a tiny village and was slightly confused by where we were and where we should have been. We sat for about 10 minutes waiting for the Satmap to load up to give us some indication and we figured it our that we turned off too soon and that the bridge and parking spot was literally in the road...30 seconds away! We parked up and could clearly see our first mountain for the day. It was heavily raining whilst we were in the car but by the time we got out it stopped 😃

As we got further towards to top, we could see what looked very similar to the kind of scree we endured on Lord's Rake (See November 2013 entry) But as we were actually on it, it wasn't as small and slippery as it looked from further away and quite manageable with bigger chunks of rock and stone rather than the impossible smaller stuff...

Mr F Making His Way Up...All 4 Limbs Required!

Just Around The Corner To The Top

Looking Back Over The Corner

Teeny Tiny Little Scramble

A Bit More Scree...Slightly Smaller, Usual Stuff

Not too far from where we literally turned  around the corner, there was a rather big drop back down...

A Quick Look Back Through The Drop

Once we were up, we were welcomed by a beautiful view of  the area with our summit ahead of us. It was an out and back job where we headed on to our next mountain from there...

 The wind really picked up and Mr F had to hold on to Mrs F's rucksack to stop her from blowing off and away! It was quite hard to see where we were going as our heads were down trying to stay shielded from the battering wind that was quite relentless. Once we got to the summit cairn, Mrs F tried to walk up towards it so Mr F could get a photo, but was walking into the wind and was a comical struggle!

Looking over to our next destination.

Mr F With His New  Waterproof Map Protector

Mr F Made His Way To The Summit Cairn No Problem!

Mrs F Trying To Make Her Way To The Summit Cairn!

Still Trying!

Made It! 😅

From there we had to take a route where we were descending off and planned to go and do Whiteside from here. However Mrs F asked Mr F what the mountain was directly in front of us and turned out it was one we still needed to do. So we both agreed that we should do this one instead as we were so close and would mean having to come back to do it. So once we were at the bottom of our descent off of Melbreak we stopped for scooby snacks just by the main path and make our way over to the start of Hen Comb.

Although it was right in front of us, the easiest way to start the ascent was on the complete other side of the hump, which meant two things: 1) Having to walk right along the path to the other end, only to have to trek all the way back up this end to the summit 2) Cross a heavy flowing river. But as we were limited in our choices we had to do both. We loved that we had lots of daylight to play with too, so time wasn't an issue...

Making Our Way Off Mellbrek

Mr F Checking Out Hen Comb In His Wainwright Book

Looking Back At Our Route Off

Looking Over At Hen Comb From The Summit End

Looking Along The Ridge From The Other End!

The river crossing was quite difficult because there wasn't a rock or stone that didn't have gushing water flowing over the top at the first half of crossing, which meant the boots were definitely going to get wet and made a steady foothold difficult and the second half was trudging through water that also came up over our boots....bottom line, our boots were getting wet! Mrs F hates getting her boots wet because she has loved and cared for them for 5 years, trying desperately not to get them wet in any circumstances other than from rain!

Mr F Working Out His River Crossing Tactics...

Easy!

Back Up The Other End We Go!

Mrs F Loving It...

It was a steep climb on the initial part leading up to the ridge which got our lungs burning again, but our legs were more on board with what we wanted them to do than the day before!

...But Feeling The Burn!

Looking Over At Where We Had Just Came Down

Nearly There...Apparently!

Wind Picked Up Again

When we got there, the summit was nothing but a pile of rocks that indicated the highest point that is the summit...very unimpressive for the amount of work that went into getting there!!

Mr F Looking Very Unimpressed At The So-called Summit Cairn!

On our way back, Mr F said that we may not need to cross the river, but could possibly head back through the forest trees. HOWEVER, once we made it back to the river crossing, turns out we couldn't go through the forest but had to take the crossing again. This time Mrs F went first and never feels confident with river crossings, but decided this time to take the lead and let Mr F take some pictures of her making a crossing for a change. HOWEVER, it didn't go well! Once she made it half way over, she was a little hasty in making her way over the bigger rocks and fell in!!!!!! Mr F was tempted to take a photo, but thought better of it! Mrs F had what Mr F calls, her 'Predator Face' on and Mr F quickly (and safely) made his way over to see if she was OK. He knows her so well because he first asked if she was hurt or just upset that her boots got wet!! He did also asked if she was embarrassed, which definitely wasn't the reason for the predator face...it was indeed the wet boots...and wet sleeve!! Mr F then laughed!

