After a week or so at home, finally took the holiday on the road - headed up to my old stomping grounds in the Lake District, where we caught up with a friend from my YHA days, and took a bit of a walk . . .
We set off from Keswick on one of the hottest, most humid days of the year, to climb
Walla Crag - and somewhere along the way the decision was taken to detour to
Castlerigg Stone Circle (which mis-reading a signpost we thought was only half a mile away - ha ha!).
We then had to retrace our steps, before heading up Walla Crag itself - it isn't a long walk, but quite steep, and in the heat I found it rather hard going (Martin of course scampered up like the eponymous mountain goat!). At least there were some good, if rather misty, views from the top!
From there it was down to Ashness Bridge. By which time, in the heat, and given my state of limited fitness, I was flagging a bit.
The cold water was just too tempting, and I soon had my boots and socks off - absolute bliss!
Had to get going again though, and from there made it to Shepherd's Caff in Borrowdale for a much needed drink and an ice lolly (couldn't face a cake), before being persuaded to continue the trek round the lake.
It was probably a mistake - by the time we got back to Keswick my step counter was showing over 35,000 steps and boy could I tell. Martin was in a much better way but being driven mad by a squeaky boot. So while I staggered off to the
Pheasant Inn to bag a table, he went further into town to change his boots!
Refreshed with cider, and a very tasty dinner of beef pie and chips, was able to make it back to the B&B in relatively more comfort (even stopping to check out the flood damage at Keswick YHA along the way).
A good day in the end - need to get myself a bit fitter before tackling anything like this again though:
