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| Base Brown and Sour Milk Gill |
Sour Milk Gill |
From our parking space
Sour Milk Gill was plainly visible. We all smiled when we say it and
walked up the road towards Seathwaite looking at it all of the time.
We did not seem to be in any sort of rush and just walked slowly along
the road. Johns attention was drawn to a bloke repairing one of the dry
stone walls, he has a thing about walls. We took advantage of the toilets
at Seathwaite and then walked |
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through
the campsite towards the footbridge. Already I had a sort of feeling
that we had gone wrong as I seemed to remember something about walking
through the farmyard instead of the campsite. I was right and instead
of walking up a track we had to cross a small stream and then go through
a gate to reach the track, I hope this was not a sign of things to come!
Apart from passing through Seathwaite on a few walks in the past my last
time here was in the summer of 1981 on an Outward Bound course when we
camped around here for a few days. We spent time going up Scafell Pike
and did a lot of climbing around the Napes Needle area of Great Gable.
I must admit that somehow the area did not look as I remembered it, perhaps
we had camped on the ground behind the campsite and not in it (my
memory is definitely going, but then again it was over 20 years ago!)
Now that Sour Milk Gill lay directly before us we had a good chance to
see what lay ahead. The lower parts looked like it was just a case of
finding a way over boulders in the stream and the upper part |
| Sour Milk Gill from the path through the farmyard |
| seemed to be full of climbers with ropes and
helmets! Coupled with the sheer volume of walkers heading up the path on
the left hand side it suddenly, to me, seemed not as much fun as I first
thought it would be. John had similar thoughts but kept them to himself.
We crossed the footbridge and started to follow the path. We had a quick
chat about whether to go up the Gill or just follow the path, we decided
that we would walk a bit further on and then decide. |
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| John taking the first few steps |
and then realizing that it was fun! |
| Sarah and myself walked up the path but John
headed straight into the river bed! This sort of made our minds up and
we all followed John! Once we were in the Gill I struggled to think why
we had any thoughts about not doing it! At first it was just a case of
boulder jumping, but after a few minutes we looked at each other, saw the
smiles and realized that YES this was FUN! |
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| Sarah thought it was fun too! |
One of the many waterfalls |
| For some reason my legs started to feel like
jelly and Sarah kindly offered me some of those Glucose tablet things.
I won't mention the name of them because they are on John's list of company's
that he does not do business with. I have no such morals and after a few
minutes felt much better! After five or ten minutes of
making progress over boulders the Gill started to get steeper and the water
turned into one stream (it makes sense to me!) What
I think I mean is that when the angle is not as steep the water sort of
goes here and there, in a steeper section the water is channeled into one
distinct stream, ish! |
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| Making progress with the help of an old tree |
John going into "tree hugging" mode again |
| With the Gill getting steeper we now started
to climb up one side or the other, up and over big boulders or up the sides
of the Gill. John made his way through a tree and as I looked on he gave
the tree trunk a quick kiss! He had seen me watching and made the point
of reminding me that he is a closet "Tree Hugger" This brought
back happy memories of a previous walk up to Selside Pike when he had spent
most of the time "hugging trees" on the way up. At times there
were old tree trunks that had been washed down into the Gill that made
it easy to climb up and over small sections of rocks that would have been
difficult otherwise, great fun! |
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| John contemplating a wet foot if he gets it wrong! |
Dodging a tree and trying to keep dry feet! |
| On the whole we had managed to stay dry so far.
Now came a section where a bit of care was needed. We had to get around
a small pool at the foot of a waterfall. John and Sarah took the dodgy
looking (to me) path around to the left whilst
I traversed across to the other side over a boulder in the middle of the
stream. From here we had to get up the first of a series of waterfalls. |
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| Two views of some of the larger waterfalls |
| These waterfalls looked impressive and on either
side of them was easy scrambling up and past them. One of the good thinks
that I soon learned about Sour Milk Gill is that it is easy to pick out
the dry rock from the wetter, more slippy rock. It was so easy to tell
the difference between the wet, damp, and dry rock that it was easy to
find a nice quick and safe way up. |
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Another
thing about Sour Milk Gill that I liked was the choice of routes. It
could be as hard or as easy as you wanted to make it! A few times I
found myself on the opposite side to John and Sarah but not long after
we were reunited again. |
| John and Sarah in a sort of before and during photo opportunity. Before
and during the waterfall opposite! |
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| The waterfalls began to come thick and fast
now. They just got bigger and bigger! Making our way up we did tend to
stay on the right hand side, this seemed to offer a route that was within
our capabilities. When I say capabilities I mean to say that we always
felt comfortable that we had good hand and footholds and that if we felt
that the way upwards was too difficult we could always find a way out and
around the potential problem. |
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| Another old tree helping out |
Sarah trying to figure what the help is! |
| After this set of waterfalls we came across
another old tree. This had obviously been here for years and I took a
bit of time making my way up it, testing to see if it was not too rotten.
