Back O'Skiddaw

An appointment at Caldbeck again this morning drew us back to the Back O'Skiddaw Fells. Sometimes it feels a bit unimaginative walking the same areas so often, but we explore new routes (generally off path) and find that there is always something new to discover.

Gone are the days of having the parking spot to ourselves. Too much has been made of the peace and tranquility of these fells. Too many magazine articles that have brought more and more people. As a result we haven't parked in this particular spot for a little while. Today we were the third car at 9:30am.
Enough complaining! Off we go up Longland's Beck

Cattle ahead, so we keep Breeze a bit closer

They are just a pair of Highland Stirks and take very little notice

Pausing for breath. We are heading up Trusmadoor which is the gully above Breeze's head!

So it's through some more cattle and round the drumlins then we start to climb

Heading up

Looking down on Trusmadoor from our route up onto Meal Fell. The heather is beginning to colour up

Breeze inspects the shelter on Meal Fell where we stop for a coffee

Then we make our way across to Little Sca Fell

Breeze heading for the summit cairn which some clever person has decided to turn into an art work - till the wind blows anyway.

Skiddaw

Walking across Broad Moss to Charlton Gill where we plan to drop down out of the breeze (the other one) for some lunch

Lunch finishes and as we are leaving, Breeze flushes a fox which must have been hiding in the sieves all the time we were there, only about 15 meters away (severe cropping of picture as I didn't have long to grab the camera and snap

Here you can see Breeze is just below, that is where she flushed him from, he paused momentarily and then hot footed it away

Excitement over, we climb back onto the side of Longlands fell for an easy descent

Looking back to Charlton Gill where we had lunch

Breeze spots a posing stone - albeit it a small one

Nearly back to the car now, which is parked by that clump of trees. That's Binsey in the background (pronounced Binsa)

These Highland's seem to like us, they have made their way back to the car to wave us off.

About 6 miles today, a nice gentle therapeutic walk. Breeze, as usual has done about ten time what we have done.