Castle Crag

Finally some warmer weather has arrived so it's time to put Jeff's fitness to the test. Before everywhere gets crawling with tourists we are going to head into Borrowdale. A bit of a trip down memory lane for me as Castle Crag was a frequent fell of my youth.

We are very lucky to have friends in Grange who are very happy to provide us with all day parking, so we start from there and follow the Allerdale Ramble along Broadslack Gill

A nice way to warm up and get the legs going before the short, sharp climb

Breeze's legs go at about 10 x the rate of ours

She's back and forth and round and round non stop

As we make our way up Castle Crag

It's a steep little fell

With spectacular views across Borrowdale

And across Keswick and Derwentwater to Skiddaw

We had the summit to ourselves - not something that will be very easy to achieve in the coming months

Then we head down the way we came up - Breeze has to stay close as she was creating landslides whilst free running and there were other people on their way up, didn't think they would be too impressed to get buried in slate!

Back on the level and Jeff is feeling OK, so we head on to Seatoller

All that charging around on the slate in dry conditions has caused the usual problems with Breeze's feet - I was kicking myself for not realising and putting her boots on sooner, but thankfully I was carrying them so she had the front ones on for the rest of the day. They don't slow her down one bit. Castle Crag is the rugged bit in the middle behind Breeze.

Or stop her doing anything

Breeze and Jeff have a discussion as to which way to go from here. Jeff wins and we head down towards Seatoller. Breeze was just eyeing up Great Gable!

Spring is further ahead in the valley

A carpet of Celandines as we enter Johnny Wood

Scrambling round the bank as we approach the Youth Hostel

She can't resist a bench

Sorry Breeze, you'll have to sit on the floor, we're having a coffee.

Herdy Lambing is in full swing

Time for a swim in Gowder Dub before the gentle stretch back into Grange

Today feels like a major turning point. The first real spring day and a proper little fell walk. 7 miles, most of them fairly easy but a nice bit of a climb in the middle. That is some achievement for someone who was so very poorly 4 or 5 months ago.

Perfection, close to home.

For a number of reasons we don't seem to be getting much serious fell walking in at the moment and we had thought we would remedy that today. The heather is just about to go past it's best, so we decided we would walk somewhere where we could make the most of that. Hmmmm, where to go? 

There is one place near home where we walk over and over again. Short walks, long walks, flat walks hilly walks, pretty much any sort of walk and we can achieve it from here. We know this area very well yet there are still lots of things to explore. So off we go up the Cumbria way from Grainsgill Bridge.

After a little while we head off the cumbria way to find our own route, up Burdell Gill. It's a warm day.

We love exploring Gills and this one is turning our to be particularly pleasant

Lots of pools for Breeze to cool down

She is enjoying exploring the terrain, just as we are

Tumbling cascades all the way

Many of the Rowan trees are looking very frail. They are still suffering from the fell fire that burnt all this side of the fell two years ago - started by some ignorant itinerant with a bbq. 

It's breathtakingly beautiful and unspoilt 

and as usual in these places, we have it to ourselves

The last bit of the climb up through the heather. The smell was lovely

We had a leisurely lunch, sitting and relaxing in the sun

We had company

After lunch it was onwards and upwards

Leaving the heather behind

As we reach the summit of Knot

We had no set plan as to where to go from here so we started to head towards Great Calva

The Wiley Gill caught our eye. So having explored on gill on the way up, we decided to explore another on the way down

Such a lovely day, we stopped for a while part way down. It's hard work bouncing through heather all day when you are only 18" high

Power nap

We rejoin the Cumbria way at the bottom of Wiley Gill

And head back along very familiar territory

Past Breeze's favourite sheepfold. 

We arrived back at the car having seen no-one bar sheep and butterflies and having walked about 7.5 miles.