While John and Sarah transferred their stuff into my car I took the opportunity to take a panorama that showed the possibilities of the walk before us. The weather was great but possibly a little too hot (for me, not for John and Sarah though!) and a great day was in prospect. Leaving John's car we set off up to Wyrnose Pass , after ensuring that John had his car keys with him of course! Parking was no problem at the top of the Pass, which is something that did worry me, it would have been a right downer if we missed a parking space here as well!

I took the opportunity to borrow some of John's sun screen lotion. I normally hate putting that junk onto myself but as I could already feel the backs of my legs start to fry I thought it would be a good idea. When we were all ready we set off. Getting ready in this case meant removing layers of clothing rather than adding them, it was a case of stripping down to shorts and tee shirts, or just shorts in John's case, in fact the only thing we did put on was the sun screen!

Before too long we found ourselves above Red Tarn. On the map there is a path shown that leads up to Cold Pike from this path a long way before here. We had been busy walking and talking and watching some climbers over on some crags on Pike O'Blisco but I had mentioned to the others about watching out for this path. I was not surprised that by the time we reached Red Tarn we had not seen any sign of this path, I had always thought that it was one of those imaginary paths that the OS occasional put on the maps just to confuse people! But then again the views in front of us just beckoned us to walk towards them! More and more of Crinkle Crags and Bowfell came into view and it was one of those views that shouts out “come on, I'm over here, you know you want to”, so I guess we did and carried on past any path that led up to Cold Pike, imaginary or not!

To be honest by the time we reached Red Tarn I was feeling so relaxed and enjoying this walk so much that I was not bothered that we had missed the path at all. We seemed to reach here so quickly that I was wondering why it took us so long last time. Perhaps it was because we had a couple of kid's with us, or was it the weather, perhaps it was the snowball fights or the snow bank jumping! Whatever the reason I was not complaining and headed up the path towards Crinkle Crags. I seemed to remember this part of the walk as the steepest and hardest bit, again I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it felt today, perhaps a few weeks break from walking had done me the world of good.

The summit area was really nice, a collection of rocky outcrops with at least three summits and on a day like today the views were brilliant. I took the usual photos whilst John and Sarah partook in a spot of first lunch. I thought there was a nice gentle breeze here but the others thought it was too cold. When I replied that at least the fell was living up to it's name it took a while for them to understand, Cold Pike, get it!

For once we looked around and everywhere else seemed to have cloud above it or around it, normally it is the other way around and I'm told it's my fault. Today was different but I got the blame for it being too cold here, oh well!

Turning around we started to retrace our steps with the main event of the day in front of us, Crinkle Crags. It was one of those special times on the fells, the weather, the views, it was just great! Nearing the path I made the mistake of stepping onto what I thought was a nice solid lump of grass. It turned out to be one of those marshy areas that absorb water like a sponge and I sank down to my ankle in it! At first I was annoyed but after a few minutes my right foot had that “just got out of the shower” feeling, how refreshing it felt! Once on the path John seemed to get into one of his high speed "I feel

With John back amongst us we tried to compare our last visit up here to today. This only took a minute as we could actually see something today! In front of us the Crinkles became more noticeable, they looked very impressive. The path still headed up towards them but I had to take a detour over to the right to take some photos. This of course made me play catch up as John and Sarah headed upwards.

I have to admit that once we reached the first Crinkle I wanted to take it nice and slow and just enjoy the place, I even wanted to try and figure out where we walked last time and if possible find out how we had managed to go so wrong. While John and Sarah raced up the rocky bits I took my time and tried to dredge back memories of the last walk. This was difficult as last time everything lay under snow and with a blizzard blowing all around us visibility was extremely limited. I did manage to make out how we got up to the first Crinkle, a different route from today, had I expected anything else?

John and Sarah waited for me at the top of the first Crinkle and after a bit of a chat I had to think of a good reason for them to take their time walking along the ridge. I had it, sunbathing! 15 minutes sunbathing at each Crinkle would give me enough time to look around and figure things out. With this agreed upon I took a few photos and started to walk towards the second Crinkle. I had spotted a group of walkers heading up to us and as I did not want to spoil any photos of what for me was the highlight of the walk, The Bad Step, with unwanted crowd scenes I headed off there after warning John and Sarah about the crowds that were coming!