The Forest That Was A Teasing Option Back

There She Goes...

Literally Moments Before She ended Up In! 😂

Wet Boots!!

Predator Face!!

As it was just coming out of Spring and into Summer, there were a few Lambs and Calves around that were still suckling which was a joy to see...

Once we were back at the cottage, the boot drying newspaper was back in use along a couple of radiators that had both pairs of boots on. Mrs F put some more reproofing on her boots whilst they were still wet to give them a boost of waterproofing. By now, Mrs F's finger was hurting so much she could hardly move or use it 😢 So she had to tape it up as best she could and even tried taping a lolly stick to it to use as a splint, which seemed to make it worse. After resorting to looking on YouTube at how to tape it properly, it finally brought some relief to a very painful finger, which Mrs F was convinced was either broken or slightly dislocated...and done quite good job of the taping! We had a rather delicious chicken and large jacket potato dinner and watched Friends all night and most nights infact on Comedy Central on Sky...bliss!

DAY 3: BURNBANK - 1,580ft
              BLACK FELL - 1,878ft
              GAVEL FELL - 1,720ft
4 HOURS AND 20 MINUTES TREKKING
              

So Mrs F woke up to yet more pain in her finger but this time, completely unable to move it! So loaded with Ibuprofen and having to learn how to hold the walking pole in her left hand, we headed out ready t face the day which was our best day for weather so far. Mr F made the lunches again as Mrs F literally couldn't even butter the roles with her bad finger! We headed out to our recommended parking spot that apparently gets full quite quickly. Armed with tape, Ibuprofen, gaiters and all other waterproof clothing we set out for our day, which Mrs F was feeling very excited about.

Poorly Taped Finger 😢

You could see the path very clearly from the car that lead around the side of our first summit..

Mrs F couldn't put her glove on properly and so her hand looked like she was doing the Star Trek Spock hand! 

The views of the surrounding fells as we headed around and over the back were really lovely. We came to a little fork in the road where a couple of trekkers in front of us took one route and we took another. Mrs F looked up and saw a route that literally went straight up, but thankfully we took a route just a bit lower down...

We came to the end of our route around the back of our first mountain and Mr F was slightly puzzled as to why we still needed to head upwards from where we were to reach the summit. So he sat and looked at it in his book and discovered that the scary looking route that Mrs F saw was actually the way we should have gone. So now we were faced with the decision to either go all the way back along the path to the gate and take that route, or just head straight up. We went with the latter which made more sense at the time....only at the time! It was actually quite a slog heading up through the heather, which we both hate having to trudge, but in fairness it probably shaved 10 minutes off by going straight up rather than walk all the way back.

  

Making Our Way Straight Up The Side

Once we made it to the top, it was quite boggy underfoot. We made our way over to the summit cairn which was by the fence and not that impressive! From there we followed the fence up and over to our next one before heading back down, taking the same route. It was literally an out and back job with a bit of up and down. We stopped briefly in a wind shelter for eggs and scooby snacks before we set off heading down into a dip and back up towards the summit. We then had to turn around and go back the same way and stopped again in the wind shelter, this time for lunch and Mrs F rather enjoyed her hot Ovaltine whilst Mr F enjoyed his cold apple 😋

From our initial stop at the wind shelter we were there and back again in no time, but not half as impressive as the old boy who was fell running the route...as we were on our way back up to the wind shelter he was on his way up to Gavel Fell and by the time we sat down and got our lunch out, he had made it back to the wind shelter, quickly looked at his watch and went back to do it again!! 😲

Making Our Way Through The Bog (Grateful For Our Gaiters!)

Heading Off Along The Fence From Burnbank

Our Initial Stop In The Wind Shelter

Looking Out From The Wind Shelter

Hoping Over To Head To Black Fell

Gavel Fell In The Near Distance...

