Some weather forecasts just sit there demanding to be used. The thin veneer of vapour on the horizon is the nearest I got to clouds all day. The summit is Dale Head, between Newlands and Honister in the Lake District — a genuinely impressive cairn, and a damn fine view. This is why I worked yesterday instead.
Graystones is the modest peak to centre right, Wythop Moss the substantial swamp below. The fringe of trees is the top end of Darling How plantation, which extends down into the unseen valley over the far side of the ridge. And yes, I took the day off, well, most of it anyway, to go on a walk. But I’m working Sunday, so these things balance out, before you call the employment police (probably the Tories are considering such a step).
I remain grateful for the fact that I have a job flexible enough to allow me to bring my weekend forward a day and get out on a walk on a Friday. However, I wasn’t out basking in the sunshine or anything. This was a severe-weather walk, as rough as anything I’ve ever done, as evidenced by the spindrift seen here. Heron Pike sits between the lakes of Grasmere, Rydal Water and (pictured) Windermere. More photos from this walk on my other blog when I get round to it, but that’ll be tomorrow now.
I’m sure there are lots of things that could be better about this picture, but hey, it ain’t easy to capture wild red deer in England — there really aren’t very many of them, and they really don’t like people. This was my best attempt. I like the way the two bucks are clearly keeping an eye out for anyone who might be messin’ with their does, so to speak.
What goes up must, of course, come down, a job that from the summit of Kili takes another day-and-a-half of walking. The final few hours, down from Mweka camp to the park gate, was done, for us, in pouring rain, something I’m very glad we didn’t have on our ascent through the forest on day one. Anticlimactic? Of course, a bit, but it was always going to be. I got down in one piece with no ill effects and all in all must count it as one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
Barafu camp lies at 4,600m, or about 15,100 feet, and is ‘base camp’ for the final ascent to the summit of Kili, which rises behind this point. One arrives there around lunchtime and is supposed to get some sleep in the afternoon and evening because the final climb is done overnight. But the views are amazing, and I was not the only one defying advice and being up and about later on as the sun went down behind the shoulder of Kibo (and what must be one of the world’s most spectacularly-sited toilets, visible to the right).
Far too glorious a day to not go on a walk. The walking blog will get updated tomorrow, but for now, here’s one of today’s spectacular views: Great End on the left, then the three lumps from centre to right are Loft Crag, Pike o’Stickle and Harrison Stickle — the Langdale Pikes. England doesn’t get a great deal better than this.
The real point of this weekend was to meet and — hopefully — bond with the people who are going to be attempting Kilimanjaro with me. Here is a selection of them, at least. A good weekend, I think we’re more ready than we were on Friday anyway.
You didn’t think I was going to come all the way to Scotland to work and not get a walk in, did you? This is about an hour north of Dundee by road, the southern edge of the Cairngorms National Park. Here we are about 2,600 feet above sea level, at the head of Glen Clova. A good walk today.
“OK, I might have a bit of a silly tail. But I live in a cooler place than you.”
And yes, that’s snow in May.
Being 42 