Day 3 – Back to normality in Swindale

Four Far Eastern Fells were on the menu today, in remote Swindale. Ian Hardy and Gerry Bindless had arranged to meet us in Shap before the interesting drive along narrow roads up to Swindale Head. With a few patches of blue in the sky we wondered whether our luck with the weather would hold, but the strong wind suggested otherwise, and after the stiff climb up the Old Corpse Road on to the fell top, the skies got greyer and greyer, and the clouds got lower and lower. Things weren’t too bad at the very windy top of Selside Pike (2142’) but by the time we arrived at the summit of Branstree (2333’) we were in the zone where you can’t tell the difference between rain and cloud, the wind was blowing and, with no views at all, the only thoughts were to keeing going and getting it over with!

From Branstree almost the whole of the rest of the walk was over wet marshy ground and peat hags. A long drop meant an equally long climb to the top of Tarn Crag (2176’) followed by a gently fall and rise back up to Grey Crag (2093’) where visibility was almost zero and both cameras decided they’d had enough. Not that there was anything to see!

It was a long long walk back to Swindale Head, on a compass bearing at first, then through a sea of long brown grass that must be so low in nutritional value that even the sheep don’t bother eating it. Where Mosedale Beck meets Little Mosedale the land, though quite elevated, is flat and seems to go on for ages, and although the quoted mileage for the day was only eleven, it felt much longer. With the boggy going we agreed it had been a harder day than expected. So now a day off, recharge the batteries, check the weather forecast (not sure why..) before resuming on Friday.