Mrs F Conquering Black Fell

Where We Just Came From & Now Heading Back

Lunch!

Mr F Snuggled Up With His Apple

On our way back, we took the route that we should have taken at the very start of the trek. It was a good decision to just head up the side rather than go all the way back to the gate. Once we were down Mrs F was drawn in by the all the calves and their Mum's and managed to get a photo of one suckling...

It was nice to be back in the cottage at a decent time to get showered, chill out, watch Friends and make dinner later on. We made a rather large dish of Pasta Bolognese and garlic bread, enough for the two for us to have large servings tonight and the next day...delish! We chilled out with Avatar on the tele and enjoyed our cosy night in the cottage, accept from Mrs F extremely painful finger that was causing her to cry just trying to take the tape off to put a fresh one on 😢 Mr F was at the loving ready to wipe away the tears...

DAY 4: FELLBARROW - 1,363ft

              LOW FELL - 1,360ft

              WHITE SIDE - 2,317ft

4 AND HALF HOURS TREKKING, SCRAMBLING COMING OFF AN AWKWARD MOUNTAIN!!

So today we decided to go and do a couple that were relatively close together and then drive over to do conquer White Side. We were eager to get going to finally tackle Whiteside, because we will have then finally completed our first group of Wainwright Fells, the Far Eastern...very exciting!

Mr F Never Smiles...Try Again...

Somewhat Better!

The initial climb was a gradual incline but still got our lungs working. The terrain was mainly through fern but then once we were higher up, it we were out on the beautiful fields of the fell tops that were covered in what looked liked cotton. Mrs F found out later that it was Bog Cotton and was very soft to touch. The final push to the first summit was a fairly steep one and you could we the summit cairn just peeking up sitting on top of the hill we were climbing to reach it...

Our Initial Climb Up Through The Fern

A Blanket Of Bog Cotton

The Summit Just Peeking Out On The Top

Mr F Made It There First

We headed off over to our next and final mountain before heading back to the car to make our way over to White Side. The walk was a pretty one and came across a couple of lams that somehow managed to get themselves on the other side of the fence to their Mum and were nervous at the fact that we were on the same side as them and they couldn't find a way back over...bless em'! It was another out and back job towards what looked like a lagoon that was Loweswater, very pretty...

We came across this very pointless gate that wasn't attached to a fence and you could just walk around it...very odd!

Low Fell Ahead Of Us

Loweswater 

Whiteside...

Once we had reached Low Fell, had our eggs and set off again, we made our way back down to the car in good time. The drive to Whiteside was only a short one, which meant Mr F Didn't have to change from his chunky boots and into his trainers and the car park was literally just over the road from where we needed to set off. It wasn't too long before Mrs F delayered as the sun came out and was really quite warm. Although the weather had been cloudy the humidity was quite high in the 80's...

White Side...Doesn't Look Too Bad!

Over The Bridge & Start Our Ascent

You could clearly see some water damage by the bridge that we assumed must have come from storm Desmond back in 2015 as the bank was partly washed away...

Looking Up & Ahead

The initial trek going up was mainly on trod out steps in the ground before it turned to gravel as we got higher up, which then turned into a short scramble as the the sun really came out and fried us! It looked quite nice on top which gave us incentive to get up and have lunch...

Up There Somewhere Is The Summit

Views Along The Way

Coming Across The Scrambly Bits Now

The sun was really beating down on us now, as you can see from Mrs F rosey cheeks in the picture below. However Mr F was keen to keep his coat on and be protected from the rays...even if he was sweating  profusely! But it didn't last long - as we were nearing the top of the scramble, the clear views of the valley below were no longer there and we were in the cloud...so much for our lunch in the sunshine!

Feeling The Heat Now!

Still A Long Way To Go...

Clear View Of The Valley Below...