It took my weight (thankfully!) and I soon
managed to get up it. There was an awkward moment trying to get off the
old tree, John managed it but Sarah really seemed to struggle, she had
not seen how we had done it. |
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This was the cause of some nervous laughter
from Sarah! I love it when she laughs like that, it means that she is
finding thinks a bit daunting, which means fun! Anyway once safely over
this hurdle we were again confronted with a large waterfall. We all stood
underneath it and tried to decide which way we were going up it. John
took the route as near to the water as he could. Sarah took a route well
away from the water and I sort of split the difference and went up between
them both!
I have noticed this before on certain scrambles that offer a choice
of route. John usually will try and take the most difficult line whilst
Sarah will sometimes take an easier option. I will try like John to take
a more difficult line but sometimes will err on the side of caution.
I think that this is why we like this sort of thing so much, there always
seems to be a choice of route, and the routes chosen depend on how we feel
about our abilities and conditions, and sometimes the mood we are in at
the time. As I have said before, great fun! |
| Another large waterfall |
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| More waterfalls....... and more fun getting up them! |
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| The great thing about Sour Milk Gill is the choice of routes
that you can choose |
| Meeting up at the top of these waterfalls after
our different routes up them I suggested a break. I was feeling a bit knackered
again and I borrowed some of Sarah's glucose tablets again. After a coffee
and these tablets I felt much better. We sat next to the waterfalls and
chatted away about scrambling and stuff whilst watching a group making
their way up the way we had. I could have sworn that one of the blokes
was reading from some sort of guide book while he made his way up. I was
thinking that he should put the book away and just concentrate on having
fun! |
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| Looking back down the slabs |
More fun! |
| I can remember trying to use one of those books
myself, I couldn't even find the start of the scramble with it! But then
again I do consult the AW books quite often on these walks so I better
quit while I'm behind and shut up about it! Ahead of us lay the slabs that
we had seen climbers on before. We stayed well clear of the wet rock and
made our way up some granite slabs. |
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| A rare photo of the author..............taken before more
fun! |
| Scrambling up this granite (we
think it was granite!) was different from what we had done before.
The rock made for excellent holds. We were able to make our way up what
might have been difficult if it was some other sort of rock, this stuff
was solid as a rock (pun intended!) and the
scramble was turning into some really gripping stuff (again,
pun intended!) After this slab of granite we again had to make
our way over various boulders and even the odd bit of grass. |
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| Thinking about the way forwards |
Looking back down to Seathwaite |
| We came across a pool of water and I seem to
remember John having a slight slip here. These sorts of things don't happen
very often to John so Sarah thought it was funny! I, of course, missed
getting a photo of it. looking back down towards Seathwaite we at last
had a sense of height above the valley floor. It must have been something
to do with seeing this pool of water and nothing between it and the valley,
very strange! |
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| A fence aids upwards progress |
Edging along a very slippy part |
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Walking along a relatively
flat section we soon came across a wooden fence. I am sure that it was
not put there for that reason but we climbed up and over it, it came
in very handy! Just past the fence was a section that was very slippy.
We had to gingerly edge our way along a groove in a slab that was very
wet. John went first and watched as he did some dancing along it, I didn't
know he could do the "Cha Cha Slide"! (guess
who has to watch TOTP!) Soon
Sarah and myself found out that it was not funny, I did "Walk
Like An Egyptian" and Sarah had a bit of a "Harlem Shuffle",
who needs a dance floor with wet rock underfoot!
This of course meant a bit more nervous laughter from Sarah,
which again led to smiles from me and John. This was turning out to be
even better than we had hoped for!
