Driving up the M6 we had a chorus of “are we there yet dad?” and “is that the hill we are climbing dad?” Thankfully this did not last for too long. The weather was looking very bad, dark clouds and rain until we reached Penrith and then all of a sudden it was sunshine! Driving towards Pooley Bridge from the A66 I stopped to snap a photo of Dunmallet. Parking was at a premium and we ended up with one of the last spaces in the car park. Pooley Bridge was very busy today, but then again it always is!
The water levels in the river were the highest I have seen them, the ducks were loving it! Getting over the bridge was an interesting time, it reminded my of playing Pac Man only this time it was cars and the bus chasing us while we tried to hide in the refuges on the bridge. Once over the bridge we came across a signpost and after letting the kids wander off in the wrong direction for a few steps I pointed them in the right direction. I was surprised by how bright and warm it felt after weeks of gloomy weather my eyes were still trying to adjust to the sunshine!
After doing this walk many years ago as AW suggested ie after a meal and a few drinks in the Sun Inn with Charlotte on a camping trip up here, I knew that doing this walk in an anticlockwise direction was the best way. Last time we went clockwise and ended up battling through waist high bracken to get to the top. This way was along a very wide path that gradually gained height. Even though it was gradual I was dismayed to look behind me and see the kids struggling up. It took me a while to realize that they had spent some time looking for, grading, testing, and discarding until they found the perfect walking stick! I had forgotten about this, kids need walking sticks to go walking! While me and Phil looked on stick after stick was tested until all three were satisfied.
Once the path leveled out we came across a stile that led into a field. This was the continuation of the path to Dacre and at this point we could make out another path that headed straight up towards the top of Dunmallet. The path up was quite steep and being grass was quite slippy. The kids raced ahead while me and Phil followed at a more leisurely and quiet pace. As a result of this quiet walking we managed to catch sight of a rabbit or hare in the bracken, the kids did not believe us though! The path eased in gradient and the top came into view. There was a place just before the top that if you stood and looked round you could see a very old embankment running around the summit. I was wondering if this was the old fort that is marked on the maps. It was there if you knew what you were looking for but just a dip in the ground if you did not, I think!
Loud voices greeted us at the summit. A group of kids were at the top, playing some sort of adventure game. In my childhood it would have been “I'm the king of the castle” or something. At least they had the grace to move away from the top whilst we stood there! There was no view from the top, just a trace of a small cairn that marked the top and as the kids had moved only a few yards away I would be too embarrassed to set up a summit photo using the timer! So with only one photo of the summit cairn(ish) we carried on and followed the path straight over the top. We had only gone a few feet before the kids had reclaimed the summit for themselves again! Full marks to them for letting us have our moment at the summit alone thought! Leaving the summit we soon came across a natural obstacle in our descent. Whilst we stood above a ten foot embankment that looked really slippy the kids noticed a rabbit or hare just a few feet away. We believed them and even took photographic evidence to prove it!
We followed a path that led down towards Ullswater. In the odd clearing that we came across we really felt the sun. Matthew said something along the lines of “it's a great sunbathing place this dad”, sometimes I really think that Matthew takes after his mum more than he does me! But it was nice and warm. Blue sky's above us and through the trees we could see Ullswater, it was just a shame that we could not see anything else!
The path in places disappeared but if we kept going we soon came across it again. In places it was steep and with all the fallen leaves it made for slippy walking. We came across a large boulder, the first sign of rock on the walk and the kids could not resist. It did make a good photo opportunity though! From this boulder we could see the multi coloured jackets of other walkers following the path along the tree line of Dunmallet. We took a bee line for this path and then followed it around the hill until we reached another sign post. We could have carried on and got back to our starting point but I fancied a look at the ferry pier so we took a sharp turn to the left and soon found ourselves on the road.
This road has no footpath and again I felt like I was playing Pac Man until we reached the ferry pier. We walked through the ticket office onto the pier and walked to the end. The views up Ullswater were great. From here the view towards the Far Eastern and Eastern Fells looked great. I even managed to get a photo looking back to Dunmallet but its huge bulk would not fit into one photo! By now all of our stomachs were rumbling so it was time to head back along the road to Pooley Bridge .
As Phil is in the process of trying to decide on a new digital camera when we reached the bridge I thought I would show off the zoom and image stabilization features of my new Canon camera. On the sky line I thought I could see something so I zoomed in and snapped the photo. On the camera display I thought they looked like some people out on a pony trek. To my naked eye they just seemed to be black specks. When I got home and uploaded all of the photos onto my PC I was amazed to find that the ponies were loose. I then checked out some old photos of a walk pre web site days and began to wonder, could these fell ponies be the same ones that I had seen on Mardale Ill Bell years ago? A quick check on the map and as there seemed to be no man made obstruction such as walls between here and there I presumed that they are one and the same! I wonder what Ted would make of such a large turn out field! I have often thought about those ponies, does someone own them or are they “wild” When I did get a close up view of them they certainly seemed friendly but unkempt, not a patch on our Ted!
This walk seems to have developed a rather “horsey” feel to it now!. Phil and the kids needed the loo so we detoured into Pooley Bridge . Whilst they answered the call of nature I took a photo of Pooley Bridge 's monument to the millennium. The inscriptions around the cross make interesting reading. Back at the car I thought it would be a good idea to drive down Ullswater to a lay bye by the Lake shore to have our lunch. At this lay bye we had all of ten square feet of shore line to enjoy our lunch at. Last year I had come here and managed to walk hundreds of yards in either direction along the shore line, I told you the water levels were high! Matthew seemed more interested in practicing his climbing skills here than eating.
I was hungry and soon finished of all of the provisions that I had brought. Getting bored with the climbing the kids started to see if they could have some fun skimming stones across Ullswater. I showed them how it was done of course and then retired to the car. After packing the lunch stuff away I started to play with the camera again. Apart from Gowbarrow Fell and its crags which brought back many happy memories of my first attempts at rock climbing when on an Outward Bound course back in 1981 I also spotted a crow tucking into something in the fields across the road. It was a good job that I had already eaten!
With a last look at the crags of Gowbarrow Fell I gathered Phil and the Kids back to the car and we headed south towards our next walk of the day, Gummer's How. We had all enjoyed Dunmallet, the weather had made all the difference. Whatever the weather it is a walk that is probably best saved for after a meal in one of the pubs in Pooley Bridge and not as a day out. I was pleased to find that the general consensus amongst the kids was that it was too easy! This was fine by me as we drove south, Gummer's How would be more to their liking!