So here I was with The Bad Step all to myself. I could see the alternative route away to the left but today that was not in the plan. As I snapped away a lone walker descended towards The Bad Step from above, all of a sudden coming to a halt directly above the step. He asked for some guidance about the best way down, it was not obvious to him from above! After some words of advice he was able to get down without much trouble, another good deed done!

Putting the camera safely away I headed up The Bad Step, great fun! John and Sarah who had rejoined me now had a bit of a discussion about who should go next. The way I understood it Sarah was to be next, Sarah obviously thought the same because as John went up next the look on her face was a picture! This brought a few laughs about how to miss hear or misunderstand a conversation. My wife says I do this all the time; at least I am not the only one!

As Sarah was still thinking about John's misunderstanding she seemed to struggle getting up The Bad Step, after all it his hard work to do this sort of thing when laughing. I took a picture of her from above only to be told off for doing it, something to do with cleavage I think. I did reply that my camera does not really have a big zoom lens; I don't think that helped matters! I think she saw the funny side after a while.

With The Bad Step out of the way it was only a short distance to the top of the second crinkle and the summit of Crinkle Crags. I had to offer some advice to a party of walkers plus one dog as they headed down. They were talking about some sort of obstacle that someone had mentioned to them on the descent. As they seemed to be talking about The Bad Step I did not feel out of place offering them some advice regarding the dog. They seemed happy to accept the advice of going down the alternative route and headed back to the summit and then around, good deed number 2 then!

The summit of Crinkle Crags was busy, why I expected anything else on a day like today is beyond me. Judging by the accents it was plain to see that the majority of people were from the more southerly counties of England . While I took the usual photos it was interesting to hear them talk about where to go next, “Shall we do Scafell then?” that sort of thing, good luck!

Talking about Scafell, well they were, I wasn't! The view over to the Scafell's was fantastic; Scafell, Scafell Pike and Bowfell looked like you could just reach out and touch them. The view from here is one of the best things about Crinkle Crags.

With more and more people reaching the summit I could tell that John was ready to get off. I had to agree with him but I wanted to check around and try and see how we managed to get lost here on our last visit. It soon became apparent that last time we headed off along the ridge towards Long Top instead of heading to the right and the next crinkle, it's funny how some visibility can clear up some navigational errors! So with my mistake put right in my head we set off for the next crinkle.

Leaving the summit and nearing the third crinkle I asked the others if they wanted to visit every crinkle or just follow the main path. We stopped to think about this and John applied some sun cream as he was turning a nice shade of pink! We decided that the main path was the best route. With this decided we passed by the third crinkle and headed towards the fourth. I was still thinking that this was one of the most relaxing walks I had ever done, I just felt totally chilled out. I suppose I must mention footwear now, John had a new pair of Merrell “multi activity shoes” on, Sarah had her Merrell's on that she had first worn when we did Skiddaw and I also had on my Merrell's! I had first worn these when we did the bike ride around the Garburn Pass. I have to say that I had not even felt a twinge from my feet any time that I have worn them, perhaps this was why I was feeling so happy. Unfortunately this was to change!

From the fourth crinkle the ground underfoot got much rougher. The fifth crinkle involved a bit of a scramble and then on towards Shelter Crags was very rough, many boulders to cross and no path. My navigation may have gone wrong but I am convinced that we did follow the path of sorts; even so it was rough underfoot. At least the views towards Bowfell and the Scafell's made up for it.

All of a sudden it seemed like we were getting no nearer to Three Tarns. We kept on walking but did not seem to get anywhere, very strange! I suppose that the heat had finally got to us, it just seemed to be getting hotter by the minute, perhaps it was the rough ground we had just crossed, I don't know but all of a sudden my plan to walk over Bowfell and beyond just did not seem to be a good one anymore. Besides with all the liquid that we had been taking on, Sarah felt like she needed the toilet, past experience has shown me that there are no toilets on Bowfell and as Sarah will not go "al fresco" as it were, we had a problem!

