LAKE DISTRICT - MARCH 2019
It’s that time of year again when we get together with Mr
& Mrs S and organise going away to our favourite holiday location. You
guessed it, the Lake District! We’ve finally finished our Wainwright’s after a
six and half year journey (see 2018, August entry) but Mr & Mrs S still have around
60 to finish, so we’re helping them to finish theirs.
Initially, we booked a lovely little cottage in Betws-y-Coed
which looked like a little shire from The Lord of the Rings. We were hoping to
move onto our next challenge, the Welsh 3,000 challenge, completing all the 15
highest peaks in Wales as we’ve already done five of them, but sadly a month
before we were due to go, the owner sent us a cancellation email without
warning or reason. Mrs F emailed and asked why and he said there had been a
death in the family, so we decided to go to the Lake District instead, which in
all honesty turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Mr & Mrs S had been
really poorly with chest infections, especially Mrs S so were not in fighting
fit condition to be climbing such high mountains in Wales, but at least the Lakes
have lower ones to offer. We had our usual gathering of cottage hunting at our
local White Water Rafting Centre which is also a place to eat and drink. So we
bought lunch and got on the hunt. Mrs S found a couple of cottages near where
we needed to be according to what mountains they had left to climb; one was
slightly more money but looked awesome, the other was slightly less money but
didn’t have en suite bathrooms, so we decided to opt for a little bit of
luxury. We first wanted to be 100% sure that the location of the cottage was
just where we needed to be in relation to what was left to climb. So we rushed
back to Mr & Mrs S’s place so we could look at their aerial tick list map
and boom, we were looking good to go! :-)
This time we were heading up in the last week of March due
to the available dates of Mr & Mrs S. We were staying in Buttermere at the
foot of Whiteside and Grasmoor, which means that when we climbed Whiteside (see 2017, July entry) we parked in the little car par next to the cottage and walked
right past it, no doubt making a comment on how lovely it would be to live
there!:-)
We left around 8am from London and took us five hours to get
to the cottage where Mr & Mr S were already. They left an hour before us
and somehow managed to get there juts ten minutes before us! Mr S came out to
greet us and tell us that we’d hit the jackpot with the cottage. Mrs S was so
excited to bring us both in and show what an amazing cottage we had fond. And
amazing it certainly was! We had a little welcome tray of scones, jam, toffees,
Kendal Mint Cake, biscuits with clotted cream and milk in the fridge. It was a
very spacious place, four bedrooms, beautiful landing area with a grand
staircase, a dining room, living room, kitchen with an aga and kitchen table,
utility room and the room we all loved, a conservatory out the back with a
spectacular view of Melbreak. It truly was a magnificent cottage in a stunning
location. We had 360 views of mountains all around and a tree right outside the
conservatory where there were two bird feeders, so every morning we had
breakfast in the conservatory whilst being entertained by an array of bird
species.
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| Our Welcome Goodies |
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| Our Room |
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| Main Bathroom |
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| Spare Twin Room |
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| The Second Spare Twin Rom |
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| Mr & Mrs S's Bedroom |
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| Mr & Mrs S's En Suite Bathroom |
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| Upstairs Landing |
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| Staircase |
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| Dining Room |
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| Entrance To Dining Room By The Front Door |
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| Living Room |
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| Conservatory |
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| Kitchen |
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| Utility Room |
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| Boys Watching The Birds |
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| Views From The Downstairs Windows |
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| Views Out The Front |
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| Grasmoor Just Over The Rad To The Right |
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| View Of The Garden From The Side Living Room Window |
We had Tesco bringing our shopping as usual, this time with
very different dinners due to Mr & Mrs S being on a Keto diet, which
basically meant that whatever they eat, we had the same but with potatoes or
rice! As the shopping wasn’t due for another 3 hours, we decided to go for a
walk to the ‘local’ pub. Mr S brought his map and we asked why; after a short
while, we could see why, as we ended up taking a short detour through the
forest, under trees, through bushes with Mr S checking his map, just to make it
to the pub! We were eventually out of the woods and on a path that lead us over
and bridge and nicely to the very quaint and busy pub called Kirkstile Inn. We had a couple of
drinks and walked very merrily back to the cottage. Mrs F & Mr S were
slightly tipsy due to drinking on empty stomachs (light-weights!) We were
however back in time for tea as it were, with Mr & Mrs F on dinner duty of
Chilli Con Carne, which went down very well. Although we had the grand dining
room, we decided to sit in the cosy setting of the kitchen table the entire
week, which also made it easier to dish up and clear away. We retired to our
bedrooms to get a good night’s sleep, ready to start the week of Wainwright
bagging.