...Clouds Rolling In Ahead

Mr F By The Summit

We sat on the damp grass and had a very quick lunch whilst Mr F examined the best route down and decided from looking on the map, that heading off on the opposite side where there is a path would be better than trying to make our way down via the scramble route, which would now be in the covered in clouds. So we set off to find this so called route but was quite difficult in the fog and Mr F was starting to get a slight panic on but was heavily relying on his Satmap to lead the way ahead of Mrs F. Mrs F could sense that Mr F was getting a little 'concerned' like he did when we were lost on Bowfell (See April 2014 entry) and so said a quick prayed for the cloud to clear just a little for him to see where we were heading and at that moment, the sun came through the cloud and we found a little path...Praise God for his goodness! 😇

Lunch & Map Studying

Mr F Ahead Trying To Look For The Path

Finally Found It!

The path wasn't exactly ans easy one - it was quite gravely and easy to slip underfoot, so we had to go quite easy and slow, especially as this is the kind of stuff that Mr F easily slips on. After a while, the path became less obvious and eventually disappeared altogether! We were left left and faced with our worst kind of terrain...moss and heather!! The road ahead looked so far away and we still had a very steep descent down through impossible heather that literally grabbed our feet and wouldn't let go, causing us to stumble. Mrs F took a stumble to the ground but couldn't put her hand out with her poorly finger and so landed on her elbow and Mr F went over hurting his ankle...to say the very least, we were both getting quite fed up and it took about an hour for us to tackle our way through out of the heather. Once we were out of the heather, we still had to make our way around the bottom and over the path that lead to the car, which meant having to walk on a sloped ankle through fern (another non favourite of ours) which is an ankle killer!

The Unsteady Gravel Path

The Narrowing Path

Mrs F's Predator Face!

White Side Now Covered In a Blanket Of Cloud

Looking Back At Our Horrendous 'route' down

A Very Steep Angle Indeed..No Wonder We Were Getting Fed Up!

Finally On Level Ground...With Humpy Faces!

Mountain 1, Mrs F 0!

We both felt quite done in by the time we got back to the cottage, one of those 'collapse on the sofa and do nothing for a while' kind of moments! Good job we already had dinner made, just a case of re-heating and chucking garlic bread in the oven. We didn't need to wash up for whole week either, accept for our trekking bottles because we had a dishwasher...result!

DAY 5: GRIKE - 1,596ft
              CRAG FELL - 1,710ft
              CAW FELL - 2,288ft
              HAYCOCK - 2,618ft
              LANK RIGG - 1,775ft

So we already knew for quite some time that today was going to be a long tough day and needed to tackle this route in the summer when we had plenty f daylight and hopefully just as much energy and good legs! Mr F had done lots of research on this route and even asked a couple of questions on a Wainwright group on Facebook. We were both feeling up for the day and our legs felt good and strong now they had finally acclimatised. So we packed a good sized lunch and made sure we filled all the water bottles. Mr F had predicted that we would be out for about 11 and half hours, which we've only done once before when we done Sca Fell and Sca Fell Pike and that was only because Mrs F had a damaged knee otherwise it wouldn't have been such a long day (See November 2013 entry)

So up 'n' ready for it we set out earlier than we had been for obvious reasons of it being a long day ahead of us and parked up at Bleach Green car park and headed in the same direction as we did when we came for a stroll on our first day. There was a lovely little cottage in the middle of the meadow that we had to make our way around the back of and through the forest trees up a ghyll. It was quite a warm start to our day and so we stopped a little way to delayer before carrying on to the fell tops...

Ennerdale Water

Mrs F 's Freckled Face From The Day Before

Up The Ghyll Behind The White Cottage

It wasn't too long before we reached our first summit of Grike. This time the boys came out with us and wanted a summit photo on every summit!

Summit Number 1 For The Day

Muggles & Buggles on Grike

It wasn't too long before we were at our next summit, Crag Fell. Once we made the initial height at the start, most of our trekking from one summit to the next was on even ground with only gradual and slight inclines and declines. Which was a good job because the trek from Crag Fell to Caw Fell was 4 miles away following a wall pretty much the whole way there. We set off from Crag Fell at 12:10 and made it to the ridge at 1:45 which was bang on Mr F's predicted time. The walk out was a really nice steady one even if it was a long one, it was easy underfoot with no real challenges. We had a little descent off Crag Fell towards what looked like a tree graveyard, which was quite sad to see. We hoped that it was to do with some fungus control and not just a pointless mass lumberjack job. It was quite boggy once we passed the tree graveyard and had to walk over some logs that wasn't earthed but good job they were there to help us get over a really boggy area... 

