What a day!

From an early rise we were walking by 7.15 a little rain over night had left the tent and the going soggy but not a problem, into town and quick re stock of provisions and we're off ,realising quickly that I'd overdone it yesterday, wobbly legs proving you can't train for the mountains in Northamptonshire!
But today was the big push up the first mountain range and nothing was stopping that!
Walking out of windermere we past a stunning house that would have fitted into a Harry Potter book very nicely (pic to follow) then up Hill past Orrest head and into some farm land a quick hello to the sheep and then onto Dubbs road, a track that leads nicely around applethwaite common and up to buck crag, with the mountains in front that we are to ascend  (right hand range in pic) we pick a painfully slow path up the first peak yoke then bell then froswick  views around are stunning and the weather is perfect with small clouds scudding across an azure sky lovely!
Past froswick we pick up our first Roman road "high street" which we follow to rampsgill head then over high raise the highest point of the days walking at 802 meters ,I'm really flagging now and eating jelly babies to keep my energy up!
This gets us as far as wether Hill where at six pm we stop tent up and doze off !
Waking up at nine with a hungry belly, a quick look outside shows its been snowing! Explains why Alfie had squeezed into my sleeping bag!

Mission one accomplished

Its always difficult to judge your fitness for the first day of a trek, and as ever it was a push! That said I'm very pleased to have completed the 18 miles to bowness on windermere it was definitely a rollercoaster day and may prove to be one of the harder days walking we'll have!
But interesting its definitely been, the wild forage has been far better than at home with ramsons (wild garlic) in profusion, wood sorrel in a greater quantity than I've yet seen ,Jack by the hedge in good numbers and borage too in one area! Plenty of ground elder to :)
I'd love to name all the hills we've been over but they don't appear to have any on the os maps, so I'll give an idea of rout - from ulverston we headed in a generally north easterly direction to Greenodd where having crossed the A590 we enjoyed 2kilometers of flood plane walking (the only flat section of the day!) To an impressive clock towered building near haverthwaite , shadowing the a590 we head uphill around Backbarrow through pretty woodland, till our path went through last years bracken covered slopes, behind us in the distance was the monument from last night now reduced to near invisibility !
To the north was newby bridge but out route headed more easterly into a steep sided wooded Hill, weather was still fine and the blue sky though the trees was a treat ! The top of the Hill is very boggy and some really gnarled old trees clung onto life amid the inevitable pine trees moss clung to all and sundry giving it a primordial feel!
Out of the wood and along a track we hit out first problem on the map a footpath passes another trail to a nearby road, sadly through private property! An extra mile of diversion and we're back within two hundred yards of where we were! Oh well!
With lake windermere on our left we're now heading north zigzagging along the top of the ridge on boggy paths, inevitably it starts to rain, gently so no problem. Downhill and into Bowness and were now tucked up in the tent at a c&c site, love that they have little shops!
Another great day!
Alfie is already asleep as I write this, nice to know I'm not the only one suffering! Night all! 

Arrived !

Well we're now at the official start of CRR camped near the Hoad hill monument, which commerates the life of sir John barrow Bart. (More info to follow)
The train journey up went very nicely with Alfie charming his way into the hearts of many travelers, particularly the women ! Good dog! ;) and one kindly ticket collector who gave him a biscuit every time he passed, lovely chap!
The weather is fine if a little chilly at the moment but far better than expected! Thank you weather God's !
Here's hope it holds!
My apologies go to Russ for not publishing our itinerary, time ran out! Guess you'll just have to read the blog ! :)
For now all is good and time to cook dinner!

And we're off !

En route to ulverston,this  mornings weather shows a sign of improvement so a weeks worth of worrying over weather apps will hopefully prove pointless!
Here we go!

soon off!

just a quick post to say we're off at the end of next week 20/4 to start the Cumbrian Roman Ramble, hard to believe my last post was november!!!!!
Shocking waste of blogging time!!! still I will be blogging (connection permitting) all my route with some stunning views of the lakes, sunsets/rises from mountain tops that kind of thing! oh and the odd pic of Alfie of course :)
this next week had better fly cos i wanna be there already!!!

A Taste of things to come!

Things have been a bit too quiet on the blog, local walks dont really warrant posts so nothing much has needed to be blogged!
But with plans well under way for one of next years walks I thought I'd share some details!