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| Looking Back At The Cottage From The Path Beside It |
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| En Route To The Pub |
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| Views Along The Way |
DAY 1: FELLBARROW
LOW FELL
We were up
and in the conservatory with hot drinks and breakfast watching the birds. Mr S
had a pair of binoculars, which Mr F was loving, looking at all the birds and
topping up the bird feeder and putting seeds on the tree stumps. The cottage
had a great little larder with a big bag of nuts and another big bag of seeds
which Mr F was making full use of.
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| Mr F's Usual Morning Spot With The Boys |
Once we were fed and watered with lunches made, we were packed and ready to head onto the fells. We were heading straight out from the cottage as we had the luxury to do so, heading back through the forest towards the pub, this time taking the more accessible path route! The plan was to walk the length of the ridge starting from the far end, which would lead us nicely into the pub at the other end where we could walk back to the cottage. We got to the pub and turned right down a narrow country lane where we dived off the left towards the start of Fellbarrow...
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| Melbreak Over The Back |
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| Front of The Cottage |
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| Making Our Way Through The Forest |
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| Fellbarrow & Low Fell In Sight |
We walked
through a field on a very slight incline and around the bottom of the two fells
to the start of the climb up around the back. The incline to the start of the
ridge was ever increasingly inclining but a nice gradual ascent. We eventually
made out way onto the ridge where we followed a fence that lead us nicely to
the top of our first fell for the week, Fellbarrow. It was an incredibly windy
day and the wind had a nippy chill to it. The best way to keep warm was to keep
moving, so we had a quick summit cairn group photo and moved on for our second
fell for the week, Low Fell…
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| Crossing The Field To The Start |
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| Mr S Didn't Like His Face In This One... |
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| ...So We Took Another! |
Mr S had a
spanking new coat and rucksack and was mocked ever so slightly for looking like
mountain rescue! :-)
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| Mountain Rescue! |
We had to
make a quick stop so Mrs S could put plasters on her heels from her rubbing
boots causing blisters…ouch! We found what looked like an old derelict
shepherds hut for us to have a short plonk whilst Mrs S sorted her feet out. A
group of people walked past us, one of which also had a red coat with gaiters
to match…told Mr S he’d missed a trick there!
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| Pit Stop At The Old Shepherds Hut |
Feet sorted
and a quick Scooby snack and hot drink, we carried on towards a short incline
towards Low Fell, where the wind picked back up. Another group of people were
coming down and one guy was in shorts in t-shirt - Mrs F told him she assumed
he was from Scotland! As we were coming towards the high point of the ridge and
Low Fell, we could see our cottage down below, along with a lovely view of
Crummock Water…
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| Our Cottage Down Below |
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| Mr F Pointing The Way |
Low Fell
conquered, we sat for lunch a little further down on the end of the ridge
working out which was the best way to make our way down. A couple came by with
a dog and were suggesting ways to go down and what was lovely climb etc. They
did however point out Mellbreak as Grasmoor, to which Mrs F took great delight
in her knowledge in correcting them! The guy showed us on his map the way he
suggested we go, as our initial planned route was apparently straight off the
edge. Mr F had looked in the Wainwright pictorial guide book and seen that
route down anyway, so that’s the way we decided to go. It was quite a steep
descent but Mrs F is quite strong coming down, having built up the strength in
her legs and knees over the years, unlike our first big day in the lakes (see
2013, November entry) So she pretty much ran down with ease (whilst having fun
doing so) and waited and the bottom for the other three goats to join her. We
then had another steep route to make our way down, so we started to carry on
down along the fence, but Mr S said we were off the path, so we broke away from
the fence and headed left of it, which turned out to be the wrong move! We then
had to make our way back over towards the fence which was a bit of an ankle
twister having to walk sideways across the fell. Mr S did own up to that
one…with his tail between his legs!
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| The Long Steep Fence Coming Down |
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| Final Section Of The Steep Path Coming Down |
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| Mrs F Chilling Against A Fallen Tree At The Bottom |
We were
eventually on even ground and made our way back down the narrow country lanes,
where we worked out a quick route through a field that lead us directly to the
pub and in good time as it had just started to rain! We got a seat by a
radiator where we put our gloves and other bits n pieces and enjoyed a rather
delicious local ale called Loweswater Gold- apart from Mrs S who had a pint of cider :-) We waited for the rain to ease
off before heading back to the cottage, where Mr S was on dinner duty for
cooking steak. All in all, apart from the wind and getting rained on a little
towards the end, it was a good first day to the start of the week :-)
DAY 2: SALE FELL
LING FELL
The next day
we woke up to beautiful sunshine :-) We had our usual breakfast chill out in
the conservatory, watching the birds before getting ready to head out into the
glorious day. We parked on the same narrow road where we stayed in a cottage with a big
games room in February 2016 (see 2016, June entry) We parked up in a tiny lay-by
where there was a boot hanging up on the fence, presumably that someone had
left behind! We were debating carrying our rucksacks and Mr S was in favour of
leaving them behind; but when he saw he was the only one not carrying his, he
went with the crowd and brought his along!
