29th May 2007

A decision had been made to do some joint tidying up of fells with the aged parent. Therefore, we were up early and heading down to Ambleside first thing this morning.

Even though we had planned to do three small fells today, we had also planned to do them in style. We did not like the idea of simply 'bagging' them for the sake of it - we wanted to make them count. Therefore, we parked near High Oxen Fell and started on our way to Lingmoor Fell (1530 ft). It was a beautiful walk along tracks to the foot of the fell; we were even lucky enough to spot a red squirrel. We made a quick (but sweaty) ascent and were really pleased to see the Langdale fells in all their glory shining in the sunshine.

We then headed back down the same way and tramped along to Holme Fell (1040 ft). The walk was fantastic and we were particularly taken by Slater Bridge where there was a perfect little picnic area. We circled the quarry and were a little worried about any slight noise sending an avalanche of slate down on top of us. This grew as we realised that we were on an incredibly popular path which meant small children shouting - we didn't dawdle!

By the time we had made the reached the top of Holme Fell, we were beginning to feel quite tired. The double ascent and descent were beginning to play havoc on the joints. However, we perservered and made our way via Yew Tree Tarn onto Black Fell (1056 ft)The journey up was only managed due to some cunning cowboy-Roy manoeuvres. The top was freezing cold but we liked the fact that there was an Ordnance Survey on top to tell us that we were in the right place. Another tricky descent brought us back to the car, tired but pleased with our progress.

The fact that these were meant to be 'easy' fells but that we were exhausted afterwards made us feel as though we had done them justice.

New Fells: Lingmoor Fell, Holme Fell, Black Fell.