Wansfell Pike

We joined a procession of other walkers making their way to the top. Occasionally an early starter would pass us coming down. A rather vocal German family followed us up. Their young lad was determined overtake me and to get to the top before the rest of his family. I pressed on and thought I'd outpaced the 8 year old, but the little critter took a rocky scramble short-cut to the summit and beat me there by a couple of seconds. I resisted the urge to push him back down before his parents arrived. Not that I'm competitive or anything. There was a slight mist at the summit, but we still managed to get a view along Lake Windermere. The top was quite busy and so we soon departed down the other side towards Troutbeck.

About 10 minutes after leaving the summit we met two chaps and a pair of dogs coming the other way. 'Any idea what that lake is over there?' one of them asked me. The sun was illuminating a stretch of water over to the southwest. 'I think that's Morecambe Bay' I replied. I complemented them on the attire of their dogs which were adorned with waistcoats and bow ties. Later research revealed these to be Bedlington Terriers, named after the  Northumberland (ex-mining) town. I was granted permission to take a picture of them, but they were reluctant to settle.  I told the owners that I wouldn't bother taking a photo of them.

Hundreds And Robin Lane

It was now 10:30 and it still hadn't started raining. Just before the junction with Nanny's Lane, we branched off on to the permissive path towards the Hundreds Road. Stepping stones helped us across the worst of the boggy fell and we were soon at the stone track. The sky was now quite dark, but amazingly there was still no rain. The Hundreds Lane joined Robin Lane and then we branched southwards off that. Just before Holbeck Lane I gave the Kapitan and the Cabin Boy the option of going back to Ambleside (my original plan) or extend the walk to include Middlerigg Tarn. Since it wasn't raining, I thought it would be a good idea to make the most of the temporary dryness. There was a more muted and vague response than I was expecting, but in the end we decided to include Middlerigg Tarn.

Middlerigg Tarn

I'd walked to Middlerigg Tarn a couple of day's back (see Meander To Middlerigg Tarn). I'd normally leave a longer period before repeating a section of walk, but the Kapitan and the Cabin Boy hadn't ticked Middlerigg Tarn and so I thought I'd visit it again for their sake. It got so dark walking down Wain Lane to the tarn that I thought we might need to put our head torches on. The wild fowl were still there from a couple of day's ago and they'd now be joined by a couple of Mute Swans on the far side of the tarn.

At Merewood we picked up a path through Newclose Wood. The rain eventually started and we battened down the hatches. This footpath was a short-cut that I'd missed on my recent outing when I'd approached the footpath from the Holbeck Lane end. When we reached Holbeck Lane, I could see why I'd missed it; the fingerpost was now laying at the side of the roadside hedge, out of sight. I suppose that's one way of deterring walkers.

Return

We headed eastwards along Holbeck Lane and then almost doubled-back, heading north westwards along Skelghyll Lane. The lane was tarmac and provided easy walking. There was a good view over Holbeck Ghyll to Lake Windermere. We could see a few cars in the hotel/restaurant's carpark. I wondered what minimalist, culinary delights its punters were being offered at high expense. Near High Skelghyll farm we joined the popular track that runs between Ambleside and Troutbeck. We were only on it for about 10 minutes before we diverted off to on the track that contours through Skelghyll Wood.

There was a clatter behind me and I turned around to find the Cabin Boy on the floor. She'd tripped up on a slippery stick and taken a tumble. Her hand had been slightly cut in the process. The Kapitan leapt into action and after an inspection deemed, to everybody's relief, that an amputation wasn't required and that a plaster would suffice. Patch applied, we continued through the wood and then made our way across the boggy fell towards Redbank Wood. I slipped on the saturated grass and made a terminal bend to the lower section of my right Leki trekking pole. Somehow our battered platoon made its way down through the wood and into Ambleside's Fisherbeck estate. It was raining quite heavily now.

It had been a brooding, grey and gloomy day. At least the walk had been rain-free for much longer than expected. In fact, we'd enjoyed two and a half dry-free hours more than the BBC weather forecaster gloomsters had predicted. It had been an interesting walk with a variety of views, that included elevated ones from Wansfell Pike's summit, to the low level pretty ones around Middlerigg Tarn. It had turned out to be an ideal walk for a mixed weather day.