We headed
towards a gate not far from the car that lead us onto a grassy path that wound
around the back and up onto Sale Fell. The contrast between the day and
previous day for weather was vast! We had glorious warm sunshine with hardly a
breath of wind. The trek up was a nice gradual one too, so wasn’t an overly
arduous trek.
There were quite a few people out, as the warm weather tends
emerge the fair-weather walkers from their dens. We were joined by a man and
his greedy little dog, who was after the cereal bar that Mrs S had. He heard
her undoing the wrapper and bolted over waiting for some! She did give him a
little bit which was mistake because his owner was walking off in one direction
and he carried on flowing us! The dog was also doing some kind of commando
crawl on his belly as he made his way up which was really funny! We didn’t
hang around too long once we reached the summit as we still had to make our way
over to Ling Fell. We made our way back the same way we came and got to a point
where we had a choice of two ways to go. Either we turned left and followed a
wall which will take us literally straight across the fell, over a hump with a
steep decline on the other side to make our way back up the other side or back
to car and drive closer. We opted for the latter! We could see the gate opening
of where we needed to be on the other side which seemed quite far away too. When
we came and done these two without Mr & Mrs S when we stayed at the nearby
cottage, we opted for following the wall, but Mrs S had a bad ankle which had
been playing her up for quite a few months and didn’t want to risk aggravating
it with the steepness of that way. Plus, the walk back to the car from Ling
Fell would be quite a big one and since none of us are big fans of long walks
back along asphalt, we were good to drive closer. So we headed back to the car (where
the trekking boot was still hanging up!) and took a short drive nearer to the
start of our short trek to Ling Fell...
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| Mr F With The Dog Walking Beside Him! |
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| Nearly At The Summit |
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| The Top! |
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| On Our Way Back Down |
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| Mrs F Getting Creative With The Yellow Bushes |
There was a small car park at the end of
a road which was full, so Mr S very skilfully parked in a space between two
cars on the road which lead up to the car park, which had a beautiful stream
running by. Car parked and rucksacks on, we headed up the bank and onto the
grassy incline route and passed the gate opening we could see when we were
debating which route to take from Sale Fell. We saw a man walking towards us with two very lively Springer Spaniels, who at first we thought were the famous two Springers on Facebook, but they weren't. Mr F had to stop and have a little stroke as always when we come across furry friends on the fells...or anywhere at that matter, he does love a dog! 🐶
We continued until we were on an
open fell top, which lead us into the sun and straight onto the summit. Mr S
was far up ahead and when we caught up with him at the summit, he was sitting
proudly on top of the tall cairn like a little gnome. He somehow managed to get
on top but certainly had a bit of trouble getting down again! We sat at the
foot of the cairn with the sun beaming down on us eating our lunches and had
fantastic views, including Sale Fell and the clear view and direction of the
wall we would have followed had we taken that route. An elderly gent came up
and said he tried to get parked for Sale Fell but it was too packed, so it
sounds like we went up at the right time. We headed down the same way with the exception of a slight detour heading as the crow flies, which was a steep descent but not a very long one.
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| Mr F With The Springer Spaniels |
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| Mr S Claiming Ling Fell For His Own! |
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| Lunchtime |
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| Mr F Up Ahead Checking Out The Route For The Way Down |
We then went into Cockermouth where we went to Sainsbury’s so Mr & Mrs S could buy some more Halloumi amongst other things and Mrs F bought a small bottle of sun cream for Mr F, because he was pink from the day in the sun. We were going to have a coffee in the little café we eat before with the amazing milkshakes called Vee va (see 2018, June entry) but it was under maintenance, so we went to a little coffee shop further down the road. Mrs S bought the drinks and didn’t want to pay an extra 40p for decaff so bought caffeinated instead!
