Helvellyn

We decided to go camping in the Lake District this weekend, to get us out of the house, try out the new tent and do some walking. We were shocked to discover our newly found ‘quiet’ campsite was full! It’s not the biggest place in the world and these days tents seem to be huge palatial mansions – well, other people’s tents do anyway, if our current trend in tent purchasing continues we’ll be in bivvy bags next. So there was 20 minutes or so mild panic while we tried other sites. Thankfully the Bridge End Farm site had opened up another field for the summer season so there was plenty of room there - if quite a long walk to the shower block!

Saturday we walked up Helvellyn (950m), via Stake Pass and Lower Man.




























Some sheepses enjoying the summer.









Not many takers for the ski lifts!







The weather was hazy and pretty warm, quite windy at the top, with gusts up to 31.5mph that we measured and it started raining while we were coming back down to Thirlmere, but we were mostly under the trees at this point so it wasn’t too bad. Arrived back at site just in time to enjoy the final moments of the England cricket team whooping Pakistan and then we went for tea down the pub.

On Sunday we did some shopping in Keswick – bought some Smartwool merino socks and insect bite cream (!) and had brunch in the Wild Strawberry Café which was very nice.