As the map shows its a nice 152 mile circular walk starting and finishing at Ulverston.
I've named it "The Cumbrian Roman Ramble" a change from its original title. To follow on nicely from this years Hadrians wall walk, i decided to give it a nice theme by linking up about eleven roman roads/forts/bath houses/fortlets etc!.
 The route also takes in some stunning mountain walking, including the peaks of Blencathra, Skiddaw, and The old man of Coniston!. To call it a ramble is stretching the term! but that part of the name is in homage to "The Allerdale Ramble" which we (me and Alfie) will be following for a while in the north!.

The ups and the downs!

Planning is about 90% done including costings for train tickets and a new tent (the bivi was to much of a squeeze!), Dunno what I'll do for the rest of the winter!
Probably lots of training! the heights of Northamptonshire don't really prepare you for mountain long distance walking!.

Winshield farm to a woodland wildcamp

<p>After a night at winshields bunkhouse we part company with dave and Willow the chocolate labrador , heading off route we follow last years lejog route to Haltwhistle for a resupply of provisions quite a deviation but nice to go back and sit on the bench outside co-op and think of last year!
Getting back to the present we walk west out of town road walking for a few miles to the roman museum at first Greenhead making good use of the cafe, tea and cake later we are back on the wall walking towards Gilsland ,after a quick stop for  a pint the path out of town goes past the remains of the wall where it crosses the river. ....... and up steep banks either side an impressive feat even today! Past the field study center above and a couple of miles further we reach the woods selected for tonights wild camp, after a short search a good spot between two fallen trees sees us bedded down for the night on a soft mattress of wood sorrel! Can't believe how much sorrel is in this small wood!.

Wildcamp to Crosby on eden

With everything packed away we head out of the wood to pass a farmhouse no more than150 yards from our pitch, whoops ! Glad it was well hidden  ;)
More walking along general wades road to a place called banks and its field walking, passing Haytongate(farm once?) We find one of those rare wonders of the walking world, an honesty box cafe! Tea later:-) and we start passing the latest batch of west to rest walkers, passed about fifteen! Then the weather turned,with heavy head winds and strong rain ,its time to just go for it, and so we do to Crosby on eden, where a quick stop at the hotel there changes our fortunes, its one of those places way to posh for a scruffy walker and his mucky pup, but they still let us in breaking there own rules!
Finally getting a mobile connection, I find there's a bunkhouse just up the road so to make our timing for the train home work out we finish the day here, and what a place to stay the Crosby house bunk house is great £12 for a plush shared room with TV, and attached kitchen and shower room! Mucky pup is now a ginger ball of fluff!

Chollerton to winshield farm

A little more  b road walking(yes the same one!) Out of chollerton and we head slightly of road under overcast skies to walk along now quite impressive remains of the wall! With at one point the remains of a mithraic temple!(pic)
Back over the road we follow the earthworks to the point where we finally escape the b road! And head onto the famous part of the wall following the winsill ridge which the wall hugs all the way to greenhead, which we reach tomorrow, for now the rollercoaster ride that is the ridge takes us to winshield farm(familiar to jp and Ruth from previous visits) where we make use of the bunk house to avoid the now continuous rain! 

Beside the Tyne to chollerton

Well after such a beautiful sunrise, the going was equally good, a couple of miles walking and we enter Heddon in the wall where we bought a few extra provisions before heading of on the b4218 which we were to follow for the whole day, not particularly interesting with only vague roman remains buried by the road, incidentally this is another road built by general wade! Busy chap!
By midday we had reached "the Robin hood " pub(gets everywhere doesn't he!) Where a nice sunday lunch of roast chicken was had:-)
More following the b road had  us criss crossing the road between way to many cow fields,  culminating in a field of extremely irritating cows who along with there massive bull chased us out the field.. .......guess the farmer thought walkers would know a bull was there without the need for a warning sign!(rant)
Sticking to the road for a bit we get to the dog unfriendly Elkington arms.. ... where we head off road and out of cow country(thankfully) 
A bit of pleasant field walking and we finally see the first bit of hadrians wall since walls end(1.5 days later)
Then down hill into chollerton to set up camp at the riverside camp site ,where you can order indian food deliverys too!

O2 are crap!

No signal since newcastle now close to carlisle!

This is home!

A perfect start to the day laying in the bivi cooking porridge and coffee under a ceiling of leaves which are catching the first rays of the morning sun, lovely !
Oh and the Robin is back!   :-)