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" Two Faces of Crummock, with Sue & Mike, Amanda & Bill"

 

Date & start time:    Thursday 19th & Saturday 21st September 2019. 

Location of Start :    By the red phone box, Loweswater, Cumbria, Uk. ( NY 143 211 )

Places visited :         Down to the Pump House, Sandy Yat and back . . . each time.

Walk details :             Local walks of about an hour or more.

Highest point :          The views and the conversations.

Walked with :             Sue& Mike, Bill & Amanda, Ann and our dogs, Dylan and Dougal.

Weather :                    Sunshine and blue skies . . . but rather windy the second time round.

© Crown copyright. All rights reserved. Licence number PU 100034184.

 

What links together as one walk was actually a combination of two that were two days apart. 

The pictures reflect the changing weather as the sunny high pressure starts to change to a low pressure system, giving us a warm but windy second day.

Ultimately this would progressed to a full blown wet weather system that would blow in from the south west over the following few days.

A grand afternoon as we walk down to Crummock Water.

This is a wider view of the Loweswater and Lorton Valley seen from under Mellbreak, with Low Fell in the centre and Grasmoor to the right.

High Park and Mellbreak Cottage can be seen on the left.

Stopping for photos mean that I'm slightly left behind (shame I hear you cry !)

Don't panic . . . it gives me a chance for a photo of Grasmoor towering high in proportions to us mere mortals down in the valley.

Back to the normal lens setting as I need the width of photo to capture the gate (or lack of it) between the two fields.

The dogs like nothing better on a sunny day than to play in the water.   Today it is flat calm all the way across the lake.

Sue and Mike watch as I lob a stick high in the air . . .

"10 out of 10 for the outrun" . . . Dougal picks up and returns with the stick in his mouth.

He drops the stick a few feet short of the shore so loses a few points on "the fetch".

He'll have to bring it closer if he wants us to throw it again !

The four of us and the dogs meander around The Peel to the little pebble beach near the Pump House.

There are quite a few other people out enjoying the sunshine today.

Mike's turn to throw and fortuitous timing catches the splash as the stick hits the water.

Sue and Mike are over from Washington, Tyne and Wear.

They were with us when we picked up Dougal from his breeder's home in Billy Row almost exactly a year ago.

- - - o o o - - -

Two days later on the Saturday afternoon we were down at the lake again, this time with Bill and Amanda from Whitehaven.

They had called over for a walk, a calendar and a cuppa before they returned the short distance home.

The lake today had an altogether different feel about it.

The wind has risen and the lake's surface has been churned up to the point that waves were breaking,

the crests of those waves forming "white horses" that danced down the lake.

Sunshine and blue skies  . . .

but a strong breeze in Bill's face as he looks south, up the lake, from the corner near the Park Beck bridge.

Bill, Amanda and Ann on the rock seats at the side of Sandy Yat bay.

Their view from the side of the lake . . . looking up to Red Pike, High Stile, Haystacks and Great Gable.

The dogs enjoyed the water again but this time from the dry top of the boulder.

Rannerdale Knotts fills the background.

The lack of rainfall in the last week is reflected in the low water level

and increases the number of stones that extend above the surface beyond their seat.

We returned this time using the path towards High Park.

There are a lot of cars in the field which is unusual . . . and in the air, enthusiastic shouts and the barking of dogs.

The local "Hound Trailing Association" is having a meet . . . think cross-country greyhound racing but with fox hounds !

The dogs are trained to an aniseed scent and run a course laid out earlier in the day by the club officials.

Owners gather at the finishing line to call their dogs home.

There's a good attendance, even what looks like a refreshment trailer in the field.

- - - o o o - - -

 

As we left them to their afternoon's racing

we could hear the first of the hounds returning to the field,

too far away to catch on camera.

 

The main route started at the field next to High Park House.

For the senior dogs that looks like a "round Mellbreak" run

up Mosedale towards Scale Force and back along the lakeside.

 

- - - o o o - - -

Along the lanes the blackberries are still producing fruit.
Some over-ripe berries are sweet pickings for a swarm of flies.

On the way back to the house we cross the fields near Gillerthwaite.

Confusingly the flock of sheep, far from moving away, started walking towards Dylan and Dougal.

They can't decide whether to join the two "golden sheep" or to stay away . . . they end up backing themselves into a corner !

Eventually they decide that discretion is the better part of valour and move away across the field

so as to give us access to the stile in the corner and the path to home.

- - - o o o - - -

 

Technical note: Pictures taken with Ann's Panasonic Lumix TZ60 Camera.

Resized in Photoshop, and built up on a Dreamweaver web builder.

This site best viewed with . . . calm water that can soon change to choppy.

Go to Top . . . © RmH . . . Email me here

Previous walk - 20th Sept - Knock Murton Direct

A previous time up here - 26th September 2018 - Dougal of Loweswater

Next walk - 22nd Sept - Exploring Binsey with Ian

 

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- - - o o o - - -

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