Thursday will see me with another day out on the hills, this time teaching navigation rather than just guiding a walk. So I'm feeling positive about making a training by the end of summer.
Monday 25th May, sat in the carpark at the top of walna scar road waiting for Bryn, Stuart, Hebe and Xander for a days walking.
After a long night in manchester city and an early wake up, left me with 5 (maybe less) hours of sleep and a trip from the sunny south to a rather damp and drizzly south lakes. Many would see this as a terrible start to the day, but really I'm happy and excited just to be out in the hills. Bag packed, waterproofs on and a posh fork from the hotel sat in my rucksack after being given a pasta pot without anything to eat it with. The fork was also given to me, I'm not one for taking things as i am too guilty about even walking away with soaps and pens.
It wasn't long till the walk was on the way, and the day followed with a rather steady pace but with lots of talking among us. The route we took was to walk to 'Levers water' and head up the less popular tracks to the Old Man, although this includes a steep hike out from the water, you see more terrain including waterfalls and sink holes, plus you avoid slogging on tourist paths.
It was a strong walk from all involved, sadly after reaching the top of the steep side, the low cloud took over and the view was rather limited, non the less everyone was in good spirit and we carried on the gentle rise to the top of Old man. For a bad weather day it was very busy with families, lots of teenagers sulking and the odd fell runner flying by.
Seeing as Bryn and Stuart are Boulderers, we came down via Dow crag, telling them that this is an amazing bit of rock that rises up from the tarn and the routes on it even more amazing than you could imagine. After descending rapidly on another steep slope, sods law made sure the crag was fully covered in cloud that started perfectly at the base of the rock. Weather 1 unimpressed James 0.
I did my best to paint a picture of the crag and the climbs while we all looked at the lovely grey cloud. Needless to say we briskly walked back to the cars, to be greeted with sunny views of everywhere but Coniston.
I would like to finish this post of by wishing my best to Stuart and Bryn, who between them have a lot of events coming up this summer that will take, stamina, patience and a good mind set. All the best and i hope you succeed !
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