Harter Fell and Landrovers...

It was a lovely day on Sunday; so I was not at all impressed to wake up with a horrible sore throat and not feeling anywhere near 100% - I suspect the flight back from Botswana was the challenge (which I'll blog about in due course).

That being said, the day was too good to waste entirely so Claire and I decided to head up Harter Fell from Mardale Head. It is a lovely walk up a good path and does offer options for extensions onto High Street if I felt 'on it' later.

Morning in Autumn.

The weather can be seen from the picture above - a truly amazing day with very clear light. We were both looking forward to a lovely walk and were therefore not best pleased to see 4 motorbikes being unloaded from a trailer at the car-park; these idiots were going to try and ride them up the pass - despite a clear notice saying this is now verboten. [As an aside, two of the riders were clearly new to this and had to walk most of the way up]. By keeping a very slow (but steady) plod; I was able to get to the top of the Pass ok (and someway ahead of the bikes)  - with some stops for Claire (and I) to take photo's..

From the top of the Pass we turned up the final slopes of Harter Fell. Although about a mile on the ground the ascent is very well graded so I was able to make the top fine for an early lunch - and to admire the amazing views - complete with cloud inversion over the Eden Valley, where we live. This was obviously a good reason for some smugness, and for us both to take some more photo's, which are on the photobox site. 

Having had some christmas cake and cheese triangles we looked forward to a pleasant descent..so were VERY annoyed to find 3 landrovers parked at the top of the pass and 2 more attempting to climb up it. Aside from the minor detail of them blocking the path; who on earth let these 'people' up there in the first place? Checking on the UKHillwalking forum established that (despite the notice to the contrary) one can still apply for permits to do this kind of thing - and the damage it did to the path was considerable - however, I have written to the National Park to try and find some more information.

Once clear of the 4*4 idiots, and the diesel stench they left behind, the rest of the descent was lovely with the autumnal day unfolding in front of us.......the abiding memory of the walk was very good - shame about the idiots with their toys who decided to ruin lots of people's day.

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/3436739 is where the photo's are