After this bit of fun we could see that we were coming to the end of
Sour Milk Gill. We could see the end now and only one major obstacle
stood in our way. |
| John leading the way |
| We watched John make his way up the side of
another waterfall, at times he had to stand and get wet as he figured out
his next move, it looked very interesting! Sarah decided that she would
walk around it. I tried to follow John but could not figure out how he
had managed to get past the pool to the waterfall. Eventually I gave up
and followed Sarah around to meet John at the top. |
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| The wettest part of the scramble for John |
The head of Sour Milk Gill |
| When I asked John how he had managed to get
by the pool he told me that he had to stand on some rocks that were under
the water, wet feet! From here we decided that we would leave the Gill and
head out onto the fell side. The last few feet of Sour Milk Gill looked
very impressive, the water just seemed to be coming out of the sky, very
strange! |
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| The path by the side of Sour Milk Gill |
The crags with the Hanging Stone |
| Once out of the Gill we headed across the fell
side towards the crags that AW's hanging stone rests on. Base Brown lay
beyond these so we made a beeline for them. There was no path so it was
a case of picking our way around the rocks and boulders. Soon I decided
that it was lunch time. I needed something to help with my energy levels
and John needed to change his tee shirt as it was soaking wet, I think
from sweat rather than water from the Gill! |
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| Looking down over Seathwaite |
AW's Hanging Stone |
| It was a nice spot for lunch. looking around
we were confronted with Gillercombe Buttress and a great view down into
Seathwaite. I handed out a few mini eggs as a sort of easter treat and
John was trying to figure out what to wear instead of a tee shirt, he ended
up with a jumper! Over on the buttress we could just about make out the
climbers making their way up, that looked like fun! |
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| Raven Crag or Gillercombe Buttress from the ascent of Base
Brown. Grey Knotts, the summit behind would be our final destination today. |
| After food I began to feel better but I knew
that as soon as we started walking again I would be left behind so I set
off before the others were ready to give myself a head start. It was interesting
trying to find a route up towards the crags, the nearer we got the bigger
the boulders were that had to be negotiated. Before long they were the
size of houses so we had to make our way around them instead of over them! |
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| Two Photographs of AW's Hanging Stone |
| Soon we found ourselves below AW's hanging stone.
We all said the usual things about not sneezing and making loud noises
but to be honest it did not look like it would come falling down any time
soon. By now I had been caught up but as we started to climb up the crags
to the left of the hanging stone I seemed to make much quicker progress
than the others! I think that John was taking his time making sure that
Sarah was Ok. |
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| Heading up by the side of the crags that lay underneath the
Hanging Stone |
| Because I was a fair way in front I decided
to go and see if I could locate the hanging stone from above. This I did
and was shocked to see how precarious the thing looked from above, it did
look like a big sneeze could bring it down! I spent a while just looking
around it, it seemed to have fallen a few feet from the main crag, you
could see where it used to be joined. I guess there must have been a bit
of a crack in the rock that water had gotten in to. A few hundred or thousand
years of freeze and thaw and the crack must have grown bigger until...
the resulting hanging stone that we see today, my school geography lessons
are all coming flooding back to me now! |
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| Two photos of the Hanging Stone from above |
| Eventually John and Sarah joined me. John later
told me that they had taken a different route to me only to be confronted
with some very slippy rock. This had entailed retracing their steps and
finding a different route up, all quite time consuming ! |
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| More small crags bar the way towards Base Brown |
A path appears by the side of an outcrop |
| Once together again we headed up past a few
more smaller crags. We surprised a group of people who were having lunch
behind one of these crags. I still don't know who was more surprised by
the sight of other people on these crags! Once past these crags we could
see the summit of Base Brown for the first time today. |
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| Seathwaite Fell about to be engulfed by cloud |
Base Brown coming nearer |
| It did not look very far away but my legs did
not seem to want to work today. I found it hard going and soon got left
behind. As is usual when this happens to me I seem to walk even slower
and kept stopping to take photos! Away on the left Seathwaite Fell was
covered in thick cloud, I thought that we would soon be enjoying the same
clouds but they just seemed to hang there and not move, strange! |
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| Glaramara from the ascent of Base Brown |
| On the other side of the valley Glaramara took
my attention. From up here I was able too see a path of sorts that we had
tried to use as a descent route from the top down to the valley. I can
understand why now, the path being a small track by the side of a small
gorge in the fell side. The gorge looked like it could offer some interesting
scrambling up, but I am glad we did not try and get down it! |
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| Looking back down the ridge we have climbed |
The summit coming into view |
| A couple passed us coming down from the summit,
they soon disappeared into the distance and as I looked behind I realized
why my legs were struggling, we had come up a fair way from the valley
floor in a relatively short distance! The more walking I do the more I
realize that I can keep up a good pace as long as the angle or steepness
is below a certain limit. Today that limit was reached! The nearer to the
summit I got the angle decreased and I was able to walk faster, in fact
I soon caught up with John and Sarah, or were they sat there waiting
for me! |
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| Base Brown summit cairn |
The terrible trio at Base Brown summit |
| Sat at the summit it got cooler. We talked about
the options that we had, most of which involved walking up to Green Gable.
