The Walk Starts

Monday morning dawned bright and showery. We (me, Mike, Val, Frank Brown and Alison Spencer) drove up to Brownrigg Farm at the base of Great Mell Fell (1760') (thought you'd like a photo - it's not that great but if you like pudding-shaped hills it's OK) and as soon as we got out of the car to put boots on, it poured down, so we were wet through before we started. After a steep trudge up through woodland we arrived at our first peak of 214 - described by some as extraordinarily ordinary, the round summit of Great Mell Fell. But it has a bit of dead tree and a cairn to add a tiny bit of interest.

After an intricate route past Brownrigg that seemed to take forever (excitement provided by two deer) we got to the second top, Little Mell Fell (1657') - marginally more interesting than its Great predecessor (because the trigpoint is set in a miniature moat) - and then set off for the day's third and final top, Gowbarrow Fell, (1579') overlooking Ullswater. We got caught in a shower and it was pretty boggy going underfoot. A herd of sheep decided we were there to feed them and followed us for a quarter of a mile before getting fed up, but not fed. A pleasant descent past Aira Falls took us back to the second car which we had parked by Ullswater, and it kindly poured down again just as we were taking our boots off.

We stayed overnight in Bowness but - apologies - the internet cafe on our site was down as all the screens had been taken away. So no blog update until now - Wednesday, 7pm. And I haven't had a shower yet, so I'm posting this, then it's a shower, steak (I hope) and a glass of wine. I'll write up the blog for days 2 & 3 on my day off tomorrow, if you don't mind. If you do mind, and in fact if anyone objects to any part of this blog, please feel free to post your complaint. The only thing is, it will not be considered unless you make a donation on the justgiving site. Thank you.