Catch up

From Mont Blanc to Lake District

It’s over a months since I got back.  Nearly 2 since I left for the big walk.  The TMB.

Back in the Lake district and this blog has been sadly neglected.

There have been other things to do.

Literally the day before we flew to France I achieve my much coveted Summer Mountain Leader.

So I’m now determined to make use of the qualification which entitles me to traipse across the hills with ‘groups’ in tow.

Ingleborough from Whernside

As it took a while.  It took the best part of two years.  In fact. 

A lot of footsteps. 

A few uncomfortable nights in small tents.  

So much time and effort getting there I’m not about to just put it in a frame on the wall.

Holeherd flower beds

And so I blitzed the internet with emails to all and sundry explaining how wonderful I am,   what a marvellous leader of walks.  Much to my own amazement I ‘got work’ sooner than the anticipated spring next year. 

Kentmere Horseshoe

It was a challenge of a day.  Quiet literally.  The Yorkshire 3 Peaks.  A corporate day with employees/participants raising money for Cancer Research.  As I’d never even done the walk myself before it was a double challenge. 

Small Water and Haweswater from Nan Bield Pass

I hasten to add I’d done all three of the ‘peaks’, just not all in one day.  The long haul between Ingleborough and Pen y Ghent, then Pen y Ghent and Whernside had never endeared me to the Route, and yes, as expected, they were long. 

And tedious.  Especially the last stretch. 

On the positive the journey down from Pen y Ghent was much improved. 

Kent Estuary

It used to be a bog.  A big bog.  Now it is as paved as the surrounding Yorkshire villages.  A necessary blot on the landscape seen snaking down the edge of the hill.  Not many pictures.  Too busy ‘working’.

Whitbarrow across the Kent Estuary

Aside from the ‘challenge’ there’ve been days out for the usual pleasure of just being out with friends.  From the hills of Kentmere to the the lower reaches of South Lakeland.  Not that I usually ignore this area, but when we had to abandon a trip to Patterdale due to the M6 turning into a car park and consequential knock on effect I looked on my home turf with new eyes.