We headed back to the cottage and planned to
have a chilled out afternoon. However, as it was still early and a beautiful
day, Mr F couldn’t stay seated for too long and wanted to go and venture into
the beck that ran on the valley floor between Grasmoor and Whiteside. Mrs S was
quite happy being chilled out in the garden in the sunshine whilst Mr & Mrs
S were doing interior design and architecture stuff on their laptops. Mr F
wanted to have some time alone with God too, so he went off exploring alone…well,
with God too :-) Mrs F ensured he was creamed up with sun cream and watched him go on his way. She was like a restless dog whose owner has left them
indoors whilst they have gone out! She was wondering around the house and
looking through different windows with her binoculars seeing if she could spot
Mr F making his way up onto Grasmoor and around the side on a small path. She
eventually lost sight of him and he was gone for a good couple of hours and so sat in the garden taking photos and enjoying the sunshine. Mrs F sent us a couple of videos on our 4 Goats WhatsApp group of his route and to
let us know he was safe and on his way back. It was a good prayerful time for
him :-)
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| Mrs F Seeing Mr F Off |
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| Pictures From The Sunny Garden |
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| Mr F Is Somewhere Up There! |
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| Getting Creative Again, This Time With The Roses |
That night, Mrs F was on dinner duty, making pork chops and had a bit of a nightmare! As Mr & Mrs S wanted theirs fried, she'd never fried pork chops in her life and it wasn't going well, so Mrs S had to step in and rescue it! It turned out well in the end 😊 We did plan on watching one of the
DVD’s that we brought with us that night, however England were playing in the
European Championship Qualifying against Montenegro, so we watched that with Mr
S, whilst Mrs S (who is not interested in football) was listening and signing
along to songs on her laptop! England won 5-1 and was a dirty game but a good
one.
DAY 3: HOPEGILL HEAD
WHITESIDE
So today we
were tackling the beast that stands proud and high right next to the cottage,
that defeated us on our descent when we climbed it last (see why in 2017, July entry)
As it was literally over the road from the cottage, we headed out on foot. We
made our way over the small grassy area before making it to the new bridge that
was built after storm Desmond swept it away. From there, we made our way to the
left of the beck and followed its winding path as far as it would take us. There was a
good diversity of terrain; some points where we had little scrambles and
climbs, rocks and boulders to navigate around and over and just simply making
our way along level paths. We also came across waterfalls that were really
pretty and welcoming. It was a very gradual incline which was hardly noticeable
until we could see how far up we had come from the valley floor. Mr F showed us where he had walked to the previous day and the group was very impressed with how far he had gone...
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| Whiteside Dead Ahead |
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| The Start of Our Walk Along The Beck |
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| Lovely Girlie Photo |
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| Explorer Mr S! |
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| Finally Reached The End of The Beck |
As we neared
the end of the long walk which took over an hour to reach, the temperature was
dropping slightly as we made our way out of the beck and out onto open fell top.
We could see a fell directly in front of us, which made sense to make our way
up the path and towards to Hopegill Head, which is en route to Whiteside.
However, the boys - as usual - stopped to take a very close inspection of the
map and decided that going further around, effectively heading away from where
we needed to be would be an easier route. As always, the girls just go along
with whatever they decide and we headed on towards the back, which lead us onto
a steep windy path that took us onto Hopegill Head.
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| The Fell We Chose Not To Go Over |
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| Surprised To See Snow Still Around |
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| Boys Doing The Usual Checking of The Route |
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| We Thought There Was A Gap In The Ridge But Turned Out To Be Snow |
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| Looking Back Down At The Cottage |
From there,
we were exactly where we needed to be to start our ridge walk across towards
Whiteside. It was a really enjoyable walk; we’d say it was up there with
Striding and Sharp Edge - not as dangerous or severe, but still really
enjoyable with the challenge still being there...
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| The Ridge Walk Begins |
Mr S &
Mrs F took the higher routes as always, being the climbing goats of the group,
whilst Mr F kept Mrs S company on the lower routes as she doesn’t like heights....
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| Mr S & Mrs F Taking The High Ground! |
Although we
could see the rugged route ahead of us which didn’t look too far, it was a
ridge walk that just kept on giving! It was quite a lengthy walk which was fine
by us because we were enjoying it so much. Eventually however, we did make it
to the summit of Whiteside and by this time, it was really cold! We sat out of
the wind and eat our lunch and could see now from this angle just how much the
beck takes you up high onto the fell tops. Mrs F was eyeing up a point out from
the ridge where she really wanted to sit with her legs over the side for a
photo. The other three however, especially Mr F, would not let he do it! After
a few times of asking, Mr S finally said “OK, let’s do this properly. What
songs would you like at your funeral?!” Point taken, Mrs F didn’t get her
photo, but instead settled for a different ridge end standing photo, which
looked just as good…
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| Mrs F's Daring Photo! |
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| You Can See From Here The Gradual Incline of The Beck |
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| Zoomed In Our Cottage |
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| The Rock Out Where Mrs F Really Wanted To Sit! |
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| Lunchtime In The Freezing Cold! |
From here,
we had the choice of heading down the way we came up the first time we climbed Whiteside
or back the same way we just came along the beck. Mr S enjoyed the walk along
the beck so much he said he’d like to go back that way- literally just after
Mrs F had said she doesn’t mind which way we go back as long as it’s not the
same way we came, for variety…oh well! Although we
had just come from the ridge, the way back offered different route over, which
were fun the find and follow. There were paths at lower levels but we opted for
the more fun, adventurous higher ways over…
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| Heading Back Over The Ridge |
Mrs S
promised to try and revive the scones that were part of the little welcome
treats we had from the cottage owners. As they had been there for a few days
they were rock hard, so Mrs S put them on the aga, which made them slightly
toasted and delicious with our clotted cream and jam 😋 Later that night, we
had dinner Maggi chicken and watched Daddy’s Home on DVD, which really wasn’t as funny
as we remember it to be! We were all quite ready for bed after what was a
really enjoyable day, right on our doorstep…literally!