Crag Fell

Boys Summit Photo On Crag Fell

The Boggy Terrain By The Cut Down Trees

Looking Back At Our Route Down From Crag Fell

The Long Walk To Caw Fell Via The Wall

We were walking for quite some time before we could even see the ridge of Caw Fell, it was tucked behind other mountains which just showed how far it was...4 miles is a long way after all! But once we finally saw the ridge, as Mr F put it, it finally seems like we're making progress!

Somewhere On That Ridge In The Far Distance Is Caw Fell

Can You Spot The Summit Cairn In The Distance??

Our nice level walk out turned into a short climb to get to the ridge, which in the grand scheme of how long we'd just took a pleasant level trek, wasn't so bad...

The Short (But Brutal) Climb Ahead Of Us

Mr F Making His Way Up To The Ridge

The Ridge And Caw Fell To The Right Of Us

Looking Back At Where We Had Just Come From

Our Route Following The Wall Looking Back

The summit cairn wasn't far along the ridge from where we were from the short climb onto it. We walked past a little wind shelter to get to Caw Fell not far from it and let the boys have their next summit photo before we stopped in the wind shelter on the way back for a little scooby snack. It was just big enough for the 2 of us and our rucksacks! We were pretty sheltered from the wind but as we had stopped, Mr F's arms were quite cold so put her coat on before setting off for Haycock towards the opposite side of the ridge and Caw Fell...

The Boys On Caw Fell Finally!

Mr F Pointing The Way Towards Haycock

Once we made the short trek to Haycock, the views were stunning with an extra stunning and welcomed view of a wind shelter just a step over a style from the summit cairn...although the large opening was on the same side as the wind was blowing, so wasn't really sheltering us from much at all! Mr F got in first whilst Mrs F took a couple of photos and joined Mr F for a beautiful lunch. It was here that Mr F lost the rubber ring from Mrs F's hot water flask (that her Mum got her for Christmas) although Mr F testified that he didn't lose it, he was playing with the lid and could have only been this moment that it was lost! However, once we were back in London, Mrs F managed to buy a replacement so all's well in the end 😊  We didn't see many people at all but saw 4 people (2 of them elderly) who were doing the Birkett's which are all the other non Wainwright mountains of The Lake District...and there are 541 of them!! 😲

Boys On The Summit Of Haycock

In The Un-sheltered Wind Shelter

So...the dilemma we had most of the day was, do we go and do Lank Rigg from Haycock at the end of the day, which we did factor into our mammoth day which is partly why it would be such a big day. We could just walk right past it and carry on going back towards the tree graveyard or dive off course just slightly to go and tick if off the list. The problem with not doing it today would mean having to come back and dob this one just on it's own. But as we were both feeling pretty good both mentally and physically, we decided that we were going to do  it....'Born,  Bred, Mountain Fed, HOORAH!!' 😜

Making Our Way Down Towards Lank Rigg

We set off about 15 minutes after we saw the 4 people by the wind shelter and caught them up! They were heading down on the other side of the wall, which didn't make sense based on where they told us they were heading. We not only caught them up but overtook them and got so far ahead of them that we eventually couldn't see them when we looked behind us. We headed back following vi the same route that we came up by, following what seemed like the Great Wall of China! We eventually came to our turn off point to dive off to our left and head over to Lank Rigg, which looked a bit of a beast with it's straight up and straight down approach. But it needed to be done so we took no time hanging around. We made our way over following an obvious path of well trodden grass and Mr F picked up some sheep wool to mark where we needed to go on our way back, so we didn't take the wrong turn.

It didn't tale too long in the grand scheme of things to make the steep incline trek up to the summit cairn. From a distance it looked like there was a man and his dog on top of Lank Rigg that hadn't moved for a while, but it was just the shape of the cairns on top! 😃

The Walk Back Along The Very Long Wall

Just Had To Get a Photo Of This Unfortunate Moulting Sheep! 😆  

Lank Rigg In The Distance...

