...last minute planning /panic

B&B's - check
Route finding - check
Car parking - check
Money for parking - cash
WiFi at B&B - check
Maps & books - check
Clothes - check
Walking gear & boots - check

..........not long now!

...D-Day approaches

This was our last training event prior to the big off - four days in the Lakes for altitude and gradient walking. We stayed in accommodation just outside Keswick and, on day one, had a pre-emptive attempt on Skiddaw. It was wet, very wet, soaking wet, and so when we got into the cloud at about a 1000ft and could see nothing we bailed out.

 

The following day we did something a little less ambitious and walked the plateau from Stonewaite to Watendlath (cafe closed due to - rain) and back. Again it was wet, this time only above the cloud not as before above and below. Waterproofs and boots tested to the extreme. It also allowed is to gauge how and what would be difficult to access in the wet i.e. cameras from stay-dry bags, and what we did /didn't need to carry.

 The next day was better for the weather - at least it only rained a little, not at all really compared to the previous days. This time we had some lakeland virgins with us so took an easy route doing High Crags and Cat Bells from Little Town and exiting down the usual 'up' path. It was like a tube station in the rush hour - bodies of all descriptions and all manner of dress everywhere - children, kids, dogs and the odd granny not to say just the odd!

 It must have been an easy day 'cos we walked to Keswick and back in the afternoon just for something to do.

On our last day we took the Lakeland virgins off to do the Buttermere circuit. What a lovely day - finishing of with a nice hot brew in Buttermere. Crowds were a minimum, views were wonderful, weather was kind and it was nice to be out for a stroll doing nothing other than passing the time. I expect the swimmers in the lake had a good day too.

training...

No big events, just lots and lots of 'get out and walk' jobbies. Some of us even ran a little bit!

more trainin...

This time we went for distance to try and gauge our mph. We undertaken a 14 miles stretch of the Llangollen canal around Ellesmere. Snow was still on the ground in places, but it didnt feel like it with the calories we were burning off.
We took lunch, but made such good time we were back home again to eat it. We did the 14 miles in just on four hours - which is a rate of around 3.5miles an hour. We were pushing it, and it was on the flat, so the message is 1) we can do that sort of mileage with ease 2) blister count was low 3) we know we can produce this turn of speed if required.



Again, amazing what you see out and about.

(missing off the g was deliberate)

training April

Following the Potter we next did a day of walking part, not all, of the Sandstone Trail. Really it was just a case of getting out and re-stretching the legs with the sole purpose of trying to get a few more miles in the legs.

What you can't see here is just how windy a day it was - in some places a howling hoolie. Spring was just about starting - a few chiffchaff were about, lapwing were in the fields, and wood anenome's a violets were flowering.

A one point we were walking alongside a water drainage ditch recently cleared. In amongst the debris was the biggest horse-shoe seen to date. I took it home thinking /hoping it was from some long-gone Suffolk punch working the fields.

 It's amazing what else you see in out of the way places.