I'd hummed and hahhed about whether I was fit enough to do a walk of this magnitude and when I got up on the Saturday morning and checked out the weather forecast decided I wasn't going to do it!
My BFF (Brenda) and her family were staying in Mountain Cottage in Stair in the Newlands Valley so I would be driving there from our lovely static caravan at Whitegate Caravan Park near Appleby to walk the Coledlale Horseshoe with them starting at the cottage. I texted Brenda to say I wouldn't be doing it because I thought a) the weather would be too bad and 2) I wasn't fit enough to do 9 miles up these big mountains. So, miserably I sat and had my breakfast and after feeling sorry for myself, gave myself a good talking to and told myself not to be such a defeatist and text her back to say I'd changed my mind but would we be able to cut it a little but shorter to say 7 ish miles and she replied saying yes as there were plenty of "escape routes" along the way. So, without further ado I packed my rucky, loaded the Heidster in the car and off we jolly well went.
We started the walk from Mountain Cottage and picked up the right path easily and from then on it was up, up, up and up! The first summit we would reach would be Causey Pike 637 m (2090 ft). As we started off it was very cloudy and a bit drizzly so we put waterproofs on because, according to the BBC weather app, it was going to be light rain most of the morning with heavy rain at 12 o'clock. I'm happy to report that the BBC got it wrong and the early light drizzle stopped almost straight away and the clouds parted and the sun started to shine, making it a very very nice day to walk.
The path up was easily distinguishable and as you can imagine, the higher we went the better the views became. We ascended steadily across the northern slopes of Rowling End reaching the rocky summit of Causey Pike
We started the walk from Mountain Cottage and picked up the right path easily and from then on it was up, up, up and up! The first summit we would reach would be Causey Pike 637 m (2090 ft). As we started off it was very cloudy and a bit drizzly so we put waterproofs on because, according to the BBC weather app, it was going to be light rain most of the morning with heavy rain at 12 o'clock. I'm happy to report that the BBC got it wrong and the early light drizzle stopped almost straight away and the clouds parted and the sun started to shine, making it a very very nice day to walk.
Short bimble along the road from Stair to the start of the walk
The path up was easily distinguishable and as you can imagine, the higher we went the better the views became. We ascended steadily across the northern slopes of Rowling End reaching the rocky summit of Causey Pike