As Green Gable was covered in cloud this did not seem so appealing! Seathwaite
Fell still had its own covering of cloud that still did not seem like it
was moving anywhere else. |
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| 360 degree panorama from Base Brown |
| I pointed out the ridge that led from Green
Gable to Brandreth and Sarah seemed to like the idea of it. In fact she
somehow managed to decide that a hole in the clouds would follow us around
if we walked that way, I'm not sure what she based that on but she soon
took off heading towards Green Gable! |
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| Looking back to Base Brown's summit |
Heading towards Green Gable |
| As I look back at Base Brown I think that I
was impressed. We had managed to find a way up that meant hours of fun
in Sour Milk Gill, the hanging stone offered something else of interest,
in fact the only down side to it was the last drag up to the summit! Now
we had to put that behind us and think about what lay ahead,
I was trying to get my head from "fun mode" to "peak bagging
mode"! |
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| Just about to go into the clouds |
Looking back to Base Brown |
| As we walked towards Green Gable the clouds
did not seem to move. As it was a gentle slope down and then up when the
path from Gillercombe was joined I managed to walk faster than the others,
a rare event indeed! |
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| Higher up the path |
And looking back again |
| The path was very stony but there was no problem
following it in the cloud. Many cairns marked the path and as we entered
the clouds it became quite spooky. There is something satisfying about
walking in cloud, the downside is that you can't see anything, the up side
is that your imagination can take over! It's probably just me who thinks
like that, I know Sarah does not like it but I think it helps you concentrate
on your immediate surroundings. |
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| Cairns help mark the path |
Green Gable summit coming into view, ish! |
| We passed quite a few people making their way
down and before we knew it the gradient eased off and the summit was there.
Looking down into Ennerdale we saw a tantalizing hole in the clouds that
was both frustrating and interesting at the same time. It was one of those
what would it look like without the clouds sort of things! |
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| Gable Crag through a break in the cloud |
A glimpse into the head of Ennerdale through a brief hole in the clouds |
| The same could be said for Great Gable, brief
glimpses of Gable Crag through the clouds! Very frustrating but adding
to the spectacle of the whole thing, what if?, what would it be like if? |
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| Green Gable summit cairn and shelter |
The terrible trio at Green Gable |
| The brief glimpses of Gable Crag really made
me want to go over and get up Great Gable while we were here. I talked
about this with John and Sarah but when I pointed out the options they
both wanted to head back via Brandreth and Grey Knotts. I put up a bit
of a fight, but I allowed myself to be persuaded. I consoled myself with
the thoughts of spending much more time, on a much better day on Great
Gable sometime in the future. |
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| Two more glimpses of Gable Crag |
| We set off towards Brandreth, but I could not
resist going back and snapping a few more photos of Gable Crag. I even
walked on towards Windy Gap just to see if I could now see it! I could
so I took a few photos of that as well. When I returned to the others I
could see that they were a bit fed up with me now! |
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| Windy Gap from Green Gable |
Leaving Green Gable for Brandreth |
| A solitary walker heading up from Windy Gap
gave a sort of perspective to the size of the place, perhaps it would have
been hard work to get up to Great Gable after all. |
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| Along the path to Gillercomb Head |
Nearing Gillercomb Head |
| Heading back down the way we had come up we
soon found the path that led on towards Brandreth. The clouds started to
become noticeable again as we walked down. They were above us, by the side
of us over Ennerdale and sometimes below us, it was very strange at times! |
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| Gillercomb |
Gillercomb Head and Raven Crag |
| As it was much cooler than before we walked
off at a fast pace. Navigating was easy as all we had to do was follow
the old rusting remains of the fence. |
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| A brief glimpse of Ennerdale |
One of the small tarns at Gillercomb Head |
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| Looking over to the depression between Base Brown and Green Gable |
Another Tarn at Gillercomb Head |
| So far we had been lucky with the clouds. At
Gillercomb Head this changed. As soon as we started to climb up towards
Brandreth the clouds came down to meet us! Because the path sort of disappeared
amongst all of the rocks and boulders we started to look much more closely
at the old fence posts. Sometimes we could not see the next one but by
keeping in as straight a line as possible we soon found the next post.
