A toe in the Lakes
I'd never been to the Lake District before, so thought it was time to see what all the fuss is about. It also happens to be fairly accessible from Edinburgh - more accessible than much of the Highlands in fact, less than three hours away largely via motorways. The prospect of crowds of people queuing on the fells has put me off visiting before, so I figured a combination of a week day, off-season and iffy weather would be the best time for a first expedition. High Street looked pretty fine on the map, all craggy corries, tarns and cliffs, a nice compact round from Mardale Head together with neighbouring Harter Fell, easily accessible from Penrith and the M6. Mardale Head was fairly quiet; a thaw was setting in, the wind gusty and restless, the light low and the fells wrapped in cloud. It's a sombre place; two local villages were lost when Haweswater Reservoir was created in 1929 to provide more water for Manchester. The buildings were dynamited before they were drowned. I climb