Plan B

Plan B was to ascend the Greenup valley, cross the stream and climb Eagle Crag by its easy eastern flank. This would have been a fine plan except there was so much water coming down the valley that it was impossible to cross the stream. Plan B therefore turned into Plan C; we would climb up to  Greenup Edge and walk around the rim of the head of the valley to summit Sergeant's Crag and Eagle Crag. This would be a long detour, and it would mean retracing some our walk, but I'd run out of better alternatives.

Climbing up Lining Crag, we caught up an elderly fellow with a large pack on his back. He looked rather miserable. He was doing the Coast To Coast walk and had got caught in the rain yesterday. He'd spent last night in a bus shelter at Stonethwaite trying to dry off. The forecast wasn't good for the rest of the week but we wished him luck.

Sergeant's and Eagle Crags

We'd chased the mist up the valley and by the time we'd reached Long Crag we finally got a view of Sergeant's and Eagle Crags to our north. The distance didn't seem far but it turned out to be quite a challenge. The terrain was exceedingly moist and the sketchy paths didn't assist that much. The drop between the two summits was a also deeper and much boggier than expected. Despite the difficulties there was no doubting the superb views down into the Langstrath and Greenup valleys. We met a couple of groups walking from Eagle Crag. They'd obviously completed the climb of its northern face. From Eagle Crag's summit we only seemed a stone's throw from Rosthwaite. The sun was out now and it was getting very warm. It had been quite a boggy ordeal to conquer Eagle Crag and we didn't relish retracing out steps back to Greenup Edge. We had to though. It was either that or dropping down that steep north face. We plodded off into the quagmire for the second time. It was getting very warm now.

Ullscarf

It was a relief to get back to Greenup Edge and the prospect of a drier path. I wouldn't normally rate Ullscarf as a dry route (in fact quite the contrary), but compared to the terrain around Seargeant's and Eagle Crag, it was bone dry. In fact I was feeling a bit dry too. The sun was relentless now and it seemed ages before we eventually got to Ullscarf's summit cairn. Wainwright describes its upper slopes as '...inexpressibly dreary'. My concern was less with the views and more with the contents of my water bottle. There wasn't much fluid rattling around in it and not much sloshing about in me either. Mo and Calse looked tired and a bit dehydrated too. We still had a fair distance to cover.  I thought I might cheer them up by singing them a song but my voice box was so dry, I considered it would sound more like a death rattle. It was no use dithering though and so we set off over to Standing Crag.

Watendlath

Judging by the lack of tracks, I presume this area of the Lake District isn't visited by many people. We descended towards Blea Tarn and walked beneath the foot of the impressive Standing Crag. The path alongside Blea Tarn had looked quite substantial from above but in reality turned out to be yet more grass and bog. Mo went up to his thigh in a rabbit hole. We were all looking a little crazy now from the lack of water. At the end of Blea Tarn I missed whatever guide post is labelled on the OS map and descended more than I should have done into the valley to Watendlath. We had to climb back up to Brimming Knott which didn't go down well with Mo and Calse. 

I decided to leave the prospect of the tea room at Watendlath as a surprise for Mo and Calse. I contemplated in which order I would eat/drink the ice lolly, ice-cream and diet coke. I'd like the coldness of the ice lolly first, but there again I could really do with the fluid of the diet coke. I decided that if the diet coke was cold, then I'd drink that first, then eat an ice lolly and finish with an ice-cream. Hell, I might even throw in a pot of tea and a scone for afters. It was a bit like the film Ice Cold in Alex, as we stumbled into Watendlath. I nearly dropped to my knees and wept when I saw the hand written notice on the tearoom gate saying that it was closed for the day. Our arrival had coincided with the women's Euro football final; maybe it was closed for that. I thought about banging on the tearoom door and demanding service.

I breathed in the last vapour from my water bottle and our unhappy troop set off on the final section of walk from Watendlath to Rosthwaite. 

Back To Rosthwaite

Even the pretty hills around Watendlath couldn't lift our mood. A couple of fishermen sat in a boat on Watendlath Tarn. It was biscuit tin picture territory. It is only about thirty of forty minutes walk from Watendlath to Rosthwaite but it seemed a lot longer today. We breached the pass at Puddingstone Bank and started the descent to the Rosthwaite valley. We only passed a couple of other groups of walkers. It seems that most people were more interested in 22 people kicking a pig's bladder about, than appreciating the delights of the outdoors.

Eventually we made it back to the small village of Rosthwaite. It had been a long, tough day. Although the views from Sergeant and Eagle Crags were stunning, I'm not sure I'd do it the long way around again. It would have to be by Eagle Crag's formidable north face...and so maybe I'll never summit it again.