Waiting to leave to Saturday morning involved playing with the resident cat and admiring the view up Ennerdale
Pillar and Steeple
Amy and Larissa approaching the (almost) summit of Red Pike, with Ennerdale Water, Great Bourne and Starling Dodd behind
Greg and Jon on High Stile
Red Pike, Mellbreak and Crummock Water
Dale Head, Fleetwith Pike and High Crag
Crummock Water and Buttermere from near Haystacks summit
Greg, Amy, Jon and Dave looking back to Haystacks and High Crag
After 'skirting' the Gables (ostensibly to get a good look at Gable Crag, but really because we were lazy), we met Andrew's group at the col before Kirk Fell
At this point, Larissa, Jon and Amy indulged in some more skirting, while Dave, Greg and I followed our planned route over Kirk Fell, Pillar, Scoat Fell and Haycock. The rain started halfway through our descent, but failed to spoil what had been an excellent day
On Sunday, Ruth dropped Alison, Dave and I in Lamplugh on her way home - though after encountering several very obvious, pointed notices warning us off, we walked round on the road to access land before beginning our ascent of Burnbank Fell - which still required some wall-scaling!
In spite of their small stature, Burnbank, Blake and Gavel Fells proved a very pleasant traverse, with views out to the coast and into the Lakes. From the summit of Blake Fell: Mellbreak and Hen Comb, with Grasmoor, Robinson, Fleetwith Pike and High Stile beyond
Descending to Bowness, Alison proved as good as ever as getting through small gaps in fences
After some tea and re-organisation in the bunkhouse barn, we waved off the minibuses and set off up Ennerdale in the rain, ascending to Scarth Gap before heading over Haystacks to spend a comfortable (if damp) night at Honister bothy
It was still raining in the morning, so we took our time getting up, and had a lengthy stop at Honister Mine
After lunch in a bus shelter at the Stonethwaite turning, we (eventually) found the path up Great Crag. Despite the rain, the cloud was well above Dale Head and High Spy
The rain finally stopped, and Dave, Joe and I left Mark on the path while we went to bag the summit of Great Crag
We followed this with a jaunt to Grange Fell (again, minus Mark, whom we rejoined at Watendlath). Joe lived up to his name (Tigger) by positively bouncing to the top!
Grange Fell proved a good viewpoint: Bassenthwaite Lake, Derwent Water, Keswick and Skiddaw
Watendlath
We followed the path over High Tove, in order to avoid the bog. I scuppered this plan by suggesting a detour to Armboth Fell en route to Thirlmere - rather to my surprise, the other three followed me!
Engineers were excessively excited by the dam at the north end of Thirlmere
Mark on High Rigg, the final hill of the day
High Rigg: low, but long...
We reached our bivvy site (just beyond the summit) at about 8pm, just in time to watch the ridge of high pressure drift in from the west
Stirring cup-a-soup clearly requires a lot of concentration
So began our first night out under the sunset, moon, stars and sunrise...
On Tuesday we followed the Old Coach Road for a while, before cutting up to Clough Head. We couldn't have asked for better weather, with views in every direction: here towards Keswick and the Northwestern Fells
Heading for Great Dodd
Thirlmere, with the Bowfell range on the skyline
Great Dodd
The view west
Heading for Helvellyn. Though the original plan had been to drop down east to Glenridding and then up to Angle Tarn, we decided to stick on the ridge and have a more leisurely final day, with options for bad weather and sore feet. This also allowed me to bag Raise and White Side, which I had somehow missed on previous excursions!
Glenridding, Sheffield Pike and Ullswater
Looking south to Coniston
Tuesday evening...
...Wednesday morning (marginally too late to catch Joe in his underwear)
Navigation on Fairfield, anyone?
Grasmere was a welcome sight as we descended from Stone Arthur - and the cue to start fantasising about warm, dry cafes and brunch!
After drying out in the cafe for a couple of hours, we finished off the process by taking the open-top bus to Windermere (constituting a 'Lakeland Experience' apparently - we think we had the proper one!)
