The Howgills

A nice surprise - a fine weather window on a Saturday.  Not quite the unbroken sunshine we were led to believe but dry.

I parked at the Cross Keys lay by at 10am.  It only has room for about eight cars but there was plenty of room at 10 in the morning. 

The start of my walk took me through the sheep farm where there was plenty of activity going on at this time of year.  I kept Shadow on the lead for the first 30 minutes till we were clear of the sheep.

 Most people just walk up the track to the foot of the waterfall Cautley Spout.

Bottom of Cautley Spout - Pass me a hanky Dad!

Once past the waterfall it was a steep 600 feet climb up the side of Yarlside.  Shadow was most confused by my zigzagging ascent as he is used to walking on footpaths.

The summit of Yarlside is marked by a small cairn.  This was Shadow's first mountain (i.e. over 2000 feet).

Yarlside - Shadow's first mountain - my 279th.

Next up was Kensgriff.  Care had to be taken not to take the direct route as there are some steep scree slopes coming off Yarlside but visibility was good so navigation easy today.

Kensgriff ahead with Randygill Top behind.

Kensgriff - not reaching 2000feet and therefore not classed as a mountain.

The second 'mountain' of the day was Randygill Top (624 meters), the summit again marked with a small rocky cairn.  This again was reached by a steep pull up a grassy flank.

Shadow's second mountain - Randygill Top

I visited the nearby geocache and grabbed the Excalibur geocoin that had been in the cache since last July.  On looking at it closely I see that the name Gareth is obviously an Arthurian legend name - I never knew that.

Shadow taking a break and guarding the Geocache site

2003 Space Odyssey geocache

Excalibur geocoin

The walk now got gentler - a stroll along the ridge to the trig point on top of Green Bell, passing the only other walkers I saw all day. 

The trig point on top of Green Bell

Time for lunch but it was pretty blowy and cold on the summit so I descended the valley and ate before climbing the last hill of the day, Wandale Hill.  Its marked as 497 meters but my GPS was reading 500 meters at ground lever - I wonder if it makes it a 'Dewey' as well as a HuMP.

A break in the cloud - in a far away valley

It was a beautiful end to the day descending via fields and crossing streams.  The Cross Keys pub serves afternoon tea.  What better place to sit and admire the mountains and the birds that come to feed on the nuts

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Fine views with coffee in the Cross Keys

A full collection of my photos of England and Wales mountain tops can be found: Flickr Photo album

London Road Cemetery

I was out walking the dog and looking for Pirate Smurf's Treasure Chest

Found half of it and am just waiting for the second part to become available.

I wandered through London Road Cemetery which was more full of dog walkers than mourners.  It's well worth a visit, designed by the landscape designer Joseph Paxton full of impressive trees.

 

Oslo

Back to Oslo again, this time on business but with just a few hours spare to see the city.  I was expecting clear blue skies but no, it was grey, foggy and slushy.

An ice sculpted family

Back to an old haunt and somewhere to warm up.

The city was crowded with people visiting the winter world championships.  Judging by the TV pictures I saw, the spectators at the top of the ski jump could not see the competitors land at the bottom.

Even time for a bit of caching with fellow cacher Durham2006