Sunday was our last full day, so we wanted a full-size walk again. On the other hand we were a little bit tired after the previous day’s walking – both of us somewhat out of shape, not having had much exercise in the past couple of weeks – so we didn’t feel up to anything too ambitious. Eric didn’t want any too steep descents as his knees were bothering him a bit. The walk up to Dale Head and Robinson (Duerden #19) seemed like a good compromise: two little peaks and lots of easy ridge walking, totalling 12 km and 860m ascent. Most of the walk can be seen on the map here.

The first quarter or so of the walk, starting in Little Town, was a nice and easy flat bit in a valley between two ridges. Then came the ascent, all concentrated into one long and steady, but not too strenuous uphill march. During the ascent the wind grew in strength, as we came out of the protected valley. When we reached Dale Head the wind was absolutely ferocious – we covered every bit of exposed skin except our faces to try and protect ourselves, and had to lean hard into the wind to stay upright. Our hoped-for lunch break near the top with beatiful views was cut very short because the wind was just too cold. There were even a few patches of snow up there, even though it wasn’t a particularly tall hill. In fact the top of Dale Head, the highest point during the walk, was by far the least enjoyable moment. But the views were impressive. The ridge walk from Dale Head to Robinson was a lot less windy, more sunny and more comfortable. The ground went from rocky to grassy, and was very pleasantly bouncy-soft to walk on. This continued all the way along the rest of the ridges, even though the wind picked up again occasionally.

Monday morning was rainy. This probably wouldn’t have stopped us if it had been our first day, but after two full days we were not as eager to walk any more, so we abandoned our initial plans for a shorter walk and just went for a drive: first up to Keswick, and then the loop along B5289 past Derwent Water, Buttermere and Crummock water. This passed just south of where we had walked on Sunday, giving us a different perspective of the hills we’d walked on, as well as of the views we’d had from up there. We stopped at the highest point of Honister Pass, just below the hills, to take a few pictures, and were again almost blown off our feet by the freezing wind, and hurried back into the car as soon as we’d snapped our photos.


Photos will have to wait a week or so, as I’m about to leave for New York to spend the week in our NY office.