Souther Fell

It's best foot forward and we start out with four healthy feet (ten if you caount the humans). We choose Souther Fell today as the forecast is for a bit of lowish cloud and we know that the terrain is lunatic spaniel feet friendly. We are hoping to finish today without any foot injuries for a change. The first section of the old minors trod up The Tongue, is the only stoney part of the whole walk, so fingers crossed.

We are planning to walk up the side of The Tongue and then across the top of Bannerdale Crags, seen here in the middle, before dropping down a bit to then climb back up over Souther Fell, the start of which is just visible on the far left of this picture

Like all well made plans, that is what we did, only there now follows a short break in the photgraphic record due to the weather not following the plan! As we neared the top of Bannerdale Crags, the cloud and rain came down and it was full waterproofs and no visibility for quite a while. We then walked down along White Horse Bent, without much rain, but still plenty of could as you can see below

Up onto Souther and it was beginning to clear, enough to pick out houses of friends down below us, near Troutbeck

The all off a sudden the clouds cleared and it was time to put away the waterproofs and take a look back to see how Bannerdale Crags are supposed to look

Another enjoyable walk, in spite of the weather. Another first for Jay, and four healthy intact feet at the end too.

Awwwwwwwwwwwww

Have a look at this, and if you turn the sound up, amid the crackles you'll hear her squeaking to her babies! Puppies?

A lovely present

Breeze, aged Four Months.

No, she isn't wearing a jumper, it's the crap photographer!

Sand and Salt Water

In our quest to harden Breeze's feet up as quickly as possible, we opted for a trip to Silloth this week in place of a fell walk. So after Fish and Chips on the front, a quick stop off to buy some shrimps from a local fisherman, then it was out into the sand dunes and off we go. Can you spot the spaniel?

Once across the dunes it was nearly straight into the sea. We had timed it to catch the tide as it went out. This week has seen some really big tides and it goes out a very long way here. Breeze took no persuading to venture into the waves

Then as the tide goes out, acre upon acre of sand appears. A spaniel dream. Water, sand and hundreds of birds to chase.

If you want to wear a dog out, bring it here and let it chase Breeze.

One happy, tired dog. Two well fed people and a car full of sand!

Another Uldale Round

Another trip to the Uldae Fells today. Good kind terrain for a lunatic with delicate feet. Thanks to the RAf for the Lancaster flypast as we set off - nice touch we thought!

So off we went, from Longlands we followed Longlands Beck, a nice gentle start (unless you are a lunatic)

 Eventually we walked through the gap known as Trusmadoor - seen here from the other side.

 And from a little higher, Trusmadoor in the centre of the picture with the Solway Firth in the far distance

The observant will notice we are down to one boot today - and this is purely precautionary. Here we are working our way up Burn todd, aiming for the summit of Knott

Which as it is 'back o' Skidda', overlooks............... Skiddaw

Another First for Breeze today. A lunch time Siesta. Do you think this dog is growing up?

After luch we made our way onto Great Sca Fell, Little Sca Fell, Lowthwaite and then onto Longlands Fell. The siesta seemed to have recharged the batteries!

Full Steam Ahead on Ullswater

One of the priviledges of living so close to Ullswater is knowing many of the Ullswater Steamers crew, so we don't need too much persuasion to join the aboard for a Lake Cruise. This time we have Simon and Sal with us, so we decide to catch the Steamer at Pooley bridge and head for Howtown, where we get off and wave Bye Bye to Welsh Dave and crew as they head off to Glenridding

We head to Glenridding too, but on foot, round Hallin Fell to Sandwick and then a leisurely lunch at Scalehow force. Kind of someone to leave four stones for us to sit on!

You might notice Breeze is sporting some rathe nice boots. We are still struggling with her wearing thorugh her pads due to the mileage and speed at which she travels and the constant skid stopping and changing direction. This was the first real test for these boots and the most amazing thing was that they stayed on. The fact that she wore thorugh them is another matter, which will probably be covered in a later post.....

Just to prove that there really were four of us - a quick self timer shot (camera is still refusing to oblige with colours and exposures, it was much nicer that this really!)

Having followed the shoreline to Patterdale and then walked up the raod to Glenridding, by pure chance we were just in time to get back onto Raven to join welsh dave and his crew back to Pooley Bridge. Todays Steamer trip was a first for Simon and Sal ( I think)

And a first for Breezey. She got tickled all the way from Pooley Bridge to Howtown by a nice lad from Essex so she really didn't mind that at all. On the way back - well see for yourself. After two fell walks in three days, I think she was just happy to have somewhere to kip for a few minutes.

High Street and Kidsty Pike

Toady we chose to do a walk over at Haweswater. Our tap water comes from here, yet this is the first time we have visited it in about 10 years, and what a fabulous day we choose. Wall to wall sunshine, but not too hot. Ideal!

We parked at Mardale head and started with a gentle slope that gradually becomed more rocky and more steep as it heads over Swine Crag, Heron crag and Eagle crag

Before going over Rough Crag and Riggindale Crag, all the time Haweswater is in view behind us

And the Creature From The Black Lagoon is in view in front of us

As we head up Riggindale crag Blea Water looks dark and menacing below us. Blea water means Black water, and this is one of many tarns given this name. The shadows of the fells making them live up to the name in all cases I suspect, althoug for a brief moment, we were lucky enough to see this one with  a bit of sunshine on it

The final serious climb of the walk is up Long Stile, the ridge in the middle of this picture

Which leads us nicely up to Racecourse Hill in time for lunch. Aptly named as we are friendly with Jay through the fact that I ride her husbands Racehorsesr

From here we carry on across High Street, through the Head of Riggindale and onto Kidsty Pike, before descending Kidsty Howes and returning to Mardale Head.

There are photos of the rest of this walk, but having been struggling with the camera for ages, this walk will probably be one of it's final outings, and whilst I have messed about (somewhat unsuccesfully ) to try to improve the colour and exposure of these pictures, the rest really are awful so will not published!o

The All New Partirdge Family

The Life of Riley

With apologies to Richard and Alison (hope we see you up here soon!)