Mr F Pointing To The Top

Behold, The Summit Cairn Finally Comes Into Sight!

Mr F reached the summit before Mrs F because she stopped to take photos of one her favourite things to see when hiking...a tarn that has an infinite backdrop with mountains behind. Needless to say she stopped to take a few photos before joining Mr F at the summit cairn...and for the boys to have their final summit photo of the day...

Looking a Little Knackered...Our Final Summit For The Day

The next few photos are a panoramic shot of the route that we had walked so far, from Grike going all the way over to Caw Fell & Haycock and then all the way back again and over to the current destination on Lank Rigg, with still a fair walk back to the car. Mr F had recently been given a new Garmin watch that he got from his team of people as a leaving present. The day after our holiday week was over he starts a new job as a Store Manager for a Tesco express just up the road from where we live 😊 (#Proud) So all day we were able to track our distance based on miles and Mr F was giving Mrs F updates every mile...so far we were on 16 miles!!

Mrs F Infinity Tarn...Beautiful! 💗

Looking Up At Mr F By The Summit Cairn

The Boys With Their Final Summit Photo

Photo With Mum

Cute photo of Mr F looking like a garden gnome reading his Wainwright book...

Family Photo

By now we were starting to feel the burn of a long day. Complacency was starting to set in with tired legs and aching feet with a very long way to go still. We headed down off of Lank Rigg and headed back over to the tree graveyard where we dove off on a path that lead us around to the left and Mr F made a judgement call when to head up - through more heather - towards a fence that we needed to get to and he was bang on the mark with the fence right there...past all the heather! On our way over to the tree graveyard, the sun came out and was really quite warm, so Mr F (after a while) took his coat off that was soaking with sweat!

Looking Over The Sunny Fells

Looking Back At Our Way Up & Down Lank Rigg

Our Path That Lead Around To The Fence

When we reached the fence, annoyingly it was barbed wired so we couldn't just hope over to the other side, which is where we needed to be, Instead we had to walk right along it to the gate at the other end. We eventually reached the ghyll that we came up at the start of our trek around the back of the white cottage, but we decided to go through the forest instead of tackling the drop of the ghyll with tired legs. The walk back seemed to last forever, but eventually we saw a gap in the trees and could see the road by the cottage which was a glorious moment, we both ran to it! By the time we got back to the car we had trekked for 20.53 miles, been out for 9 hours & 20 minutes, on the go for 8 hours & 10 minutes and took 45,000 steps!!! Considering it was a mammoth day, we both felt really good in terms of no injuries, just general aches which is expected after a day like today. We were glad we decided to do Lank Rigg in the end and couldn't take any glory for how well we did on such a big day...our mental and physical strength came from God for sure and gave him thanks for sustaining us throughout our day which enabled us to enjoy it... 😇 

Walking Past The Ghyll

Somewhere Down There Is Our Car!!

Final Push Through The Forest

Looking Tired & Tanned!

We Can See The Road....YAAAAYYY!!!

Thankfully we had our bolognese that was left over from the day before and we done it with some roasted large mushrooms that should have gone with our fish...but all the more welcoming after a long day. That night we had a beautiful sunset to finish what was a great day on the fells...and one of the best ever 😊

DAY 6: GREAT MELL FELL - 1,760ft
              LITTLE MELL FELL - 1,657ft
1 HOUR 35 MINS TREKKING

So today is our final day on the fells and didn't want to do anything to arduous as we had a loooong drive back to London the next day and wanted something small to warm down, but still ticking off one or two Wainwrights. We both had the same idea of driving out towards Penruddock to do the two little ones that we drove past everyday when we stayed at Nord View Barn in Penruddock...twice! So today was an easy up and down trek the two little humps that sat side by side. We drove around the back of Great Mell Fell and walked straight onto the path from where we parked the car, which according to the Wainwright book is the best way up. It was just as well it being an easy day as it was a hot sunny day...

Can You Spot Mr F???

