I worked Sunday and Monday (I have witnesses) so this was a walk day. Destination, the well-known peak of Great Gable: pictured here, however, is Great End, rising above the stream of Styhead Gill which comes down from Sty Head, one of the major walkers’ crossroads of Lakeland. A very fine day, the sort that makes one glad one has a flexible job sometimes.
The summit of Sail is 2536 feet above sea level but the fell is described by Wainwright as ‘the least obtrusive of the 2,500-footers’ and he has a point, there’s not really much to it. Still, it was the highest point reached on my walk today, and the view is a good one despite the grey clouds: the distinct northern group (Skiddaw and Blencathra) on the horizon, Keswick below. A good walk today — I’m having my weekend Friday and Saturday.
Three-day weekend, so went out on a walk before the weather deteriorated and I had to go back to work. Steel Knotts is only 1412 feet above sea level but asserts itself ruggedly among the taller fells all around.
Public holiday today, and a beautiful day of weather, so I made the most of it and went on a Lake District walk. The remaining photos will be up on my other blog some time tomorrow morning. Combe Gill is a hanging valley above upper Borrowdale, tucked into the massif that is known as Glaramara. And yes, there’s something, well, intimate-looking about it.
Having worked five of the last six Sundays, and as I’m going to be working this Sunday too, and with it being the only Friday morning all semester when I wasn’t teaching — I arranged weeks ago to make this a completely guilt-free day off. It could have been raining, misty, foul, all the things it usually is in late November….
…. but it wasn’t. Thank you world.
Back on 7th October 2011 this summit, Bowfell, was pictured from a greater distance on an earlier Lake District walk, and it also popped up on 22nd June this year, which makes it the first mountain to get on the blog three times (excepting the obvious case of Kilimanjaro).
“This is my church. This is where I heal my hurts.” (Faithless: God is a DJ)
It’s half-term, so school is closed, and with Clare at university today it fell to me to entertain the Boy. By a few miles into the walk I chose he was probably regretting this, but too late. Still, even he agreed it was better than sitting in school.
I accept I am lucky to have a job which allows me, some days anyway, to get paid for reading and thinking, and there’s no particular reason why I need to do those things in an office, or at home. Alfred Wainwright — a man who did know a thing or two about the Lake District — calls the view south from the Skiddaw range the best one there is, and I think there are more people who would agree with him than dispute this. Particularly today….
When I came back and reflected on my climb up Kilimanjaro last summer, one thing I was pleased about was the thought that ‘at least I got a decent bloody photo of the summit’ (I mean this one). After all the effort, physical, financial and more, that it had taken to reach it, I would have been rather irritated had I not managed to match all that with a decent picture. But I feel I fulfilled that photography brief.
The same thing applies today. From starting walking at 11.30am on Wednesday morning to finishing at 10 this morning I have tramped through a lot of rather dreary and boggy moorland, spent last night three miles from the nearest other person using facilities that were basic to say the least and, from about 8am this morning anyway, got very wet. But I hope you like this photo, because to me it makes it worthwhile. How many times do we get the chance to be somewhere like this, and 1,930 feet above sea level, at 7am on a Thursday morning? Make the most of it…. that’s what it’s all about isn’t it. Making the most of it.
Welcome to Mosedale Cottage in the Lake District. You’ve seen it before, on the inside, a couple of times (31/8/12 and 15/4/14). On both those occasions I was passing through and having lunch, but tonight I stayed there, having walked 13 miles to get there (and 8 miles out the following morning). Amenities: well, it’s got a stove (but not necessarily any fuel), a rather dubious toilet and a sofa. The rest, you bring on your back. Was it worth it? See tomorrow morning’s post.
Being 42 