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| Latrigg from the road near the roundabout |
Latrigg from the car park at Gale Road |
| I had hoped to get a good photo of Latrigg as
we drove towards it. A combination of John's driving, the hedgerows and
various trees seemed to prevent me from doing this. When we arrived at
the car park there was loads of room unlike our previous visit when we
did Skiddaw. I wonder if the weather had anything to do with it! Then it
was warm and sunny, today was overcast and a bit chilly, hence the room
at the car park I guess! |
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| Leaving the car park |
Up the field |
| We made our way through the gate and along
a sort of farm track before heading across what was nothing more than a
field. I remember seeing the signs of a path up here when we descended
from Skiddaw, but when you actually walk along here it is difficult to
make out. This was like walking across a football field or a cricket pitch
or something! My legs did seem a bit achy after sitting in a car for an
hour or so after doing a few miles up Rannerdale Knotts, but the ache
seemed totally out of proportion to the angle that we were walking upwards,
very strange! |
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| Looking back to the car park |
Nearing the summit |
| After a few minutes I was getting a bit bored
of this. We tried walking backwards to see if that helped but it was just
not happening! I commented on the fact that we were doing this as a sort
of optional extra, instead of coming here with the intention of just doing
Latrigg on its own. This was a definite"buy one get one free" sort
of walk! |
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| The clean sheep |
Latrigg's summit |
| As we neared the summit we started to come across
a few sheep. We could not get over the difference between these sheep and
the ones we had seen during the walk around Rannerdale. These looked like
they had had a bath and got ready for a night out on the town whilst the
sheep in Rannerdale looked like they had just finished the night out,
slightly worse for wear! So here we were at the "summit" of Latrigg.
After only 5 contours of the map we were at the top. I think that this
is the first summit that we have been to that did not have a summit cairn,
weird! |
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| The terrible trio on Latrigg summit |
Looking down to the road bridge over the river Greta |
| Sarah received a phone call here and she seemed quite engrossed
with the conversation. I took a few quick snaps, again no 360 panorama
due to the low cloud. I then had a wander over towards Keswick just to
have a look. The difference from one side of Latrigg to the other was quite
startling! We had walked up nothing more than a grassy incline whilst on
this side Keswick was way down below! Again I had the feeling that we were
not doing Latrigg any favors by walking up it the way we had. A direct
assault from Keswick would probably feel much more like a proper fell walk,
but a tick is a tick! |
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| Keswick and Derwent Water |
Leaving the summit |
| Whilst we waited for Sarah to finish her phone call John
started something by saying that he bet he knew where the post office was
in Keswick. All the little red dots that were the post office vans could
be seen down below in Keswick. Well that was it "I spy with my little
eye..."
The summit of Latrigg had a big path that led across the summit, after
a few seconds thought, and a look at the map I decided that rather than
just retrace our steps we would follow this path around and back towards
the car park, just to try and make it interesting! |
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| Keswick |
Bassenthwaite and Dodd |
| We followed the path down towards a seat. This
seemed like a nice spot to stop and take a few photos but we were beaten
to it by a party of walkers coming in the opposite direction. I decided
to take a few photos instead. Keswick looked very small down below us
and the north western and northern fells that we could see looked to be
suffering from a bit of cloud cover. On the whole it did not look very
welcoming! |
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| A post provides something of interest! |
Looking towards Swinside |
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So here
we were walking back down a nice easy path back to the car. Soon Sarah
started to realize that we were not retracing our steps and wanted to
know why! When I explained that I was trying to make it more interesting
she seemed happy. We were still playing I spy and so far we had done
C for Cloud, G for Grass, H for Hill but Sarah stumped us with a P! It
was not until we gave in that she said it was for Post, one we had by
now passed! She came up with another P and this one again took ages.
We had passed the remains of another post but that was not it. She eventually
told us that it was a P for Poo as she had seen lots of sheep Poo about!
This game was getting on my nerves now but it did go to help pass the
time of day! When we had run out of suitable things for I Spy we started
to chat about the forthcoming camping barn. For some reason that I still
can't quite understand Sarah and John have decided that we should have
a fancy dress night on the Friday. They had come up with a list of ideas
that people could go as, the only problem was deciding who would get
which, something to |
| An old gate post |
| think about......Eventually the path started to lose height
as it rounded the western side of Latrigg. We came across the remains
of what looked like a celtic post. The intricate carving reminded me of
the Hawell monument on the path that leads from the car park towards Skiddaw,
just a short distance away. What is it with Latrigg and posts, this was
the third one we had seen on the way down? |
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| The path below Latrigg |
Remains of a celtic post / cross ? |
| Where the path took a zig zag route we headed
straight down, I managed to lose my footing and did a quick slide down
on my backside much to the amusement of the others! I was basically
carrying on with my falling down/sliding down thing then, after three mishaps
earlier on in the day on Rannerdale Knotts. |
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| Nearing the car park |
The car park at the end of Gale Rd |
| I managed to get back to the car without any
further mishaps and as we got changed we all thought that Latrigg was best
done the way we had done it. It would have been a really bad day if we
had just come to do Latrigg on its own! Perhaps if we had come straight
up from Keswick instead of the back way would have made it better |
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| The GPS Track Log from the walk to Latrigg |
| Back in the car we set off back home. It was
still a bit too early for eating but a drink was called for. |
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With this in mind we thought
that the Cross Keys in Tebay would be good and headed off there. Whilst
having a drink we finalized plans for the fancy dress. This was so much
fun thinking about who would be what that we could not wait any longer
and decided to give each idea a number. we then started to ring people
up asking them to pick a number and a number of us three. The other people
in the pub must have wondered what was going on as we made all these
strange phone calls. This took quite a while and before we realized it
food was being served so we had to join in didn't we, it would have been
rude not to! Yet again the food was excellent and we left |
| John and Sarah hatching plans! |
| feeling very happy with ourselves! Two different
walks, two different summits, a friday night planned and Sarah gets to
dress up as Miss Whiplash! What more could you ask for of a walk in the
Lake District! |