Quite ironically, Mrs F's knee was just about starting to niggle as if to say 'I'm done now!' which was definitely a blessing to not have had any aches the entire trip, especially on our big day the day before...Praise God for that!

The Most Photographed Tree In The Whole Of The Lake District!

Within Just Over Half An Hour, The Top!

Blencathra Just Over The Road

Heading Back Down The Sane Way

Minor Obstacle 

No Problem...Just Limbo On Through! 😃

By the time we got back down to the car, the whole trek took exactly 1 hour. We got in the car and took a 10 minute drive over to park up by Little Mell Fell, which considering is just short of 2,000ft high, it took only 30 minutes to get up and down! We don't know how high we already were from the point of parking the car but we'll take that!

The Short Way Up

Our Final Summit This Trip

Looking Over At Great Mell Fell

Mrs F Celebrating 17 Wainwrights Successfully Completed

Mr F suggested going down a different way to get a view of Ullswater, but it meant heading back around the fell on two things that we hate...heather and a slope!! However Mr F didn't know it would be like that, despite getting the predator face from Mrs F...

Mrs F suggested heading down to Ullswater to have our lunch, so we both had the idea to head over to where we stopped to take a stunning photo of a mirror image (see November 2016 entry) We sat down by the bank and had our lunch, just as it clouded over. We were joined by a duck who was lingering for food, but the only thing we had to give him was Iced Gems. So Mr F bit the icing off and threw him the biscuit. To our amazement, he picked it up and took it into the water to make it soft enough to eat. We threw another to see if he would do it again and he definitely was soaking his biscuits before eating them...very impressive!

Lunch On The Bank

Our Little Intelligent Duck Friend

For our final night we decided to go to the village pub in Dean (so we didn't have to worry about more washing up on our final night) and order pizzas and garlic bread to take away and have a drink while we waited and to celebrate our great week. We packed up some of our things that night so we could get on the road bright and early the next day and as we were having family over to stay that night, we wanted to get home and chill out before they descended on us. We did plan to go and visit Yakkers on Lakeland radio early in the morning too, as Mrs F is a regular listener and often gets involved with the show, she won a 'Squishy Thing' that she planned to go and pick up, but as the studio is in Kendal, it would mean having to jump on the M6 and take that road home instead of the A66 across the Pennines, which is a much prettier route home and one we prefer. So we got straight on the A66 and made the 5 and a bit journey home...

Drinks In The Pub Waiting For Our Pizza

Mrs F's Finger Still Not Right ☹

VERDICT OF THE LAKE DISTRICT IN JUNE  2017

Mr F: A really varied trip this time....great weather and shocking weather, fantastic views vs no views, short days and mega days....An excellent trip in a cottage that we both absolutely loved. The Far Western fells may not be the highest or the most popular but I love the place. Ennerdale water is just stunning....Thanks be to God that we can do the things we love and return safely. Not many Wainwrights left to do now, mainly the Northern fells which means we don't need to return to this area but we so will........

Mrs F:  As always, being in The Lake District with my Hubby and God brings such joy and peace. There really is no other place in the world I would rather be. I absolutely loved this trip for many reasons: I loved our little cottage, I loved where it was in Dean, the Far Western Fells is a place of real beauty which was quite different to other places we'd stayed around the Lakes, every day was really enjoyable (minus coming off of White Side!) getting back to the cottage and having home cooked food whilst enjoying Friends on Comedy Central...the whole trip was just a truly great and blessed one. Our big day was my favourite for the sense of achievement and just really enjoyed the day (pain free!) I thoroughly enjoyed every moment and the stunning views around us, this was one of my favourite trips for sure. The Far Western Fells are different in a way that they're not as rugged, just really pretty treks and surrounding places/villages. There won't be any need now to stay so far West as we've done everything over that way, which was a real accomplishment. I'd love to go back once we're done with the Wainwrights, but is the furthest we'd travelled in terms of distance and time form door to door, which is the only downside. All in all, I had an amazing time and Praise God for his world He created for us to enjoy, the means to be able to afford the trips there and for His sustainability during our time there. Can't wait for Septemember...