I can't believe it had been three weeks since my wild camp with Cleo on Little Hart Crag. Work has been keeping me pretty busy, but the main reason for the lack of walking is the newest member of the family. For those of you who check out my Facebook page you will know that we got an adorable Border Collie puppy a couple of weeks ago. His name is Blue, and he's 13 weeks old this Friday, we are still waiting for all of his vaccinations to be done. So until the end of the month he's confined to playing in the garden with Cleo. We are slowly building up the amount of time that he's left. So I worked out that I could manage to squeeze in a very short wild camping trip with Cleo, which meant Blue wasn't going to be left too long. After checking the weather forecasts I thought Wednesday evening was going to be promising. I was gone 6pm before we set off from Elterwater village, but it was only a shortish walk to where I was thinking about camping. We managed to make it just as the sun was starting to sink behind the Langdale Pikes, so enjoyed our suppers watching the a lovely sunset. It was a grand night, very still and warm, we got up at 3.30am and had a short moon lit walk, that was an amazing experience, haven't done it for ages. Rather than going back to sleep I had a couple of cups of coffee while waiting for the sun to rise. It was well worth the wait as it was one of those WOW ones, lots of oranges, pink and reds. All of the lakes and tarns had inversions over them which added to the early morning beauty of it all. Sadly I couldn't hang around to long, had to be back down to the car by 8.30 to get home for Little Blue. So after a quick breakfast the gear was packed and I made my way back down to Elterwater.
The very cute and lovable Blue, think he is going to be as big of a star as Tim Dawg
We weren't sure how Cleo would get on with him, but they are great pals already
I can't wait till I can introduce Little Blue to the joys of walking the fells, he's got lots to look forward to!
It was a lovely summers evening as we set off, plenty of people enjoying a drink at the pun in Elterwater
My route take me up the track on the hill straight ahead and then left along the skyline to Silver How
Looking across towards Black Crag
and back towards Elterwater village, with Wetherlam coming into view behind
when I reached Dow Bank the views over the ridge towards Fairfield opened up
another view of Black Crag with Elterwater below
Helm Crag with Steel Fell behind from a reedy pool on the ridge as I headed for Silver How
Those dark clouds over Fairfield and Red Screes looked pretty threatening but luckily they drifted off to the east
Looking down on Elterwater village and the quarries
Grasmere village with Fairfield and Seat Sandal dominating the view behind
After I gained a bit more height Grasmere and Rydal water came into, with Windermere to the right of Loughrigg Fell
The view to the north from the summit of Silver How
I had planned to camp close to hear but there were quite a few people enjoying the lovely evening sun
so we headed off to find somewhere a bit quieter
We ended up camping by the little rocky outcrop on the left of the photo, close to Lang How Tarn
The sun setting behind the Langdale Pikes as I set up camp
Right that's the tent up time for some supper
The last of the sun on the upper slopes of Wetherlam
5.30am on Thursday morning and the first hint of some colour in the morning sky
and what a sunrise it turned out to be
Pink skies over the Langdale Pikes
and over Windermere, which had an inversion along it's full length
looking down into the Langdale valley
an inversion over Elterwater
The first rays of the morning sun on the Pikes
All packed up and ready to head back down to the car
One last look along the valley towards the Crinkles and Bow Fell
I hope that you have enjoyed looking at the photograph's from this walk? If you have any questions or comments regarding them or the walk in general, please either leave a message below, or send me an email, and I will get back to you asap. Thanks Gary ...
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The previous journal entry was a wild camp on Little Hart Crag
The next journal entry was an evening stroll on Binsey
Other Lake District walks See my other 2011 journal entriesAll of the photograph's from this walk were taken using my Canon 5D MkII camera and 24-105mm L series lens
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