Day 5

After having a day off in order for the blisters to heal themselves, we decided to do something a little less taxing today. Therefore we made the decision to do the smaller fells around Skiddaw: Carl Side, Long Side and Ullock Pike; they were, after all, blighting my northern range checklist.

The day was grey but not quite raining as we set off, saying goodbye to one of the earliest completers of the Wainwrights, our Uncle. A slow drive along the A66 took us to Millbeck, under Skiddaw, where we dutifully placed our money in the honesty box and set off.

It was a steep but rewarding climb up the front of Carl Side (2420 ft) from where we had fantastic views of Keswick until we hit the clouds at about 2000 ft. We reached the summit in good time.

We then made our way along the ridge to Long Side (2405 ft) where we were enormously excited to see a buzzard and some lovely views as the clouds lifted further. The climb to the summit seemed unfairly simple after the last few days.

We then had an easy time getting onto the summit of Ullock Pike (2230 ft) from where we turned around and headed straight back again.

At Carl Side tarn we had to make the decision whether we would go on to do Skiddaw or not; I decided that we wouldn't as I wanted a cup of tea and slice of cake at the Strawberry tea-shop in Keswick. Best decision ever made. As we headed down we decided to stop at a halfway point so that we could eat our lunch. We sat down, looked at each other and realised that we hadn't packed our lunch. Oops.

We headed down at a surprising rate and had a lovely lunch in Keswick and a fantastic afternoon strolling around.

Total distance: 6 miles and 2750 feet of ascent.

New fells: Carl Side, Long Side and Ullock Pike.