Walk 129…. sunny and bright in Easdale

Easdale Tarn, Tarn Crag, and a couple of swimmers

Anyone in Britain is clearly aware that we’re in a sunny and very warm spell at the moment — the weather at the end of May is often nice, so it’s not exactly unusual, but no one is complaining.

Good enough to certainly get me out on walk 129 in preference to sitting in my house marking student essays, that’s for certain. The walk saw me revisit a trio of summits that horseshoe around the valley of Easdale: Blea Rigg, Sergeant Man and Tarn Crag. Not the most dramatic walk perhaps but a very interesting one, with plenty to see, including my fifth sighting of some wild deer (see picture here) on Tarn Crag. See the walk 129 page for all the details and more photos.

Deer on Tarn Crag, watching me watching them…

The photos are full of blue and green… these were the dominant colours of the day. A breeze on the tops made the conditions tolerable in the end. So yes, a good day’s walking for sure.

As of today then I have done 103 of the Wainwrights in my second round and have 227 to go. I hope to get another walk in before we reach the middle of June. In the meantime read about yesterday’s hike, and see more photos, on the walk 129 page if you like.

Centenary reached on the second round: Great Gable

The view of Wasdale from near the summit of Great Gable

One of the points of doing a second round was to reacquaint myself with those fells which, for whatever reason — usually bad weather — I didn’t feel I did justice to the first time round. Great Gable was definitely one of those, having been first bagged in really foul weather in July 2012 (walk 60b, which I still say was the worst single day’s walking I’ve done on this project).

It was thus a great pleasure to return to it yesterday, May 2nd, on walk 128 which took place on a far nicer, springlike day. I came up from Seathwaite, perhaps not the most dramatic of possible routes up this noble fell, but it was still a fine walk with plenty of drama and excellent views. It also saw my first ever visit to Sty Head, a major walkers’ crossroads in Lakeland. Read more about it, with the usual crop of additional photos, on the walk 128 page.

Spring in the Seathwaite valley, looking up Grains Gill (walk 128)

Great Gable was fell number 100 of my second round: so I have 220 to go. May’s shaping up to be a good month to get some more walking in, particularly if the good weather holds, so I hope to do my next walk before too long. Where will I do this? Who knows yet? That’s the good thing — I’ve still got more than two-thirds of the district to do again.