DAY 4: BURNBANK FELL
BLAKE FELL
GAVEL FELL
Our morning
started the usual way, watching birds in the conservatory which included some
we hadn’t seen before. Mr F was looking them up on his phone to identify them,
as one of them was making quite a loud noise and looked like a big fat bird or
small chicken! Eventually Mr F posted it on Facebook and within seconds, someone
came back to tell us that it is a common partridge
Fed, watered
and bags loaded & ready, we got in the car and was aiming to a very small
layby at the very start of our walk. It’s only big enough for two cars so hoped
we would be able to park there, otherwise we would have to find somewhere else.
Thankfully, there was a space exactly where we parked the last time we were
here (see 2017, July entry) We started the day by saying a prayer as always and
headed straight onto the path that was through the gate by the car. The last
time we done this trek, Mr F decided it would be easier to walk past the path
that was a straight up ascent and take a gradual incline leading around the
back. There was no gradual incline! Once we realised and the path had disappeared,
we had to hack up the side which was slightly painful! So this time, we decided
to stick with the path, although it was indeed steep, it was still better than
the way we went last time. We did warn Mr & Mrs S that the summit was
really nothing to behold; it’s literally just a fence post!
We made our way up
the steep side and could see the underwhelming slightly taller fence post that
would indicate the summit of Burnbank Fell and groaned at the sorry sight!
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| Path Leading From The Car |
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| Heading Up There! |
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| The Steep Winding Path |
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| The Very Underwhelming Summit Fence Post! |
Not
wishing to hang around, we headed left and followed the fence along which took
us over the back towards our next planned fell for the day, Bake Fell. It was
an overcast day but the rain had held off as it had done all week, praise God,
which made this walk easier as we had to walk across bogged areas, which are
boggy all year round because they hardly see the sun. There was a welcoming
wind shelter at the summit of Blake Fell, where we all dived in and had a
little Scooby snack and hot drinks. Mrs F forgot her usual Ovaltine so was
joining Mr & Mrs S in having coffee with real cream…delish!
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| Wind Shelter At Blake Fell |
From the
wind shelter, we had quite a steep descent off and over towards Gavel Fell. The
boys had a quick route check to ensure we were heading in the right direction
and where to head once we got to Gavel Fell. Route established, we headed
towards another fence which lead all the way up to the summit. The last time we
came, we had to walk all the way back up where we had just come form, so it was
an out & back walk. This time, we headed back via a different route and
direction, through a narrow path that was a gradual descent leading us to a
tarn at the bottom.
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| The Boys Checking The Route |
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| A Very Windy Photo...Try Again... |
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| ...Much Better! |
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| Our Steady Ascent to Gavel Fell |
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| Mrs S Joining In With The Pointing Out of The Fells |
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| Gavel Fell...Done! 😀 |
The wind had really picked up and came across a small
section where we were slightly shielded, so Mrs S suggested we had lunch there.
Mr F suggested we carried on moving and had lunch at the tarn, which would be
quite nice. However, when we got the bottom, we had small amount of peat to
make our way through and the small crossing of a stream and was nowhere really
to sit and eat. Then there was the matter of the long steep path we still
needed to make our way up that looked a bit of a beast! So Mr S suggested
(which is the suggestion we went with!) that we first tackle the big path and
have lunch at the top…
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| Our Different Rote Off Down Towards The tarn |
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| The Long Steep Path Still To Come! |
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| The Tarn At The Bottom |
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| Making Our Way Through The Peat Bog |
As always,
it was such a nice feeling to go back to a warm cottage with a nice hot shower
and ready for dinner, which tonight was salmon, which was really lovely and one of Mrs F's favourite dinner with crushed new potatoes (which only she had!.
