Cat Bells 29-04-2018

Cat Bells

29-04-2018

Headed up to the Lake District again today, for a short walk over Cat Bells. This is actually on my Mums bucket list, to do one of Wainwrights walks, apparently she has wanted to climb Cat Bells for nearly 30 years but has never had the chance. So this morning I woke the boy up early, packed the sandwiches I made last night, filled a flask, and off we went to pick my mum and her friend Steve up, and headed off to Keswick.

After a stop off at Tebay, and driving through some pretty heavy rain, we arrive in Keswick and make our way up the narrow roads towards the carpark at the bottom of the Cat Bells path. As we drove through the wooded area, stood 30 yards from the road was a wild Stag, with full antlers eating some greenery. Ive never seen a wild stag before, and it was quite an awe inspiring scene, unfortunately because of a car behind me, I couldn't stop to take a picture. Also another reason I couldn't stop was the 2 Traffic Wardens, slapping tickets on the many cars parked on the road. They must have ticketed at least 12 cars, and there was another 5 or 6 further up waiting for a ticket. My heart sank when we reached the car park and it was full, so we carried on up the narrow track towards the Hostel, and parked just outside the gate on an elevated verge off the road, willing to take the risk of getting a parking ticket. Shoes changed and rucksack on (7.5kg's today) and we set off up the path past the hostel.

This is the route we walked, anti-clockwise, the path was very quiet, considering when we had driven past the start of the northern climb, it looked incredibly busy. The first part of the walk was a nice stroll, a very mild incline, the weather was cool and the rain had passed.

We moved off the pebble path, and started on a grass path, that looked less walked on, and began our climb. The path isn't particularly steep, but my mum has been in ill health and has to stop every so often to catch her breath, so our progress isn't very fast, but we are plodding on. The climb comes to a point where there are rocks on both sides, and suddenly my mum sits down and looks pale, she says she feels sick and needs a minute, so we take a break. She doesn't look well at all, and is struggling to speak. After a minute or two she passes me her camera and tells me to take some pictures from the top for her, as she isn't going to make it, but I wasn't just going to leave her so I told her to give it 5 minutes, and if she isn't feeling any better we would all walk back down. It turns out, she hasn't eaten anything today, and only had a brew since she woke up, so I pour her a sweet tea, and give her a Tuna sandwich, we all rest and have a minute, and I explain to her the reason she is probably feeling ill, is because she has an empty stomach, and before doing any physical exercise she needs to eat something. Indeed she does start to feel better, and after 10 minutes she feels well enough to continue. 

On the OS map there is a Shaft indicated along this path, so as we pass it, me and the boy go and investigate, throwing stones down to see how deep it is, turns out its very deep, but when we returned to the path, my mum and Steve have made good ground and shot off up to a large pile of Cairn stones.

Its at this point when the original path we were on, meets back up with the path we have taken, so I know its not long before we are on the Cat Bells path which will take us up to the top and down the other side. Also a tell tale sign of being close to the top, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped, and low and behold we reached the crest, and were treated to a fantastic view of Derwent Water.

After a few photos, we turn left and continue on our way, passing a few things I found interesting before we reached the top.

At 451 meters, its not the biggest climb in the Lakes, but it is a very enjoyable walk. My mum was made up that she had made it to the top, another thing ticked off her bucket list.

Trying to take a photo on the summit proved to be difficult, mainly due to a large group of Americans who had decided to have their dinner right on the top. This really gets on my nerves, why can't people move off to the side, instead of plonking themselves right in the middle of the reason everyone had climbed that day. Its just rude and inconsiderate.

After a few minutes of getting some pictures and selfies....

We headed down, and found a quiet spot out of the wind to eat our dinner and have a drink. Im glad we walked the route we did, because the path down was actually a scramble in places, and there was absolutely no way that my mum would have made it up, she struggled getting down, but we made good time on our descent. The views of Keswick, Derwent Water and Bassenthwaite Lake are fantastic.

On the way down, there is a particularly big scramble, and halfway up this scramble is a plaque, which we completely missed, and only noticed while waiting for people to pass, so I sent the boy back up to take a picture of it...

Unfortunately he missed the bottom corner, but its a nice memorial for Thomas Arthur Leonard, and with that we made our way back down to the road.

After a walk up the road, we arrived at the car (without a parking ticket), 3 hours after we set off. I think it could be done in 2, maybe 2 and a half hours, but we were in no rush. It was a very enjoyable walk, and I had a really good time, until it was time to drive the 2 hours home and everyone fell asleep.