Castlerigg to Seathwaite with Fergus

This will be my first blog entry. I have started up this blog now as I will hopefully be doing a lot of fell walking in the summer holidays and will be going with my Mum and Dad to the Picos De Europa in spain where I intend to spend a lot of time climbing mountains while there sightseeing in the valleys and towns.

Each time I have wild camped I have done it alone but it makes sense that I should start with this post,  as  this time I went with Fergus, who is a close friend of mine. When I think about it he took me up my first fell 'Dufton Pike' and since then I have got even more in to fell walking then he is.  Fergus has lived most of his life in Dufton, a beautiful Village in Cumbria right next to the pennines. Although he has now moved to the nearest town, Appleby,  he has still managed to carry on exploring the pennines and I envy his competence to find his way around the area, usually only using his local knowledge. Many times I have joined him and we have both had a lot of good times together, that we often reflect on in a jokey manner.

We started off at Castlerigg just outside of Keswick at about 11am. This was Fergus' first wild camp in the Lake District, and our first fell of the day, Bleaberry fell, was a good sample of the hard work involved in carrying an expedition backpack over this kind of terrain. We were at High Raise in good time and we both stopped for a bit of lunch. I realised I had been a bit grumpy with Ferg for innocently speaking non stop, while I was trying to find our way on the map. I apologised to him for being so grumpy and we then cheerfully moaned together about other kids in our school, one involving a girl who packed a hair straightener on a Duke of Edinburgh expedition!

We then squelched our way through peat bog, talking about the tactics Bear Grylls uses for getting out of it if you get stuck. After handrailing along a fence we arrived at Watendlath tarn (pictured on the right). We both looked at the fishermen out on a boat in the middle of the tarn with a slight envious feeling, but our tales of previous attempts at fishing soon reminded us we were better off walking. We had a break at Dock tarn before joining up with the Cumbrian Way. We followed the trail along Stonethwaite becoming a little tired of the repetitive scenery this late on in the day. By the time we came to the cross roads that led to Angle Tarn we were both beginning to lack energy. We had done 15 km of walking over tiring ground and decided it was time to ring our parents to let them know we were ok. Another 2.3 km later we arrived at Angle Tarn to find a group of young children throwing a frisbee around shouting and laughing. We had planned to camp here. We both agreed there was a certain loneliness about the place, a grey cloud blocked the sunlight and the dark cliffs seemed to frown at us. I had managed to call home but Fergus hadn't got through yet and was looking a little low. I had spent a lot of the day speaking about the tarns in the Lake District, Sprinkling tarn would often get a mention. It is quite probably one of the most beautiful ones I've ever seen. Lacking calories and quite dehydrated we decided to walk a further 1.6 km to the tarn. When we got there it is was worth it. I knew the area quite well now and I felt quite at home here. As we walked past Esk Pike I felt safe to see Great Gable smiling at me like a good friend. As I admired the gullies on Great End we looked for a suitable place to pitch the tent. After dealing with a slight spillage Ferg had with the hot chocolate powder we both had a filling meal before going to sleep.

The next day (this morning) we awoke at 7:25am. We had a bowl of Readybrek each before setting off to Esk Hause. I felt confident enough to navigate around the area without a map in my hands. I gave the map to Fergus for the start of the day, so he could practice his map reading skills in this complex place.

Fergus' feet were sore after a long day's walk from the previous day in his outgrown walking boots. I knew the Scafell Range wasn't going to show his feet any mercy, but didn't want to put him off so said very little. I persuaded Fergus to go up Great End. As we reached the summit of Great End the clouds constantly threatening to pounce on us decided to sweep in a little more, covering Scafell Pike but just revealing the tip of Ill Crag. I took the map from here. As it was Fergus' first time up England's highest peak, I decided I would rabbit on about Ill Crag and Broad Crag and whether they should be classed as mountains in their own right. I suppose I was hoping to persuade him to come up them both with me, but instead I yet again overloaded him with trivial information about fells he'd never even heard of until this weekend. Using the tactic of walking ahead of him by 6 metres I managed to lure him up Ill Crag and he thanked me for it at the top when he could see the river Esk running through the valley at the bottom (pictured above). This was the first time today we both felt the sheer might of this mammoth of a fell. Next we made a quick trip up to Broad Crag before going up the path to Scafell Pike. We arrived on the top of Scafell Pike at 11:50 am. Fergus' feet were slowing him down a bit and we both had a rest. I rang Dad to ask him to try and get to Seathwaite for 2pm. The summit was a lot less busy than the last time I was on it, but there were still a good few people around. I heard one guy say 'Thats 2 of 3 done'. He was obviously doing the three peaks challenge. A challenge to climb Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Scafell Pike all in  24 hours. I can't make my mind up about this challenge. I would rather walk from one mountain to the next than drive. I reckon quite a few speed limits are broken thanks to this challenge.

On the way back down we stopped to cook lunch. Noodles with a chicken sauce. I only had a plastic pan handle to hold the pot which caused a bit of a problem really. As Fergus was about to empty the water from the rest of the noodles I told him not to empty it into the stream. He then turned around to pour it out somewhere else until I realised that's where we were sitting. I said quickly "No not there!"
While all this bickering was going on between us, my flimsy pan handle was slowly giving way and by the time Fergus had gone to what I accepted as a good place to pour it, the pot dropped right off it causing most of the noodles to fall on the ground. I was fed up now after the hot chocolate spillage last night and had a go at Fergus when I shouldn't have. Feeling quite guilty about the whole thing I told Fergus to eat the left over noodles while I attempted to cook some semolina. The only problem was that it took 20 minutes to try and cook it and all I ended up with was a bowl of water with a taste of yeast and sugar in it. I decided to pour it out and get moving. I soon realised the time. If my Dad did arrive at Seathwaite for 2 pm he would already be waiting and I thought we would have another hour to walk first. We couldn't get a signal to ring him. I decided the best thing to do was walk fast which Fergus' feet must have thoroughly disagreed with. Walking down the corridor route with anxiety and aggression over what had just happened, I was soon going at a very fast speed and reflecting on it I must have looked a bit crazy to passing walkers. If you have ever been around the Scafell area you must know how painful some of the descents can be on your toes so for Fergus with tight boots it must have been even worse. He was struggling to keep up on the stone paths so resorted to walking on the grass which seemed to help him out a lot. I pointed at Kirk Fell behind Great Gable. It became quite apparent by now that Fergus was utterly sick of me pointing out fells to him so I soon decided it was best to just walk. By the time we arrived at  Seathwaite, my Dad had been waiting an hour and three quarters for us to arrive and was beginning to get quite worried. He was relieved to see us but at the same time frustrated. After getting a portion of chips in Keswick and can of Fanta for Fergus our spirits were much better again. All in all we had a great weekend and got on really well. And I was pleased to have shown Fergus why I loved the Lake District so much.

Thanks for Reading
Ethan