After
dinner, we had a group planning meeting, which usually just consists of the
boys, but this time, the girls were involved. The next day would be our final
day of climbing and the last chance for Mr & Mrs S to bag a few more
Wainwrights and mark them off with their red pen on their Wainwright aerial
map. The map was looking very healthy with lots in the local area marked as
completed in red with just a few left. What started out as a ‘take it easy’
holiday turned into them wanting to tick off as many as they could and still
have a rest day! There were four on the map that we could easily do in one fowl
swoop but would be a mammoth day and once we had committed to doing all four at
a certain point, there would be no turning back. We decided we would go the
four and set out early because it was going to be a long day. We decided to
make our lunches and pack our bags the night before. Mrs F always pre-cuts her
tape for her knees before we even leave for the Lakes so it’s all ready to use and
doesn’t take up too much time having to tape up in the mornings, especially when
we have an early start…
DAY 5: MELLBREAK
STARLING DODD
GREAT BOURNE
HEN COMB
So as
planned, our day started out early. All we needed to do was have breakfast, get
our boots n and head out the door. Our first planned mountain was one we had
been looking at all week from the conservatory, Mellbreak. Mr S liked to call
it Mealbreak because it sounded like breakfast :-) We headed straight out on
foot back through the forest and over the back which took us towards the back
end of Mellbreak and start of where we needed to climb…
From the cottage
it looked quite doable, but up close it looked a bit of a beast! Mr F could remember
everything about this climb the first time we were here (see 2017, July entry)
but Mrs F really couldn’t. We headed up onto the grassy terrain which was a
gradual incline trodden grass path to the start of the scree slopes of
Mellbreak, which really wasn’t a gradual climb! It looked like it would be
quite difficult with the lose scree, but it was actually OK. There were a couple of guys behind us down on the grassy path, one of them was wearing shorts, which was very brave because it was a chilly day with a chilly wind! We had a lovely view of Loweswater behind us and of our cottage which we could spot on the other side of Crummock Water.
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| Making Our Way Through The Forest Again |
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| Mellbreak Looking Mighty Fine |
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| On Closer Inspection It Looked A Bit Of A Painful Climb! |
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| Views of Loweswater Behind Us |
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| Making Our Way Onto The Gravel Path |
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| Stopping To Take In The Views...And To Breathe! |
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| Zoomed In On Our Cottage Waaaay Down Below |
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| Zoomed Out! |
The wind picked up as we made our way
on top of the ridge where there was South & North summit. The summit we
needed was South, which is at the other end of the ridge. When we got there,
Mrs F placed her very own stone on top of the summit cairn, whilst the boys
decided on the plan of action – bail out or commit ourselves and keep going. Of
course we were going to keep going! We needed to head towards the valley floor
in order to get to the waterfall walk and gap tucked away in the mountain on
the other side, which incidentally looked very cold! Although it looked a shame
to drop so much height, the walk back up via the waterfall was stunning and
glad to have done it that way…
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| Nearing The Summit Of Mellbreak |
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| Mrs F's Stone Added To The Summit |
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| The Boys Working Out The Committed Route |
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| The Gap In The Mountain We're Aiming For |
We caught up
with the two men who were already on the bridge at the bottom of the waterfall.
We think one of them was a guide as the other one wasn’t speaking English and the
English speaking guy was pointing out other fells to him when he was on
Mellbreak. It was said at that point that Mr F could easily be a guide as his
knowledge of the Wainwrights is extensive. Mrs F was learning BSL through her relatively
new job, so could also be an interpreter :-)
Eventually
the waterfall faded as we neared the top and was out in the open cold again,
where we could feel the cold wind. Although we thought it would be cold in the
waterfall it actually shielded us from the cold. We walked along a red gravel
path where we stopped to layer up as the wind was really kicking up and made it
difficult to have a conversation. We were a little far up ahead from Mr &
Mrs S so we sat and waited for them to have a wardrobe change and catch up with
us to carry on upwards towards Starling Dodd. It was quite a walk up and out before
we finally reached the summit cairn, which also had some kind of entwined old
metal posts next to it.
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| Up Onto The Open, Waiting For Mr & Mrs S To Catch Up |
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| The Daunting Looking Way To Starling Dodd |
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| Summit Cairn Along With The Artwork Of Steel! |
With the wind so strong, we were encouraged to keep
going with the thought of a wind shelter at Great Bourne. The last time we were
at this wind shelter, the wind was equally brutal, but we had zero views as the
cloud was so low and it was wet too. (see 2017, July entry) Again, the walk out was a
really long one. We made our way over towards a fence, which seemed to have no
end. It was here that Mr S very bravely stopped to take his many layers off down to bare skin in order to take his t-shirt off and put his base layer on! He did look very cold we must say! We thought that at the top and end of this never-ending fence there would be
the beautiful sight of a wind shelter and as we were getting really hungry, it
was a sight that was needed to give us incentive. However, once we reached the
top of the hill where we thought the summit would be, we could see the
actual summit beyond that, up an even
bigger mountain :-( It was slightly soul destroying but we kept on going until
we finally and blissfully reached the summit and more importantly, the wind
shelter! We could see a man walking toward us and we welcomed him in, which he
did. He told us he was staying in a big house with lots of family and he
decided to head out…wonder why!?
We took our
time to sit and enjoy our hard earned lunch out of the brutal wind before
getting too cold to sit still.
