Well, the water has warmed up nicely and even my partner Annette is getting into tarns and lakes for dips says John Hunston the Walking Mountain Leader.
I’m not a serious swimmer, but enjoy making the most of quiet, short swims, either in tarns during walks or Derwentwater in the evening. One particularly memorable dip was in Red Tarn, during a circuit of Striding and Swirral Edges from Wythburn with one of my sons.
I sometimes think this is a better way of doing it than the classic ascent of Striding Edge, followed by descending Swirral, simply because one is going against the flow and therefore unlikely to get caught in queues. In
The previous evening we had spent camping out above the Corpse Road between Grasmere and Rydal. I think I mentioned this spot in an earlier article: it’s about 100 metres higher than the main track and reached by ascending Dunney Beck to the bridge, then contouring round on a faint path that is less clear at this time of year with the bracken so high. Just after drawing level with Rydal Water, there are a few remains of industrial activity – a series of concrete buttresses, a couple of metal pipes – then a large flat area that I’m guessing covers an underground reservoir or similar. Anyway, the views are spectacular and a profusion of wild thyme provides a fragrant bedding. Harebells are particularly abundant and bird’s-foot trefoil also in evidence.
We were due to meet up with a friend of my son’s, Harrison Ward, also known to his Social Media followers as Fell Foodie, who had promised to cook. After much frantic telephoning, he eventually found us, having ascended Dunney Beck almost to the summit of Nab Scar, and scarred he was from the bracken and brambles he had to fight through!
Anyway, he got started on the chicken fajitas straight away with his amazing Biolite stove, which burns
Earlier in the month I’d taken a group up to Easedale Tarn and enjoyed a swim there. This is a lovely walk I can highly recommend as it’s easy to follow and has a beautiful tarn for swimming or just looking out over at its end. The route is signed from Grasmere and heads up the lane opposite the bookshop. Look out for a track that crosses the river by a footbridge and keep straight on up as it approaches the stream on the right. You’ll pass an infinity pool and may be tempted to cool off there, but the tarn is a little further on. On the descent, enjoy the views over Grasmere but watch where you are putting your feet – the path is rocky.
On another hot day, I headed over to Wasdale Hall Youth Hostel to work with some kids from China. The group was in England to get a feel for English culture, and had already visited Stratford Upon Avon and were due to go to Grasmere on the following day, so I talked a bit about the importance of oak trees in our history as we walked, and also asked them if they knew any of Shakespeare’s or Wordsworth’s poetry. One particularly bright girl, who had set off with a notebook and pen, knew about Charles I’s decapitation by the Roundhead’s, and also some of Shakespeare’s sonnets, so we spent a happy few minutes reciting poetry. The less cerebral members of the party were excited to see some butterwort and sundew, which catch tiny insects on their sticky leaves and ingest them.
The Youth Hostel is in a wonderful spot by Wastwater, overlooking the screes, and it so happened that a rescue was taking place in one of the gullies. This had been occasioned by a walker deciding to descend the gully, and getting surprisingly close to the bottom before calling the Wasdale team for help. He was in a particularly inaccessible spot, and they spent many hours extricating him!
Talking of which, the Keswick team has sadly been involved in two fatalities in the last month, the first a nasty fall into Cat Ghyll, by Walla Crag, the second a heart attack. These are never easy for the teams, especially as grieving relatives are usually close at hand. To go out for a pleasant day on the fells with your loved one and come back alone is something nobody wants to happen, and our thoughts go out to their families and friends.
On a happier note, we have also had successful rescues in difficult situations, the first on Great End, where a couple had mistakenly tried to climb Central Gully thinking it was Cust’s Gully and become cragfast, and the second on Raven Crag, Combe Ghyll, where a lead climber had fallen 30m from the top pitch of Corvus in deteriorating weather.
I can testify to the grim nature of the conditions that developed over the evening, but the climber is now making a good recovery after five nights in
John Hunston – the walking mountain leader
johnhunstonwalking.com
John is a member of the Keswick Mountain Rescue – you can donate to this amazing, lifesaving charity online via this link: http://keswickmrt.org.uk/donate/
