Blencathra

The weather forecast said it would be cooler this weekend, which as far as I am concerned is much better weather to be having than that of late and we decided to head out onto the hills of the Lake District. On Saturday we walked up Blencathra (868m) and down the other side (10.5miles) and then to the pub for tea. It most certainly was colder, hood and even gloves were required at the top.
















On the way back, we passed a field with some llamas.
















Posing for the camera: llamas know they're cute.

Out and About

Last weekend was amazing. After the previous weekend of knackering myself out and having campsite issues I had declared that we were staying in and avoiding people. However, on Thursday night we wandered up to our local for dinner and a few pints and both confessed that we'd been thinking how nice it would be to go camping and that we ought to get back on that horse.

So we decided on the North Lakes as it would hopefully be a little quieter than the central area around Ambleside and picked a campsite that was new to us having been told that they weren't full but we would be 'up on the hill'. Up on the hill is a very accurate description. There was a small carpark, a toilet block and a few statics there - and a flat area the size of a postage stamp with dozens of caravans and big tents crammed on. The rest of the site would have been enormous had it been stretched out and laid out flat, but as it was a one in two slope with a few little flat ledges dotted around there was actually only about 6 or 7 decent pitches in the entire place. We could have pitched up near to someone else's space as theoretically there was room, but given that I would have had a hissy fit if someone had done that to me and it was still early evening, we decided to try our luck elsewhere.

Luckily, our Good Lucky Fairy had decided to join us for the weekend and we found a dead nice (and quiet) campsite that isn't on the map. It was by a river and on both evenings we got to see lots of bats flying around unbelieveably close to us. There were also some ducks, chickens, some cute little dogs and a big dog that cocked his leg on our tent but I screeched at him so he ran away, but the bats were by far the most interesting.
We had a lovely walk (about 10 miles) on Saturday around Derwentwater and back over Catbells (451m), a dead nice pub that served cheap beer and scrummy food and on Sunday I purchased lots of shiny new kit. Including a new spork for my collection!


Buy that Luck Fairy a beer!

Bank Holiday Weekend

Wales had been calling to me lately. So we went. Unfortunately we went on a Bank Holiday weekend. But it wasn't all bad. We had nice evening at the Stables in Betws-Y-Coed under their umbrellas, which had heaters during the warm afternoon and then switched off as the evening turned cooler, I got pushed out of my seat by a Norwegian but the scampi was nice and the beer went down well.

It was quite amazing on Saturday to see the hoardes of walkers getting off the buses at Pen-Y-Pass to go up Snowdon. There were people everywhere. Thankfully we were going the other way, to walk from Nant Gywnant back to Betws (15.5 miles) over Moel Siabod (872m) - in other words, bloody knackering.
















Looking back towards Llyn Gwynant with Snowdon topped in cloud in the distance. Just imagining the crowds at the top makes me shudder. We saw seven people all day while out on the tops, a family of three in the distance, a couple of blokes who were ahead of us during the slog up Moel Siabod and a (french?) couple who asked us to take a photo of them at the top.
















A bog! This just about sums up most of the first half of the walk.












And a welsh windswept sheep.

We tried a new campsite, which I think would be ok at any time other than a Bank Holiday, but then at any other time, the Riverside would be a little quieter too (I was quite surprised that there were any spaces left when we arrived on Saturday afternoon) and it's a much nicer site, so I don't know that we'll ever use this one again. The 'Site Full' sign went up on Saturday evening and the number of people on site was reasonable, but we ended up coming home early because of ignorant, rude people who arrived on Sunday, having no idea about being considerate towards others and put their tent up between our car and tent where there wasn't even enough space for them to pitch their tent straight, let alone put any guys in. I feel that we kind of let them win by leaving, but I really didn't want to spend the night knowing they were within 3 feet of me. So Rob drove us home and I slept till 10am in my own bed. Hurrah!

Holiday reminiscing (Dolomites)

In between all this knitting there have been a couple of holidays.
We went snow shoeing in the Dolomites in March which was great, although it was knackering and the flight times were slightly inconvenient.The pic below was taken on the last walking day, up on a plateau which was the scene of fighting during WW2. We were warned to not stray from the path for fear of falling in trenches! Rob is one of those little trugers... I was lagging behind to take the photo!

Llyn Crafnant

Here are some pictures of the walk we did at the weekend from Betws-Y-Coed, up to Llyn Crafnant (14.7 miles). It was a good day for walking - although boggy. Very boggy. Very very boggy.

Moel Siabod across the valley.






















Toadstools. Do not eat.


















Llyn Bychan




















Clean looking sheep up on Creigiau Gleision (678m).




















Rainbow (and rapidly approaching dark) on the way back to the car.

High Raise

Camped at Great Langdale National Trust site this weekend and walked up High Raise (762m) - pretty windy up on the tops, but no rain. Nice autumn colours and a chilly morning. Fabulous.

















The hills are alive, with the sound of bleating. And some horns too, this weekend. Hopefully Mr Beagle found his way home. Here is a sheep doing his Gandalf at Helm's Deep impersonation.



























More sheep than you can shake a stick at - but you shouldn't go around shaking sticks at sheep, because it isn't nice.

And in a radical departure for the Sheep Trods website, we have a bird. Of that much I'm pretty confident. It has wings and a beak and it's not a robin or a duck.

Pembrokeshire

We got back from our holiday to Pembrokeshire on Saturday after a lovely week by the coast. It was slightly spoiled by me getting a stinky cold, but if that's the worst thing that happens to me this month, then it's not so bad.

Took loads of holiday snaps of our walks along the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, which is a National Trail over 150 miles long. I think we managed about 30 miles all week, but it was meant to be a holiday so there was no expectation to ever do more than a bit of it. The parts of the coastline we saw from Newgale up to Whitesands around St David's Head were beautiful and there were seals, birds, animals and many plants also.

The first evening at Trelerw... a promising start :)

Walking around St David' s Head
Sheepses on Dinas Head
Seals spotted in Ramsey Sound
Newgale Beach


Walking from Solva to Newgale Beach (the next day - these are in some sort of order!)