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| The Never-ending Fence! |
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| Our Guest Joining Us In The Wind Shelter |
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| The Girls Huddled In The Cold |
We had just one last mountain to conquer the day
and for this trip, Hen Comb. We made our way through a small section of peat
before coming across a steep descent via a fence, which was quite handy to hold
on to and use for support. Mrs F as always took off at speed and was the first
one down, waiting for the others to catch up. The guy who
shared our wind shelter was up ahead and saw that he had cut right across the
field below and over onto the path on the other side. We were initially
planning to head to the crossroads of paths at the bottom and turn right, but
when Mrs F saw the man cut across, we suggested we do the same…and so we did;
over a section of the fence that had been trodden down by many people who no
doubt opted for the short cut rather than heading all the way to the crossroads
point.
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| Mr F Having A Little Sit-Sat On The Peat |
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| The Way Down Via Another Fence |
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| Looking Back On The Gruelling Route Down |
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| Where We Had Just Come From & Where The Planes Disappeared Over |
We could see
Hen Comb ahead of us and were now walking along a narrow path that with glorious sunshine. It was at this point that we saw a fighter plan come right past
us through the valley and disappear behind Great Bourne. It was an incredible sound
and a great thing to see…twice! We then had the privilege of seeing another one
fly through, this time we had our phones and cameras at the ready. He saw us
below and decided to showboat with an upside down turn before also disappearing
into the sun behind Great Bourne :-) It gave us all a little buzz and we
carried on to what was now a short walk and incline to Hen Comb.
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| Mrs F Took A Panoramic Photo Once At Hen Comb Of Our Day |
As Mrs F had
put everything she was carrying in her rucksack on, she was now getting quite
hot making her way up towards Hen Comb, so stopped to take off her windproof
jacket. She had her gloves in her hand so asked Mr F to hold them whilst she
took it off. She then asked him to put the coat in her rucksack for her and
then carried on to finally reach the final summit of our trip. We decided to
sit a little further away from the summit and finish the rest our food and
drink (since we’d carried it all the way up here!) We could literally see the
pub where we planned to eat that night down below straight ahead of us, so Mr F
took the initiative to Google the number and call ahead to book a table there
and then :-) He was tempted to say that we were currently on top of a mountain looking
down on the pub, but decided against it!
We then set
off the final descent, which at this point, Mrs F asked Mr F if she could have
her gloves back, to which he replied that he didn’t have them! Mrs F went
running back to see if she could find them, but with no joy :-( It’s very doubtful
they would be in the same place as where they may have been dropped anyway
because the wind was so strong and likely to have blown them away. Feeling very
sad, as Mrs F bought them with a voucher she got from her Mum, we carried on
making our way down the hump (with the hump!) which was a really lovely walk
off. We had the sun setting behind us, which gave us shadows that looked like
we were all on the ridge of the mountain :-) Nearing the end of the big hump
walk down, we took a right turn and ended up by the very same stream where Mrs
F fell in the last time we were here, as Mr F had mentioned quite a few times
throughout the week! This time however, the water wasn’t as gushing or high, so
she managed to get over without going in!
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| Short Pit Stop Where Mr F Called The Pub! |
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| Heading Down |
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| Our Shadows & Silhouettes |
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| Love This That Looks Like we're Stood On A Mountain Ridge |
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| Our Successful River Crossing! |
By the time
we got back to the cottage, we had been out for 12 hours! Obviously taking into
account that we just spent the last 2 of them in the pub, but it was still one
of the longest days we’ve had out on the mountains and the sofas were the most
welcoming sight!
DAY 6: COCKERMOUTH
Today is our
rest day, a chance to have a lay in and chill out. We spent the morning lazing
about – Mr S was happy practising his chords on the piano in the conservatory,
Mrs S was doing her interior design stuff, Mrs F was writing her article for
The Wainwright Society about
Mountains
Foe the Mind campaign and Mr F was reading his Ben Fogle book about Mount
Everest. All week, Mr F kept missing the Woodpecker that was coming into the garden and eating from the bird feeder. Each time he walked into the conservatory, the Woodpecker would fly off. But this morning was the morning that he finally saw not just one, but two different species of Woodpecker; the Great Spotted Woodpecker and the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Mrs S looked them up on her phone to see the difference, but we had one very happy Mr F who not only got to see them, but that photos too...
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| Our Great Spotted Woodpecker |
Mrs F was quite keen to get out though, as were Mr & Mrs S. Mr F
however would have been happy to chill out in the cottage, which is really not
like him! We did however manage to get dressed and head out to Cockermouth,
where we always enjoy having a mooch. We stopped in the same book shop we
always do and walked along the high street, stopping at every estate agents to
get a feel for local house prices. One word…cheap! Our old faithful coffee
shop, Vee Va was open again, so we had lunch in there after our mooch about
town before heading back to the car. We spent the afternoon packing up our
things and taking in all the beautiful scenery around us, as we knew we would
very lucky to find another cottage again with such stunning views from every
window. Plus we were heading back to busy London the next day and always feel
sad at the thought of having to leave such a peaceful place and head back to
the carnage of everyday London living.
