King of the Castle (Crag)

During the Easter holidays and our trip to Northumberland to stay with CBC's parents, we FINALLY had the opportunity to go out to the lakes.  WOMOTM (Wise old man of the mountain- for anyone who didn't know his pseudonym), CBC's dad, loves going to the lakes, as do we, and we've had extraordinarily bad luck in the weather stakes when we have been up to Northumberland in the last couple of years and haven't had a good lake walk for ages.  Luckily, after a bad morning of rain and a search in Keswick for a raincoat for CBC, J, CBC's Mum, drove us to Borrowdale later in the afternoon, where we parked, ready for a nice shortish walk up Castle Crag.  The weather was great- not to hot or cold and with no rain.  We left J, who didn't have walking boots, to walk along a path to the begin the journey.  A mild confusion over route left us walking through a camping site but we found the river and then began in earnest.


CBC and WOMOTM below- CBC In his new walking coat!



AS we walked along, enjoying the fresh, beautiful Lake-air, we saw lots of beautiful examples of nature at her best.
This strange tree reminded me of some sort of strange crab monster!

There was a great rockface that had this beautiful streak of colour in it. Already featured in my Photo Scavenger Hunt post.

As we ventured upwards, the path was very gentle.  We passed this slope of slates which reminded me of our holiday in the Pyrenees where I had to walk along something like this and was terrified!  Who could have told that this was a portent of what was to come?!

The journey continued...

We reached this sty and I was rather silly and decided I would take the hole to the left rather than the proper one and almost got stuck, I got muddy knees as my reward!

Finally the gradient started to hike and we headed upwards on this meandering path.  There's WOMOTM below.

Just as I was thinking this was a wonderful, easy, pleasant walk, we reached SLATE mountain!!! I gazed aghast at this and said, "We have to climb THAT????"  Er- how?!?!


Luckily, there was a path- a path wasn't too bad, though I really dislike walking on rocking slates!

CBC zoomed up pretty soon and I followed, somewhat more apprehensively.


There were some pretty amazing views of Borrowdale from these heights.





Everntually we reached the top and found this weird section which seemed like a slate grave yard with all these tombstone like uprights! It was most odd!

WOMOTM is always game for a photo! He takes amazing ones of the Lake adventures!



At the top,we found all these slate constructions which I gleefully climbed into and pretended I was in the bath for AGES whilst waiting for WOMOTM in hope someone would take a comedy photo! CBC thinks they are sheep pens.





At the top- CBC is victorious!

The view again. I've never actually been to the lake here- I'd like to! Maybe take a boat trip too.

It was all going so well until it was time to climb down.  WOMOTM had planned a circular route but the way down was SO much worse than the way up which had at least had clearly a clearly defined.  The way down was a case of find your own way down the slates which kept slipping and rocking under my feet. I find it really hard to judge distance and angle and so was like an arthritic 80 might be, climbing down tentatively

CBC and WOMOTM zoomed ahead and I sulked in the rear and said a myriad prayers for salvation!

Eventually, we made it back to flat ground and wandered along until we found this cave!

It was most exciting!


Finally, we went back to the car where we found Joan and headed back to Haltwhistle!

I really enjoyed this short walk, but for the menace of Slate mountain!!!!

Have you ever climbed Castle Crag?