Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Big big day

Dufton to Garrigill 26.6 kilometres (16 miles)

I must admit that last night I was a bit apprehensive about our challenge today.

My companion guide (AW Wainwright) says:

"At Dufton there commences the highest part of the journey, the traverse of Cross Fell and its satellites, the loftiest ground in England outside the Lake District. Cross Fell is a surly beast, often in a black mood......a fine day is to be desired."

We had all the weather Mother Nature could throw at us today,

including a bit of sunshine.

 

We worried about this hill...

but past that onto much bigger climbs.

but as we summited this one, Knock Fell at 794 metres, we could see the next peak, Great Dun Fell at 848metres.

And in case you were wondering:

It has the greatest number of foggy days, the highest wind speed, and the most prolonged frost. The annual mean temperature is only 4c while over 200 days may feature mist and over 100 days feature gale force winds.

 

And then down and up again to the cairn at the top of Cross Fell (893 metres) at last providing some shelter from the wind.

Descending from the summit we had a long long tramp to Garrigill, such a welcome sight was our B&B.

 

Btw I fell asleep writing this so it's a now Tuesday morning and off we go again.

 

5 comments:

  1. Wishing you lots of sunshine and no wind today.

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  2. Love following along on your trip. Hope you get some water color ideas along the way.

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  3. I'm not surprised you fell asleep!

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  4. Oh boy - such beautiful scenery but fickle weather! Your B and B looks lovely and cosy, I could just handle a night there, but without all the tramping. I'm late catching up with posts so I should have a couple more from you to bring me up to date.

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