Mrs F wanted to take as many photos from the cottage as possible to show and remember just how stunning our views from the cottage were and to reminisce such a fantastic view from a fantastic cottage location...
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| Mrs F's Final Few Window View Photos |
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| The Boys Catching Their Final Glimpse of The Birds |
We realised earlier
in the week that we somehow managed to miss out a day in our planning of the
dinners for the week, so that night we had a dinner of mish-mash of dinners
from the food we had left over for the week. As we still had quite a few eggs
left, Mrs F had ham, Egg & Chips, Mrs S made for herself and Mr S a rather delicious
looking frittata and Mr F had himself pancake, chips and gravy! It done the job
anyhow. Mr F couldn’t find his big coat as he hadn’t worn it all week, so
assumed he had left it at home. If it wasn’t for Mr S going into the main
dining room, he would have never known that it was actually hanging up on the back
of a chair in there all week! We kept the dining room doors shut all week
because there was a strong air freshener smell coming from there and Mrs S is
allergic to those smells, so we didn’t see it. Very fortunate!
Mr & Mrs
S had to be up early as they had tickets for a home design show at the
Birmingham NEC the next day, so they left at 6am whilst we stayed in bed for
just another half hour before we headed to Mrs F’s Dad & Meryl’s for
breakfast. We did offer for them to come and stay with us on the Friday night
and spend the day together in the Lakes, but Meryl had booked to go to the
theatre that night with her Mum. Plus the weather wasn’t supposed to be nice on
the Saturday, which was sods law because it had been really nice all week. Mrs
F’s Dad’s gout was also causing him pain, so we said it would be best if we
just stopped off to see him on our way home. We were there for 9am to be
greeted with a lovely cooked breakfast. We stayed with them until 2pm, watching
football, catching up chatting and playing the music quiz on Google Assistant.
Although it was a whistle stop, it’s always really lovely to see if only for a
short while and no real time out of our day. We were home by 6pm and thanked
the Lord as always for seeing us home safely and for the wonderful week we’d
just had. Until next time…
VERDICT OF THE LAKE
DISTRICT IN MARCH 2019
Mr F: We have always been very fortunate with our cottage choices, it does take hours sometimes but this was the best yet. Loads of space for everyone to do their thing and two bird feeders attracting lots of birds everyday. Fantastic views ll around with Mellbreak at the back of the cottage and Grasmoor/Whiteside out the front. The Lakes is what we call our "Happy Place" and we were blessed with good weather too.
All in all great weather, great cottage, great company and more great memories made.
Mrs F: We really couldn’t have found a
better cottage for location, space, character, the 360 views of the mountains
and everything it had to offer. The conservatory was so lovey to have where we
could just sit peacefully, watching the birds with Mellbreak standing tall and
proud just across Crummock Water. The beds were comfy, we didn’t run out of hot
water and we had everything we needed to cook…including a choice of where to
eat dinner! I really loved the peace of sitting in the conservatory with all
the different types of birds every morning and the fact that there was an
electric piano we could use. After playing it for a little bit each day, all
the things I used to be able to play on my little keyboard as a kid came flooding
back :-)
I really
loved going back to the mountains we had done, some I could remember and others
I couldn’t, so some of them were as though I’d climbed them for the first time,
which was really nice to climb them with different views and perspectives and didn’t
always take the exact same route as we did previously either, so it was nice to
do them again from a different way too. Whiteside was definitely a more
enjoyable climb than the first time and really enjoyed the ridge walk and the
fact that it was right on our doorstep. The last day was probably my favourite
of all of them, apart from obviously losing my gloves that had sentimental
value and have been with me on every trip for the past 7 years :-( It had so
much variety, again, very different to when we done them the last time. We were
so blessed with the weather the whole week, even though it was really windy on
a couple of days, we stayed dry when out on the fells. The only bit of rain we
had was 5 minutes before going into the pub! This was a really special trip for
me and one I really needed. Just being back in the Lakes with God, my hubby and
best friends was the remedy I really needed from such a busy past few months. I
had started a new job working in London as Deputy Supporter care Manager and
didn’t realised just how burnt out I was from all the travelling and learning
such a big job! I honestly have never slept so much before, but obviously just
really needed the recharge…and what better setting and surroundings to do so
than exactly where we were. I'm really looking forward to helping Mr & Mrs
F finish the rest of their Wainwrights, being there with them on their final
fell and celebrate with them the same as they did for and with us :-)
