After the usual faffing around at the start taking pictures, and putting clothes on and off we began our climb away from some cottages and up towards Black Combe. For some reason I felt absolutely buggered at the start of this one. Possibly I was somewhat drained by the multitude of insect bites that had appeared on my legs and arms overnight, from the previous days excursion. Anyway I insisted we stopped after about half a mile. so I could have some provisions from my lunch box (which did seem to do the energy trick).
Yet again we were operating from a 'Country Walking' route plan, and at this point we immediately lost the route and had to make our own one up. So at the near summit we stopped for lunch proper, before eventually getting to the top to pick up what seemed a very straightforward path down. In the course of which I took some pictures of Sellafield nuclear Something (which had been a feature all week) and can be clearly seen in my photo.
Needless to say the straightforward path wasn't, and although the views were spectacular, we kept drifting off it, onto various sheep trails. Helen by this time had taken charge, whilst refusing to take any more readings from my GPS. Anyway this was also the point where the insect bites on my legs began erupting into nasty weeping blisters, which made not just the rest of the walk, but also the rest of the week, rather unpleasant. A nasty final section along a busy footpath free road, was somewhat of a downer for an otherwise enjoyable walk.
Postcript: the following day found us having a touristy day in Coniston (our original intended holiday destination) which included a trip to the Ruskin museum, but a futile stroll to the edge of the lake. Then on the final day I stayed indoors, out of insect range, whilst Helen strolled to the top of Muncaster Fell.
