Another Guided walk…

While in the Lake District we met up with Paddy Dillon , the writer of over forty walking guidebooks, including the GR20 one we used while out in Corsica.misc_102107_006

He gave us a guided walk around his home town and pointed out where the Cumbria way starts, this is a 70 mile long distance walk from Ulverston to Carlisle.

According to Paddy most walkers have trouble finding the starting point and walk past his house a few times until he points them in the right direction.

We spent hours chatting, while taking a look at most of his guidebooks including his new one, The National trails of England Scotland and Wales.

This book is too big too use as an actual guidebook but is a must for any keen walkers book shelf. paddy

It was interesting to learn that Paddy takes all his own photos for his guidebooks, and kit weight before adding any walking stuff is 3kg.

He spends 5 to 6 months a year walking and the rest writing up the Guidebooks.

A very interesting few hours spent with a very interesting man….

Up the Old man…

Sunday saw us setting of for Coniston.

Where we walked up to the Old man of Coniston then on to Dow crag, and Brown pike before coming back down along Walna Scar Road.

It was another misty day at the top so no good views although it did clear for a few seconds every now and again just to tease us….

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So a great week-end away and three fantastic walks……

Striding Edge

We woke to glorious sunshine today, a perfect autumn walking day.

So it was not long before we set off to Patterdale, to walk up to Helv029ellyn and Striding edge.

We went up by St Sunday crag, ignoring the mad geordie who told us we should go up the pinnacle…..

we did speak to a couple of guys who had come up that way and they said it was HARD.

We carried on past Grisedale Tarn and Dollywagon  pike finally arriving at Helvellyn.


 Although there was a lot of people at the top of Helvellyn we were never caught up in any big walking crowds going up or down.

When we tackled striding edge, we didn’t take the path but went straight along the top which needed a lot of concentration!! 036

  

 

 On the way home I even managed to go and do some shopping at The Lakeland shop so that was a great way to end a perfect day.

Fairfield Horseshoe…

Well I just could not stay away from my blog…. so my laptop came to Kendal with me and George has a great broadband connection.

After a 5 hour journey we finally arrived in Kendal,I was glad to be here and Geoff’s friends,who he’s known since he was 16, George and Jackie are very nicefairfield and have made me feel very welcome.

It was not long before George and Geoff were sorting a walking route out for today,plotting the route on memory map and downloading it to the GPS.

After a good nights sleep and a kipper for breakfast we set off for Ambleside. 

Where we walked the Fairfield horseshoe, it was a brilliant walk which included a little bit of scrambling. GetAttachment.aspxThe weather started off quite well but by the time we got to the top it was cold windy and foggy, so no fantastic views today.

We didn’t hang around long and made our way back down to the tea shop at Rydal Hall where we enjoyed  Tea and cake, while admiring some creative textiles pictures by Dianne Standen.

It was then a short walk back to Ambleside and a quick look around the shops and a special house……..