After taking the photos of the wonderful panoramas that lay in front of us we headed down into Bowness. Now I hate Bowness, it symbolizes all that I dislike with the Lake District , the crowds, the traffic, the gift shops. Many years ago I used to like coming to Bowness, staying in The Albert, drinking too much Hartley's and then walking round the gift shops and even venturing to the lake shore for a walk! Why do I now hate people doing what I used to do myself? Am I getting old or have my attitudes changed? I think all present in the car with me could sense my thoughts and decided to keep quiet, either that or they fell asleep.
Well Matthew did, no doubt thinking about football and stuff! The reference to football comes from the fact that I had told Matthew that we could play football somewhere on the way to the next walk, in other words, bribery! When we eventually arrived at the Gummers How car park and he woke up he asked us if this was where we were going to play football. I forget who started it but we all started to tell him that we had already stopped and played football and now it was time to go for another walk. Robert was quite good at telling him the teams and the final result, apparently Matthew and Robert had beaten Phil, Hannah and myself 5-0. As this seemed to fit in with what Matthew must have been dreaming about he seemed happy enough, either that or he did not mind doing the second walk! Sometimes I think I am really cruel so I let Matthew kick the football around for a bit anyway.

As we prepared for the walk, in fact as soon as I opened my car door it started to rain! At this point I was undecided about whether to actually start the walk or not. I had all of my waterproofs with me, Matthew could be waterproofed from the waist upwards if he would only wear his coast and not insist that I carried it, while Phil, Hannah and Robert seemed to one waterproof short of a full set! I looked around at the clouds and the wind direction and using my years of experience on the fells decided that it was only a passing shower, I was amazed when everyone seemed to agree with me! So with me hoping that the weather would improve we set off, my son, niece and nephew regard me as some sort of weather guru and mountaineering expert, I really did not want to disappoint them, oops!

Once through the gate and onto the path we were immediately sheltered by trees. Somehow the kids seemed to have misplaced their walking sticks gathered on the last walk and decided to search for new ones. This search proved somewhat unsuccessful at first but they kept on looking! This nice path that we walked on carried on without gaining any height, brief glimpses of Gummers How through the trees told us that we were going to have some steep bits soon, I hoped the kids would appreciate this after finding Dunmallet “too easy”, time would tell! At the start of the stone steps I told everyone to be careful as they would be slippy. As soon as I turned my back Matthew slipped and fell over. He was not impressed but Hannah and Robert came to his rescue and soon had him up back on his feet and marching up the slippy steps. He did not want any help from me as it was all my fault!

These stone steps were horrible. But at least it did make upwards progress a bit easier than if we had no steps, remade paths up are OK ‘ish! Behind us the view opened up and we soon had a view over Windermere to Lakeside . The weather also started to improve and more and more people joined us on the path. Once at the end of the stone steps the kids eyes lit up with the choice of route that they had, this was their sort of walk now!

In front of us we had a steep fell side with the odd bit of rock standing out. There were many sorts of ways forward and upwards here, both man made and sheep made! The kids took a route that led away to the right, it was there sort of walk. Clambering up and around boulders, following sheep tracks and generally having fun. The only problem was that we were heading away from the main path to the summit. Eventually they came across a big tree that grew out of fell side and sort of made a cave thing under it's branches. The kids made a beeline straight for it and decided that this was their den for the day!

While they played about under the tree I took the time to look back and down towards Lakeside . The whistle of the steam train drew our attention and I played about with the camera and wondered about the people down there doing their version of walking in the Lake District . I have never been on the train or steamer up Windermere but Matthew has and I seem to remember him enjoying it at the time. Meanwhile I was glad that I was up here and looking down there instead of being down there looking up and wishing I was up here!

After enough time for the kids to have enough of their new den I headed away to the left and tried to get back onto the path. No one seemed to notice this change in direction and they all followed me. Matthew had a bit of trouble as the knee high bracken that we had to walk through was neck high to him!

Back on the main path, or somewhere near it the kids still managed to find their own way up. At one point the train down at Lakeside blew its whistle and everyone stopped to look down at the train leaving the station.

Just a few minutes later and the ground started to level off and the summit came into view. With no route finding difficulties for the kids they now started to compete with all the other kids that had caught us up to see who could reach the summit first. This did not appeal to me so I headed along a path that followed the contours along the side of the summit plateau. Once I was sure that Phil was in supervision range of the kids I started to look around from this quieter viewpoint, and what a view point it was!

I have never really liked Windermere but from up here the views along most of its length looked great. Away in the distance the higher ground of the Eastern Fells seemed so small from here! Up and down Windermere various forms of water bourn transport made its way too and fro, time seemed to slow down just stood there watching them, very strange!

Shaking myself out of my daydreaming I headed over to the summit to join the others. It was busy, full of kids climbing on the trig point and I hated it! I took a few deep breaths and reminded myself that I was here with the kids and took the usual photos!

The panorama was difficult to take with the number of people about and I am sure that I ended up taking two complete circles to try and get some portion of the skyline minus various coloured coats blocking the view! Enough was enough and we headed away from the summit and followed a path that led to the north.

Looking to the east we were treated to a rainbow, proof indeed that my weather forecasting was living up to its reputation! Looking at the rainbow and the dark clouds in that direction we felt warm in the late afternoon sun, or was it just luck!

We found a nice comfortable spot to sit down on and spent some time just watching the world go by down on Windermere. Matthew and Robert decided to spend some time climbing up the odd rocky outcrop but as these were no more than two feet high minimum supervision was required so it was back to watching the world go by!

At first my attention was drawn to the power boats. I am some acquaintances who spend most of their weekends waterskiing here. I thought of them as I watched the power boats eat up the lake. I had a conversation with them this year about what they would do when the speed limit came into force. I did not expect the angry comments in reply, ”they will regret it”, “we spend thousands of pounds a year up there”, “ I don't know where we will go”. Those were the answers I got, very frustrated and very angry. I used to be of the opinion that the 10MPH limit was a good thing, now I have no opinion on the matter! Down by the lakeside we saw a sail boat slowly making its was around, time slowed and we seemed to spend ages just sat there watching what the yacht did with the wind.

With time dragging on we decided to head back to the car. We followed a path that contoured around the fell side before joining up with the main path. I noticed a Kestrel hovering above some unsuspecting prey, from up here it looked like it was after some fish! Once back on the main path we slowly and carefully made our way down the stone steps with mishap and then made many detours into the woods, well the kids did, me and Phil kept to the path!

So that was that. Two of the outlying fells done in a day. I think it was a good idea to do both as neither merits a day out on its own. Saying that, either would be great for an evening walk. Gummers How was much better than Dunmallet. Whatever my personal opinions the kids enjoyed a day out walking in the Lake District ! The only problem I had was that I had been wearing my boots and after a few twinges during the descent from Dunmallet the descent from Gummers How was agony. I was glad that the kids were in no rush! I must do something about returning these boots and trying to get my money back, I am now certain that all of my feet problems are down to these boots!