An early start today as we were off to climb Hallin Fell at Ullswater in the Lake District. I’d tried to climb this the last time I stayed in the Lake District, but I took a wrong path and didn’t think I could scramble up the last bit it was so sheer. And I don’t generally do big hills anyway, but I wanted to do Hallin Fell.
By the time we’d made a picnic, got ready and drove there – via the fast route along a really pretty section of the M6 – it was already midday. And the hottest day of the year so far, apparently.
We would have normally caught the Ullswater Steamer from Glenridding to Howtown. But because it was already quite late, and already very hot (and with no shelter up there), we thought it might be better to drive up to Martindale and climb the rest of the hill from there. Hopefully we’d get back to Pooley Bridge in time to catch the last round trip around the lake at 3:20pm. So I directed the poet back around the lake, through Pooley Bridge and up the zig-zag alpinesque narrow lane to the church at Martindale.
I’d put sun cream on and we donned our sunhats and sunglasses, and off we went, with the dog pulling me up the hard bits on his lead by one hand and the boyfriend pulling me up by the other. (They both must love me very much.) I have to say that had the poet not been more than prepared to stop every ten paces or so to give me a breather, we might not have made it up to the top this time either. And he made me do that final scramble up the sheer face of the fell too. But we did it.
Ian added a stone to the cairn on the top for the both of us, we caught our breath, took some photographs, and had our picnic – the dog too. We were both very proud that I’d made it this time and he was quite proud of his motivational skills.
At the top of Hallin Fell I finally had a signal on my mobile phone, so we took the selfie and posted it to FB before the signal went again. We also tried to call my parents, but they were having a heatwave too and had gone out.
Then it was time to head back down Hallin Fell to the car, and then drive back down to Pooley Bridge to catch the steamer. But while it was much quicker going downhill, by the time we’d parked up and walked along the road to the pier it was already 3:20pm and we were too late … but the girl in the office radioed the boat, and they held the departure for us.
Rufus wasn’t very sure about his first ever boat ride, but he soon settled and just needed to get used to so many people, and so many little people, all in one place. And then there were two other dogs on board as well.
Our first stop was at Howtown, where a couple of people got off and a few people got on. Our next stop was Glenridding, where we were able to leave the boat for a few minutes, have something to eat and drink, and use the facilities. Then it was back at 4:45pm to catch the boat back the way we had come. Going, we had to sit indoors and it was a bit warm and stuffy. Coming back we were outside, at the front of the boat, in glorious sunshine, but we could also enjoy a breeze while we added to our ever-growing photo collection.
We arrived back at Pooley Bridge at 5:45pm and we arrived back at the cottage an hour later.
The poet cooked us chicken breasts stuffed with sausage meat and cheese for tea, and we settled down to await the forecast thunderstorm. Yesterday the poet had drawn two of the birds we’ve seen, a wheatear and a meadow pipit. This evening he drew another, a stonechat, while tea cooked.
Enjoy the pictures.
