24 km 1,010 m ascent Map
The country to the north of the Lakes around Calbeck is the home of John Peel of “Do you ken John Peel with his coat so gay…” fame. I spent the day walking the Caldbeck fells.
These hills are the Northern End of the Lakes. There is flat ground around here!
It was a steep climb to the first summit
It is amazing to think that there was a fort up here in ancient times. They didn’t have goretex in those days. Life must have been very hard.
The hills are definitely rounded
As I was walking along this ridge I spotted some sheep running across the hillside. It struck me that they were moving fast. Something must be chasing them. Then I realised that it was a pack of foxhounds running across the ground. They were well controlled by someone on a quad bike and he called to them and off they sped away from me and over the brow of the hill. Somehow it seemed appropriate to see foxhounds in the land of John Peel.
The next summit had a stone bench with a commemoration to a 16 year old who died in 1944.It is most unusual to see a stone bench. I wondered how they transported it up here.
I was lucky that these hills stayed cloud free most of the time. Glimpses of distant Bassenthwaite appeared
But the higher peak of Skiddaw remained firmly in the mist
I have often looked at footpaths and realised that humans seem to be unable to walk in a straight line. Look how this path wanders around
Just for a moment there was a patch of sunlight and the colours of the hillside became more vivid
The last bit of the ridge walk was up to the summit of Great Calva. The clouds had descended and I was almost at the summit before I saw it.
I descended into the valley of Mosedale and there was a long walk back to my starting point
It took me a while walking through the bare hills. There are no walls, no trees, just grass and bracken on what felt like bald slopes. Somehow to my mind they didn’t look ‘right’.
There is talk of snow on the hills tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
