And back to the Lake District we are going 🙂 !
Following on from my post last Thursday which is here, my son and I decided that instead of doing an end to end backpack this year, we would love to go back to the Lake District. So this week we booked a little cottage in Chapel Stile in the Langdale Valley for a week in June……and I can’t wait to revisit our old haunts.
The Langdale Pikes via Stickle Gill and Jack’s Rake is definitely on the list, as is Haystacks and the High Stile Range with a visit to Scale Force on the way down. The two pictures below were taken on that walk 17 years ago!
Helvellyn via the edges is another favourite, as is the beautiful Blencathra, and Scafell Pike being the highest point in England is another possible. Skiddaw, High Street, Great Gable, the Fairfield Horseshoe, the Old Man of Coniston, the list just goes on and on – there are 214 Wainwrights alone, without all the other lesser peaks. The problem of course is that when there are so many to choose from, it might be difficult to actually settle on a definitive list……but we have several months to decide 🙂 !
All of the pictures above were taken with my very old Canon compact camera and I’m really looking forward to getting back up in the mountains with a better quality one, which may be still a compact depending how my ankles and knees are. I’d love to get up there with my DSLR but I’m not sure if I want to try that.
In any event, in some ways I wish I could walk without a camera because carrying one tends to change the purpose and function of the walk. Without a camera, it is just about the walk and you can completely take in the views and the experience. As a photographer carrying a camera however, it CAN become more focussed on the photography, and believe it or not, you can get so engrossed in trying to capture the beauty of the landscape with the camera that you almost forget to just enjoy it and absorb it for its own sake. You then come away with a lot of pictures but perhaps not so much personal fulfilment from being immersed in the beauty of nature. I am always conscious of the need to ‘stand and stare’ as well as take the picture!
Chapel Stile is a small village nesting below Silver How in the Langdale Valley, around 5 miles west of Ambleside. It makes a great base, being well placed for numerous walks whilst also having all the facilities you could want such as a church, a pub, a shop, and a cafe. We will be staying in a little two bedroomed cottage which looks perfect for two walkers 🙂 ! Of course, when we used to go there regularly, we would camp at a site about 3 miles up the valley from Chapel Stile. I remember so clearly on one occasion pitching our tent at the virtually empty, peaceful campsite and going off for a walk, only to find when we got back that the campsite was completely packed with tents that were so squashed in that there was literally just a foot or two of grass left around our tent. Exams had just finished and it seemed every university student in the country had headed into the Langdale Valley! Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep from then on!
On another note, I had an awesome walk yesterday on a beautifully sunny day……..sandwiched between two storms – Storm Ciara struck last weekend, and storm Dennis is apparently heading our way for this coming weekend. Right now, it seems to be a question of grabbing the good days when they come. In the interests of keeping my ankles mobile, I made a conscious decision to get out on a walk every day whatever the weather and I think I have managed that for the most part this year. Hopefully that will pay dividends when I get up into the Cumbrian mountains 🙂 !
Thanks so much for stopping by and reading my ramblings, and I hope you enjoy exploring with me.
Until next time,
Your friend
The Dorset Rambler
If you would like to contact me, my email address is terry.yarrow@gmail.com – comments and feedback are always welcomed.
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The Dorset Rambler 
I was trying to work out where that second photo was taken, the one with your backs to the camera. Looks like Mellbreak is behind your heads, with Carling Knott and the ridge up to Hen Comb over on the left. On the path down from Red Pike towards Scale Force. A fine place
You are probably right. To be honest, after 17 years, I can’t remember exactly where the pic was taken, I only know it was taken along that ridge before we dropped down to Scale Force.
Hope the weather improves for you!
Thanks John – hopefully by June it will be fine 🙂
Usually a good month.