Back on the hills....

With bank holiday weekend upon us; Claire and I took the opportunity to go for a walk...the previous weekends being scuppered by a combination of tiredness; too much work and Claire working last weekend. The original plan had been to go to Scotland - however the fact was that I simply couldn't face driving up north for 4 hours - given how exhausted I was it would have been too dangerous. So we opted for a weekend in Cumbria instead...

So, it was a small(ish) walk that we planned; and as such drove to the Skiddaw Car Park on a sunny morning although with quite a wind. Despite the wind it actually felt warm in the sun for the first time in quite a while; which was good.

The pace was slow as we are both unfit, however we plodded up the path towards the gate; where we had a choice. Claire, being a true daughter of Howard (a man who has tabasco sauce on his cereal he is so hard!); we elected to go over Lower Man. Although the extra ascent was steep we we're rewarded by the sight of 3 curlews sitting in the heathery grass (there was one party ahead of us but no-one else had gone this way).

Coming over the other side of the hill - the path up to Skiddaw was full of people and the cloud was hovering over the summit. So, we elected to go down to Skiddaw House (our intended destination anyway) and have lunch there in quiet rather than with loads of people in the cold.

The descent to Skiddaw House was nice and gentle with great views of the 'empty quarter', the hills at the back of Blencathra and Skiddaw, and of Skiddaw House. This has been a Youth Hostel off and on over the years; I have no idea if it's open now or not. It is certainly a lovely spot; and provided a nice log for us to have lunch on.

The walk back around the slopes of Lonscale fell was pleasant in the extreme, with the wind dropping and us both actually feeling some real heat from the sun at last...

https://picasaweb.google.com/102361192587557786751/SkiddawHouseViaSkiddawLowMan


these are the pictures...