Eventually they led us to the summit area. |
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| Nearing Brandreth's summit |
Brandreth summit cairns |
| Due to the cloud the summit was a bit confusing
at first. The place that I thought was the summit due to a large cairn
and fence post turned out not be the summit. How did I know this? Well
the cloud lifted and a short distance away we could see slightly higher
ground and a few more larger cairns, phew! |
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| And again |
Sarah writes a letter home! |
As the last half hour or so had been a bit
of a weary trudge Sarah decided that she needed to do something more
interesting. She spotted a pile of wooden fence posts and picking one
up tried out various ways of using it. It was too heavy for a javelin,
too big for a tooth pick but just right to send a post card.
Dear Paul,
Having a great day out, wish
you were here! Weathers not so good but John's cracking some good ones,
Ste's walking slow again, and I fancy KFC for tea. How's your day at work
been?
Luv Sarah
Well I made that bit up but you get the idea! |
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| The terrible trio at Brandreth's summit |
Looking towards Grey Knotts |
| Once Sarah had written her post card and replaced
the "pen" I took the usual summit photos. Well that is apart
from the panoramic one as it was not worth it with all the cloud around.
Sarah had obviously rejuvenated herself and wanted to know what was next!
Just following the fence posts was the general idea! |
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| Heading towards Grey Knotts |
A brief glimpse of Buttermere and Crummock Water |
| That we did and soon came across the new fence
that was being erected. Again the clouds started to play games with us
and we were treated to the odd sight of something through the odd gaps
in them. This time it was a view of Crummock Water and Buttermere. It must
be great up here on a nice warm sunny day. The views must be fantastic! |
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| Following the fence towards Grey Knotts |
Another Tarn |
| Grey Knotts did not seem all that far away and
I was beginning to think about how some of these "Wainwrights" were too
easy the way we were doing them. I have talked about some of the "summits"
that appear on ridges that lead up to higher tops and again I was think
the same thoughts about Grey Knotts. It was only a short distance away
and any gain in height did not cause any feeling of pain in the leg muscles!
It was a nice walk so I guess I had better stop moaning about it, a summit
is a summit! |
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| Nearing Grey Knotts summit |
Grey Knotts summit |
| As we got nearer to Grey Knotts we could see
that the summit was comprised of a rocky outcrop that might involve a bit
of a scramble to reach the top. Indeed it did but only for a few seconds!
Those last few seconds were definitely the best part about the route from
Brandreth! |
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| Grey Knotts summit cairn |
The terrible trio at Grey Knotts |
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| 360 degree panorama from Grey Knotts |
| The weather had cleared just enough for me to
take a panorama so I did that along with all the usual photos. |
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| Another glimpse of Buttermere and Crummock Water |
Leaving Grey Knotts |
| Trying to get back to the car from here presented
us with a problem. It would have been so easy to make a beeline for Seathwaite
but danger lay that way in the form of Raven Crag and Gillercomb Buttress.
It would also have been easy to head of towards Honistor, that way looked
so easy. John did not want to hang about whilst I looked at the map and
started to come out with some sarcastic comments wanting to just get on
with it. Oh well! |
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| Base Brown from Grey Knotts |
The way down |
| After walking away from Grey Knotts for long
enough for me to feel confident about starting to descend towards Seathwaite
we started to walk to the right a bit more. The general lay of the land
helped here and we soon started to loose height down some steep grass slopes. |
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| Dale Head and High Spy from the descent |
The steep descent |
| As we had sat and had lunch a few hours before
I had noticed some walkers taking the same route we were now attempting.
From down there we could see (well I could!) a
faint track that led around the crags down to the floor of Gillercomb.
Trying to find a trace of this path on the ground was much harder! |
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| Base Brown again |
Further down the shoulder of Grey Knotts |
| As usual John was making much better time down
hill than me and Sarah! Again as usual now Sarah and myself compared notes
about any aches and pains in the feet and legs! I had recently invested
in a pair of Brasher AT 20 walking shoes and a pair of those 1000 mile
socks. Although I had left the shoes at home I was wearing the new socks.
