Lake District

Roz & Dean's Mission: To escape London, go to the Lake District, camp, do some walking, practice navigation, take in some peaks, do some KMs for sponsored YAP & add walking days to our Mountain Leadership Log Books

Day 1:Walk from campsite in Great Langdale Valley to Landale Pike

(and back, which was at times a debateable option for me)

Langdale Pike

(view from lake along the way)

View of lake (left) & the valley (right) where we had started our journey up Langdale Pike

Top of Landale Pike marked by a cairn

(thats the pile of stones which people have added to over time which is a common marker of routes or peaks in the mountains)

Day 2: Hardknott Pass to Scafell Pike (the tallest mountain in England)

A mixture of fields, waterfalls, marsh, rock and some desolate landscape along the way on a colder, cloudier day...proper mountain weather!

Up the side of the waterfall we went and into the clouds...

We thought twice about going any further, considering it had taken us 4.5 hours already & it could take that to get to the top & down again...& many people coming down had got lost...& I was ill & walking at snail-pace (or at least the pace of a snail on the ascent of the tallest mountain in England) But we soldiered on...& got to the top!

Trig Point at the top of Scafell Pike

(only the tallest mountain in England!)

A little enclosure at the top of Scafell Pike...a haven from the cold, wind and rain at the top of the tallest mountain in England...we didn't stay long, we nipped down again before we forgot how we got up...we followed cairns and odd shaped rocks like one which looked like a shark fin...helped a few people find their way...and advised a few that if they continued there might be a chance that we would see them featuring in the News that night.

Things I learned from this mission...

1. I am not fit (although I knew this before I went but had it confirmed & had warned Dean about this before we left & even suggested he went with someone else)

2. I want to be fitter (although I knew this before I went but had it confirmed & realised that 20 mins to an hour each day on level ground is easier to the 8 hours up hill & down all in one day - so I should just get on with it)

3. Mountains are great...again I knew this but needed reminding...did I mention we got to the top of the tallest mountain in England?

4. I needed to get away & getting away is good

5. Spending time with friends is good & I sometimes miss that but I blame Dean cos if he hadn't left I wouldn't have his job and there might have been some hope of me having a normal life.

6. It might be a good idea to book a campsite way in advance of a holiday weekend like Easter unless you don't mind walking half a mile to the loo.

7. I am pretty stubborn, that's all I can call it because I did not really want to walk 8 hours, being ill and unfit up and down the tallest mountain in England but still I did it.

8. Fruit flavoured Rennies are good for upset stomachs

9. Toasted goat's cheese is lovely with cranberry sauce

10. Dean's Great Grandfather is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the biggest red cabbage...or maybe he said red cabbage is great pickled or that it is good for the complexion

11. YAP KMs are much easier to do off great pointy things sticking out of the ground (mountains being the technical term) and although we did about 35 KM each...they would have been much easier on flat ground.

12. The Meaning of Life