Another interesting Mountaineering Club weekend, due to the weather mainly which if people have been out and about know that it is currently disgusting!!!!!
The trip down began rather uneventfully, a few new faces which was quite refreshing as new people keep popping up through out the months and keeps me on my toes. We travelled down in a mob of two cars and a van arriving at the White Horse Inn around dinnertime settling into our stable accommodation for the weekend. No I'm not kidding the bunkhouse is converted stables which I thought was quaint and awesome and proved nice and snug.
We settled in and headed down to the pub naturally and began our laugh of a weekend (as I assumed the weather would restrict us activity wise). Bear met us there, fire heated Lake District pub his natural setting and chatted about the weekend. Being an old person I retired early ensuring people knew the time I wanted them up, there was no way I was going around and waking people up again, I felt a bit mean doing it last time.
We went off to bed and prepared for the coming morning and the predicted torrential rain.....
SATURDAY- SCAFELL PIKE
The day began really well everyone was up and raring to go which made me feel better because I hate waiting around for people so it was great we were able to hit the ground running.
We drove through Keswick and traversed Derwent water ending up at Seathwaite Farm to park up and get ready, the rain was hammering so getting out of the car took quite a bit of effort, however once I was out with wet feet (my shoes regrettably have holes) there wasn't much hope of staying dry. We gathered up and set off following Bear along the path up past the falls and up into the hills. The whole time the clouds were down so visibility were poor, and the rain was falling with a vengeance from the skies. The walk itself I felt was really good, a really gradual incline and the few breaks in the cloud we had were excellent views and there was a mix of path and scrambly rocky sections. We followed the corridor route and it really surprised me at one point because we came around a corner and there was a huge gorge in front of us that seemed very steep with water falling down into it which I'm assuming is a relic of the glacier and crevasse dashed history of the Lake District (don't laugh I'm not a geologist).
We tramped in the wind across the plateau to the summit of Scafell Pike and took hasty photos on the top and quickly walked off again as the wind was strong and blowing us over. I think the photo shows wonderfully how water-logged we all are and blasted by the wind.
We scurried away from the summit and down the slopes back to the path, heading back to Seathwaite Farm with an aim of getting back for dinner, this thought burned in my head on the way down as we had been dangerous and began talking about juicy Cumberland sausages and creamy mashed potato with proper gravy mmmmmmm.
The others were weird and opted for generic fish and chips whilst Saffie and I headed to the White Horse for food and showers which were heavenly after a soggy day, the food was everything we hoped (although my mash was slightly lumpy, devil is in the detail). When everyone was back and showered as I'm sure we stank of wet dog we all had a drink in the pub and then it was back to our warm cosy beds.
SUNDAY- POOLEY BRIDGE
Sunday morning and people were noticeably more sluggish getting out of bed which I think had something to with some alcohol consumption, however we got everyone moving and paced and back into the cars. Bear had decided to go up to Pooley Bridge and do a flat walk with a focus on navigation because of the rain, wind and cold temperatures forecast. We got there and off out we went the walk was quite good. We were on a path going through flat boggy ground with great views of the mountains around Ullswater. We walked to several peculiar holes in the ground which looked almost as if a bomb had dropped there; however Bear informed us there were actually primitive house whereby people had dug the holes in pre-neolithic times I think he said placed log beams inside to hold up a roof. I found this interesting but the rest of the group looked quite cold and wet (of course it was still raining) so after a bit more walking around it was back to the cars and back home.
