8th April 2007

Another beautiful day and so we decided to start tidying up my fells a bit so that in the summer we can camp in the East and polish off a load of Wainwrights that way. Therefore, we were in for an easy day...or so I thought.

We began with Rosthwaite fell (1807 ft), starting at Stonethwaite and heading up a gut-crunching path through a copse and onto the open top. There was discussion with another couple as to where the top was, but we picked the right one in the end. On the way down we saw some wild campers who may or may not have been responsible for the empty Fosters can that we had picked up on the way up the fell.

We then walked down and back to the car to get the second Wainwright book that we needed. We set off up a track which took us onto Great Crag (1500 ft) which seemed to also be very steep. There were lots of people on the top but we managed to avoid them by using less used paths through heather which took us onto the top. Having eaten our hot cross buns, we then decided to walk down the other side and walk to Castle Crag rather than drive there.

A long walk took us down to Rosthwaite where we followed the road to Castle Crag which the entire population of the world seemed to have decided to visit. We saw some exciting cow and bull action as we walked through some farmland and up a steep slope onto the summit (985ft). It was an interesting climb through slate and woods. Ian then took us a sneaky way down so that we avoided much of the crowd. It was then a couple of miles back to the car. Phew.

New fells: Rosthwaite Fell, Great Fell, Castle Crag.