By Martin Stevens – March 2005

Far too early on Mon Dec 27th I dragged myself from bed, prepped and hurtled (as
much as one can on a 125cc bike with both me and an overfilled rucksack on it,
anyway) to SW London to meet Chris. This bit of the journey was easy, traffic
was scarce and it was only the salt spray that made things difficult. Having
found my way to Chris’ parents house I switched from motorbike to Chris’ car and
we headed towards the Lake District. Getting out of London proved again that the
only time to travel is when the rest of the world is asleep as there was dense
traffic as far as Preston. Eventually, however, we found the traffic lightening
and our average speed increasing, and it didn’t seem like too long before we
arrived at our destination in Aspatria, just NW of the lakes…near enough to be
handy for the NW Lakes, but far enough out to be very affordable for a weeks
stay – friends in the right places, even if part of the condition of staying is
walking Kielda the dog each day. We found the supermarket and a takeaway to
provide for that nights supper. The rain blatted down, not good signs for the
following day.

Tuesday dawned dry but mild with low cloud and no sign of the hoped for snow or
ice. In the search for an easier day we’d chosen a couple of lesser peaks –
Great Calva, and Great and Little Cockup, walking in from Bassenthwaite and
along part of the Cumbria Way. The early ground was straightforward although
very muddy before becoming a good metalled track. A while later, as we gently
gained height the track became a path and by the time we got up to a small
waterfall at Whitewater Dash it was a small track. Shortly after this the cloud
got very wet and the wind picked up so waterproofs were brought to the fore, and
with excellent timing Chris announced that, ‘there isn’t really a path so we go
up there’ and pointed up a very steep, deep heather and scree slope. So up we
went, not quite the ‘easy intro’ I had in mind for Day 1 and wishing that
waterproofs were just a bit more ventable. In due time and with much less
stopping on my part than I’d anticipated we found ourselves on the summit
plateau of Little Calva in quite dense cloud. Some compass work and pacing saw
us to the Little Calva summit and then on to Great Calva. Backtracking a little
we headed across the high moor, marshy and wet, and more compass and pacing,
skirting a pair of high tarns before a steep descent and climb to the Cockups.
An easy descent and back to Bassenthwaite before dark. All in all it wasn’t such
an arduous day, and a good ‘wake up’ to the legs for the week to come.

Wednesday – Weather forecast was poor so we decided on a lower-level walk with
plenty of options should the weather be better than the forecast. We drove down
Borrowdale, heading for Seathwaite. For reasons unknown to both Chris and me we
parked too soon, in Seatoller. Once we’d parked, put on boots and braced
ourselves for the day to come we realised that we’d parked in the wrong place.
Unperturbed we rerouted to walk along part of the Allerdale Ramble which, like
Tuesday’s section, was very muddy, certainly as far as Seathwaite. Once we
reached our desired starting point we followed alongside Grains Gill to Stockley
Bridge before turning away and starting to climb. As we walked up to the cloud
layer the rain started and a pause for rain jackets was taken at Greenhow Knott.
We then followed along Styhead Gill to the eponymous tarn and continued to Sty
Head where sandwiches and hot drinks were taken. We made our way to Sprinkling
Tarn and then descended besides Grains Gill heading back to Seathwaite. Great
dismay when we found the cafŽ closed! Rather than face the muddy horrors of the
Allerdale Ramble again we decided a bit of road walking would be fine to get us
back to Seatoller – and it was.

Thursday had a better, although not fantastic, forecast and we set off in hope
for Thornthwaite Forest at an early hour. We picked our way through the pine
forest and up Grisedale Pike, a steady uphill trudge once we were clear of the
trees, the wind strength increasing as we gained height, breaking up the cloud
layer. We paused for a photograph only for Chris to find that the battery in his
camera was discharged. Once on the summit the forecast came good with patchy
cloud at around summit height. In the frequent patches of sunshine we were
treated to lots of brockenspectres, the first time either Chris or I had ever
seen such things and we idled away a few minutes here before heading west to
Hopegill Head and then Whiteside. Refreshments were enjoyed in the lee of the
ridge and ‘spectres were seen in plenty to the point that it became, ‘oh, just
another brockenspectre’.

We headed back to Hopegill Head enjoying the most scenic views of the trip so
far and made our way North to Ladyside Pike before descending back into the
forest and making our way back to the car along the firebreak paths. In the
evening we were lucky enough to have access to a private spa and pool – just the
thing to easy away the soreness in the limbs.

Friday – Apathy abounded after such a relaxing finish to the previous day. We
managed a very late start before heading out to the beach at Allonby, on the
Solway Firth, to walk the dog. The hills of Scotland were visible across the
water and seemed to have dusting of the white stuff. After a decent walk along
the beach in the strong wind, and watching some board-sailors enjoying the surf
we headed back for lunch, then headed out to Keswick in search of much cheapness
and bargains. Mostly disappointed.

Saturday, New Years Day – An early start as the forecast was for the weather to
deteriorate as the day went on, although all day would be windy. We parked at
Mirehouse in Dodd Wood, the second car in the parking space and made our way
through the woods towards Skiddaw. Path closures for logging work sent us a
longer way around than we’d anticipated but we were soon on yet another section
of the Allerdale Ramble and heading up to White Stones and the long grind up to
Carl Side, the wind increasing steadily. A brief pause was taken at Carl Side
tarn for a bit of chocolate-bar and a drink and then the long, steep haul up to
the Skiddaw plateau. It was incredibly windy on the plateau and we were glad to
drop into the stone shelter for a minute; we decided that that dog had to be on
a lead to prevent her being gusted away. As it was we started the 300m or so
walk to the summit proper and Chris was picked up and dropped by the wind. At
this point the decision was made to retire – all three of us had been to the
summit before and certainly Chris and I felt there was little to gain by walking
the 300m to not have a view. Kielda just didn’t contribute an opinion at this
point. We made our way back down to the car, getting there just as it started to
rain at 1pm. We congratulated ourselves on a wise decision not to push on to the
Skiddaw summit proper – the time take would have seen us doing a bit of walking
in the heavy rain we’d thus managed to avoid, and headed for Ambleside in search
of bargain goodies and much cheapness. Almost successful but the sales weren’t
nearly as good as in previous years we thought.

Sunday – After the strong winds of Saturday, we looked very carefully at the
Metcheck and TV forecasts only to find more, and stronger winds forecast.
Discretion being the better part of valour (or so we told ourselves anyway) we
chose an easy day and took the dog to the beach for a couple of hours. Given the
strength of the wind and the size of the waves at the beach we had no doubt we’d
made the right choice not to go up into the hills although the hills across in
Scotland did look very tempting indeed. Perhaps next year.

Monday – Travelled home, leaving only an hour later than we’d planned, but
traffic was light most of the way back to London and we made good time.