King of the Castle

I thought today was going to be classed as exercise in the rain. 

Well, it was definitely exercise in the rain but it’s also been a magnificent outing and that’s the bit that was a lovely surprise. 

It’s such a long time since I’ve been up here, I’d forgotten the feeling you get when you start along a path that’s quintessential Lakeland. 

The quantity of water pouring off the hills was astonishing and was the purist of whites against the dark and muted autumnal mountainsides. We walked alongside some of the fast flowing becks and the energy was palpable. Quite a lot of the paths had turned to streams themselves, deep in places but we picked our way through and round. We soon realised a circuit wasn’t going to be possible as the River Derwent had already flooded our path on the east side.

I was hoping to see Millican Dalton’s cave but that’ll wait for another time. There was, however, still a surprising amount to see as, although the rain was teeming in sheets across the valley, the cloud base was surprisingly high. It’s an amazing little walk packing a punch in terms of variety of scenes from twisted hawthorns and colossal boulders to aged woodland and rushing becks. Apart from a couple of short sections with blasts from the gale blowing, we stayed sheltered from it.

The slate underfoot at the top gave a mini-mountain feel and we stopped plenty of times to take it all in. The number of times I couldn’t resist pulling my camera out of its double protection is testament to the stunning scenery despite the weather. 

The other bonus was that for such a popular outing, we didn’t see many people at all and had the top and, unbelievably, view, to ourselves.

To be able to share all of that with my dad, the person who instilled in me a love of The Lakes and all things outdoors, well, that’s something else.

The road to Rosthwaite already looked flooded as we looked down from near the top (extra) with another 24 hours of solid rainfall still to come.

The beauty of a mini-mountain adventure is that you can spend the rest of the afternoon enjoying chilling out before dinner. We’re meeting at the same time and I’m looking forward to another delicious meal, enjoyable conversation and the best of company.