They are much thinner than the ones I normally wear and so far I had not
felt any sign of problems with my feet (most unusual!) That
was until we started to talk about feet that is! As soon as I mentioned
feet I felt a twinge that usually indicates the onset of great pain for
me (that will teach me) As it was all that
I had was a twinge and it did not get any worse. I forget the manufactures
name but the 1000 mile sock gets my vote! (or are
the pills starting to work again?) |
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| Raven Crag |
Base Brown again! |
| Heading down hill by the side of Raven Crag
was hard work. The ground was very uneven, "tussocks" is the word that
describes the lumps of grass and stuff that made progress slow. One thing
that did help was the view of Base Brown in front of us. It looked so much
different than it felt when we walked up it a few hours before (
I know that makes no sense but it sounds right!) For some reason
it reminded me of Yewbarrow when descending from Red Pike, i've just looked
at my photo of that and realize that I must have been suffering from altitude
sickness at the time I had that thought! But then again it does sort of
bear a resemblance, is it me or was it altitude sickness? |
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| A panorama of Gillercomb. We walked around the skyline today. |
| As the gradient started to ease we passed through
a gap in the wall. This wall was huge! After the wall we made a beeline
for the head of Sour milk Gill. The going was much easier and would have
been enjoyable apart from the time we spent trying to not tread on big
black slugs. They were all over the place! The only problem that I was
thinking about now was that we still had to get down to valley level, that
would be hard work and I was not looking forward to it. |
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| Raven Crag |
The path down to a stile |
| It was quite a relief to get back down to flatter
ground. We came across a wall and started to follow it below some crags,
A stile further down came into sight and we headed for it. The wall led
us below a series of large slabs that reared upwards at what looked like
a steep angle. As we near the end of these walks I always seem to look
back and remember the highlights. John, it seems, is always looking forwards
to a new challenge however near the end we are! |
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| John proving me wrong! |
The head of Sour Milk Gill |
| John looked at these angled slabs and decided
that they would be really easy to climb up. I disagreed and thought that
they would be hard work and slippy. John was having none of this and after
a few "Oh yes I can....and...Oh no you cant" sentences he proved
me wrong by running straight up them. What do I know anyway! Me and Sarah
were quite happy just to stand there and watch him, we had no intentions
what so ever of following him! |
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| The small falls before the steep fall into Seathwaite |
Back onto the path by the side of Sour Milk Gill |
| Once over the stile we just had to find a convenient
spot to cross over the stream. This in itself was quite entertaining and
all too soon we found ourselves back on the path that we had walked out
of the Gill on a few hours before. I have mentioned these remade paths
before but this one needs some more words of wisdom. Sometimes these paths
can aid upward progress but going down them can be treacherous! This one
was especially bad as many of the steps had been worn smooth by the countless
number of previous walkers. At one point Sarah slipped and apart from injured
pride she was feeling as frustrated with the path as me. |
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| The slabs |
The memorial footbridge |
| These paths are dangerous when wet, the rocks
are so slippy that it is like walking on ice! The whole way down to
the valley was a torment, steep, slippy and uneven! If there was an alternative
we would have taken it, unfortunately there wasn't one! It seemed like
an eternity before we reached the valley and safety! Take a bit of time
to read some of the mountain rescue teams web pages and try and figure
out why there are so many incidents that have the phrase "fell/slipped/tripped
whilst descending path" in them, it's not rocket science! |
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| The final bit, the path through to the farm |
Seathwaite |
| Enough! Once back to level ground we crossed
the footbridge and walked along the track through the farm yard. John seemed
to like this place, something to do with the smell of the animals, and
boy did they smell! Cattle and sheep all made a home for themselves around
here. Walking back along the road to the car I was amazed by the number
of cars still here. We had taken a long time to do our walk and it was
fast approaching 7pm now. I wondered where all the people were, probably
toiling back from Scafell Pike I suppose. I bet they had spent most of
the day trudging up there for no view. I was glad we had chosen our fun
in Sour Milk Gill! |
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| GPS Track log from the walk |
Somewhere along the walk Sarah or John had
mentioned KFC. I was looking forwards to the pub but I was outvoted again!
KFC it had to be, has anyone ever seen a KFC in the Lake District? We
drove around Penrith, no. Westmorland services (Tebay), no!, Killington
Lake services, no!!, Forton services, no!!! I was going mad with hunger
by now, even the sight of the M6 with no cones, roadwork's or traffic
jams could not remove the hunger pains! We went our separate ways at
Preston, John and Sarah managed to get KFC at Skelmersdale and I had
to detour into Blackpool to get mine. It cost me a fortune as I made
the mistake of ringing home and telling them where I was going!
It had been a good day out. Bearing in mind that it was Easter weekend
the traffic was great, a great scramble up Sour Milk Gill and 4 summits.
It was just a shame that I missed my pint and pub food. Eating KFC at
9.30pm is just not the same as a pint after a walk!
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