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By Dan Pictures here
Turning off the motorway around midnight, we ventured further into the deepest, darkest depths of the hills and valleys. With plenty of tiny little roads, and tight narrow turns, we got a little lost. Finding the camping barns wasn’t quite as easy as it was first though, and we had to go over several weak bridges (which I encouraged everyone to scream “weak bridge” and jump around a bit – if only to test the strength of the so called “weak bridge”). They didn’t collapse, and I was quite disappointed. We got our gear out of the minibus, and settled down to have a quick beer, I was going to say settled down for a quick XXXX (a brand of beer) but that looks a bit rude… We quickly sorted out the barn, and settled down for the night. Saturday We woke fairly early in the morning to the sound of several alarms going off. Walking outside of the barn, we found ourselves surrounded by some stunning scenery. Hills and mountains loomed large around us, and the mist rolled in from a nearby lake. We made some lunch and had a long and fairly eventful drive to our first walk. If you have ever been to the Lake District, you will appreciate that the roads are winding, and extremely small. With barely room for a minibus to drive down, it’s a miracle that we managed to pass so many cars on our journey – a real credit to our drivers Phil and Al :) During one particularly hairy moment, we were very close to coming to severe harm if it wasn’t for some skilful driving, and a rather amazing reverse hill start from Al. Big up to Maddy for some wicked map reading at this point.
The weather wasn’t too great when we finally reached the car park (much to the delight of Petter- who was rather in his element). We pulled on various waterproofs and started our ascent of the mountain. The route up was fairly long, and quite steep. The rain finally subsided, however it was still bitterly cold. We stopped for a few breaks to take in the wonderful scenery around us. The mist at this point was still lingering around the summit. Cat was fairly red in the face from all the walking, but I was amazed that she carried on without a care in the world. We made a quick dash for the peak, and found that the wind had picked up blowing the mist away. However, the massive amount of wind, made it very hard for us to stay on the peak for very long, and we soon had to descend. However, not before we had sung Petter happy birthday. Earlier in the ascent Petter had casually dropped into conversation with Aurélie that it was his birthday that day. We got to the top, and with the wind howling around our ears, we screamed happy birthday to Petter. We quickly started our decent, as Stuart spotted a huge cloud about to envelop the mountainside. Scrambling off the side of the mountain, we raced down attempting to avoid the mist. Unfortunately, we had a slight error in our map reading and took a little detour. Whilst ploughing down the mountain I ended up falling into a rather large bog up to my knees. With Maddy and Rachel laughing, I had to nonchalantly regain some kind of composure and free myself from the constrains of the bog. I was pretty pissed off. However, after much swearing we were on our way again, as soon as Petter noticed we were heading down the wrong side of the mountain. With our new course set, we raced down the mountainside. With the time getting on, and the cloud setting in, the daylight was soon fading. We took out what torches we had (Phil was very pleased with himself as he had just purchased a new torch that morning) , and set off down the mountainside. With a great deal of falling over later, we managed to reach the minibus and drove back to the camping barn. Petter then very kindly treated us all to dinner and Kieran, Petter, Al and myself set off to Keswick to pick some food up for the group. 30 minutes, and a few beers later, we arrived back at the camping barn, to find that we had managed to acquire a heater, and everyone gathered round to feast on curry and pizza. Lots of beer, and some of Rachels homemade vodka, flowed and we sat down and talked about the day. We then retired to the kitchen area to have a cigar, which I had brought back from Cuba. Tired out, we warmed ourselves by the fire, with Stuart informing us of how Cheeses got their name (that guy is so full of facts it’s scary!) and then went to bed – thoroughly tired out by the days events. Sunday We again woke to the sound of alarm clocks. We found Petter racing around bringing in round after round of freshly cooked toast (what a gem that guy is!!) After getting everyone up, and taking showers – our barn was rudely invaded by on the chickens that was in the yard outside. These ‘super chickens’ were really scary- I didn’t find them scary for the record, and I told the group to only move around with someone else in the morning, as the chickens looked like they were game for a fight. Luckily there were no more chicken related incidents to note (no harm no fowl… haha). Still feeling fairly sleepy, we set off to the next walk, very near Patterdale. We stopped at a shop for some crisps and chocolate for the next days short hike. I was then told some devastating news… Something that would torment me for the rest of the trip… The bloody clocks had gone back- Thanks Mad, I don’t know who would have told me! Everyone else in the group knew, but Al had told everyone not to tell me, so I would run round telling everyone to get a move on. Oh that was funny… haha :) We started our walk to the top, first stopping at some caves on the way. These caves had been located on a previous trip, but not fully explored. We ventured down into them, and Kieran and Stuart found some cool tunnels. A short time later, we were climbing the last part of the ascent, with Phil looking fairly out of breath. Cat had taken my jokes about the Welsh very well during the trip, and I was surprised how amazingly she did getting to the top of these mountains (she looks so fragile!), however at this point she did look very… flushed :) We got to the point that we aimed for, and took a few pictures, after first deciding which the actual top of the mountain was. Petter, not happy with just one mountain, suggested that we go to the next one along aswell. Kiraw and myself ran off the other peak, I have to admit that after doing it, I wish I hadn’t as I was really knackered. We sat at the top of the second peak, and took in the amazing view.
Ullswater Lake below us, with Helvellyn appearing in the distance.
Sitting on the summit eating our lunch, we decided that we could
get a few hours extra at the pub in, if we set of sooner rather
than later… that’s just what we did. Arriving down at the bottom of the mountain, we unloaded our gear into the minibus, and bundled into the White Lion pub. We ordered our beers and various bar meals and sat around recollecting to weekend. The dessert menu also looked fairly tempting, however we were a bit too full to eat one each, so most were shared between a few people. Happy with a great weekends walking, we jumped back into the minibus and jetted back to Oxford. Just a quick thank you to everyone that came on the trip for making it one of the best trips I have been on since I have joined the society (4 years ago) and a huge thanks to Al for organising everything. See you soon Dan |
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