Well why spoil a walk by increasing the pressure on Sarah's bladder, for that matter why spoil a walk when it is just too hot to walk anyway? With these thoughts in mind we waved goodbye to Bowfell as soon as we reached the path junction at Three Tarns. We had not actually seen Three Tarns, three dried out flat bits maybe, but no tarns, but the map says that they are there; I told you it was hot! Heading down The Band the sun was at last behind us and as a result the views before us became even better, Pike O'Blisco and the Langdale Pikes really benefited from the lack of glare, even Great Knott to our right looked better than we had seen before.

Heading down The Band was a new experience for me. Normally when we start to descend I get left behind as the pains in my feet start to tell. Today I was having no such problems, in fact I was going that fast that I managed to keep up, I felt like I was running! I kept an eye out for the path that led to the climber's traverse, something that might come in useful next time we visit the area but I never did really see it, oh well! At first the descent down The Band was gradual but soon we came to the start of the steeper sections.

A few sheep watched over us as we began the harder work along this steep section. By now Pike O'Stickle was directly across the valley, it looked so close. Before long we were able to look along Micklden and see Rosset Pike, in my original plan Rosset Pike would have been the last summit of the day, but not today!

My knees were starting to complain now after this long downhill stretch, luckily for me I was still in voice range of John and Sarah and was able to persuade them to take a break. For me it was liquid and a rest for my knees, for them it was a chance to sunbathe!

As we eventually finished the steep downhill bit and walked through Stool End Farm our pace started to slow, thank god! Walking along the road the temperature seemed to rise even more, I suppose that we were out of any cooling breeze now. Along the road we stopped to watch a lady farmer go about her business with a quad bike, when she left the quad bike in front of us with the engine still running the temptation to “borrow” it for a while was strong! For some strange reason in the corner of a field was one of those porta loo things. It was even marked as a ladies, Sarah still resisted the temptation! As we reached the road junction we had a bit of a dilemma, the loo was just over there but the car was way up there! John volunteered to go to the car and Sarah and me walked over to the Old DG to visit the loo! John seemed to take ages before returning in the car, apparently he had stopped off to rescue a sheep that had got it's head stuck in a fence! I suppose we had intended to have a drink in the Old DG but it was very busy and the smell was slightly overpowering, we decided that we would head back to Wyrnose Pass and collect my car before deciding what to do next.

Driving back towards my car I noticed something strange. I could make out a swarm of flying insects, as we reached the bottom of Wyrnose Pass the way the sun was shinning made it possible to see that the whole valley was full of these flying things, it was very very strange! We decided that they were flying ants; we also decided that we were glad we were not in their way! So once back at my car it was time to decide where to go for some food. As we thought about this John and Sarah decided that they had earned a sunbathing break! I decided to go and visit the Three Shires Stone and snap a few pictures.

I sat there and fidgeted whilst John and Sarah sunbathed. A couple of times I reached melting point and had to retire to my car for a touch of air conditioning, this was OK for a while but after the second visit I ran out of cigarettes and suddenly reached a crisis point. I had to convince the others that we had to leave, it was either that or call mountain rescue out to bring me some nicotine! Thankfully they seemed to appreciate my dilemma and we soon left, heading for the nearest point of nicotine sales! That happened to be Coniston, with my craving satisfied we now needed food, but as the pubs looked full we carried on until we found a pub that offered food and had space. We tried one in Torver but it was not too our liking so we carried on until we reached the Farmers Arms near Spark Bridge which was much more too our liking!

Sat outside the Farmers Arms we had a good meal and a cooling drink, the backs of my legs came in fore some stick as I had missed applying the sun cream to them, I now had rather red bits above my socks! At least that was my only problem as John had red bits all over!

So that was Crinkle Crags, only half the walk I had planned but one of the most enjoyable ones. Looking back at my last two visits here I am reminded of the weather conditions that we come across walking in the Lake District . Last time we ended up in a blizzard and got completely lost, this time it was too hot to walk and cut short our planned journey, such is the joy of fell walking!