Gaping Gill '10

We drove up to Ingelton on Saturday late afternoon and found ourselves a campsite. This wasn't as easy as you might have expected. We had banked on going to the "Goat Gap Inn", a little website I found told us about it, said they had a campsite round the back you could camp in for £3. Things that sound too good to be true usually are, as the pub turned out to be residential accommodation, (the next campsite down the road told us it hadn't been a pub for nearly fifteen years! - Damn Internet!)

After pitching we went to a nice little pub up the road for our tea. (we is Al, Emma, Leah and myself) I wasn't massively hungry so I just got a starter. I got Black pudding, which was 3 rounds of pudding (each about an inch and a half thick). Covered with pepper cream sauce and leeks, and garnished with a fruit salad! Of all the crazy things! But it was very nice. We got Drunk and listened to the Arcade Fire headlining the main stage of Reading Festival.

Met this crazy scouse guy who ended up handing with us and playing pool. Traveling on his own he wanted nothing more than to camp in a cave! I pointed him in the direction of Gordale Scar, and he said he's write my name in the cave if he got there... So there is a trip waiting to happen :)

At 6:30 we got woke up by a cockerel who took it upon himself to visit each tent in turn and "Cock-a-doodle-doo". (When I say half six, I actually heard him coming for about 20 min, until he sat right next to my head and crowed me away... little bugger). Not the nicest thing to happen with a hangover! We had to pack the tents down the the rain/drizzle. The cloud was so low you couldn't even tell where Ingelbroug was, but we packed up anyway, got or lunch from a garage and headed off to Clapham.

We arrived just in time for the cafe to open at 9am. So a quick bacon butty to sort us out, then off up the trail. Almost as soon as we set of up the trail, the weather cleared, the sun came out, and it stayed like that for pretty much most of the day! It always nice walking up the trail from Clapham. Emma and Al found the penny try and hammered some penny's in.

The number of walkers up there wearing jeans and trainers was really surprising. We had taken Al to decathlon the day before and he'd shelled out £25 for a pair of walking boots and walking trouser, it doesn't take much! So we reached Gaping Gill at half ten. Half an hours queue, and we got our numbers "160-163" and there were currently on "73". A three minute turnaround we were told. So for four and a half hours we napped, chatted and played the word association game (difficult when all you all staring at is rocks) :). Also met some of the people who we saw last time we saw up there, which is we figured 4 years ago (which I must say is an incredibly bizarre time scale to get to know people on!)

So we had a nice little tour around Gaping Gill, tourist caving of course. That winch is so much fun, being lowered down into the bowels of the earth like that. Awesome :) Got some good photos of the main chamber, and did a little scramble up one side, just to show Leah what was in store for her if we went and did some proper caving (I don't think I convinced her that is was a bad idea either, so there is another trip waiting to happen!)

We didn't hang about much afterwards, although for the walk down Ingelbrough we were treated to such still, calm and sunny weather you wouldn't believe.

Getting changed in a National Trust car park, from wet, muddy clothes into the "Suited and Booted" look for a night out is quite an experience too :) - that done, we belted it over to Ulverston to go and see LORN. We arrived just in time for Alex' DJ Set (Unfortunately missed Fern's but sure we'll catch her next time). Alex and LORN both played unbelievable sets. It was very odd seeing something in the Lanternhouse that had been on the night previous in the Roadhouse in Manchester, but I think we got the better end of the deal somehow. Had a little chat with LORN after, and he said waking up in the morning and seeing the "Lantern" outside of his window was proper top.

After it had all finished we belted back down the M6 to the new Chemical Brothers album and 2:30am was straight to bed for me thank you very much! (And all of this set to the soundtrack of "Olympians" by F**k Buttons - oh yes) :)

Scafell Pike

• Driving Distance: 292.2 miles

• Walking Distance: 5.74 miles

• Walking Accent: 922 meters

• Average Speed: 1.0mph

• Total Walk Time 5:43

• Pint at End: Black Sheep Cask

What a walk. We took the most direct route. it was massively steep from the beginning till the end! The last quarter mile was a proper scramble (which was a welcome break from everything being on the legs!). 10 minutes at the top and then straight back down again. Legs like tree trunks! Not going to drive over Hardknotts pass again in a hurry though :)

Edale

Went for a walk in Edale yesterday, on my own, with a 12kg pack (all my bivouac kit). I didn't actually bivouac up there, just wanted to see if I could handle all the kit up a hill. Did 6 miles in 3 hours 22 minutes. Ended up doing half of the walk with this dude from Sheffield called Mark, he was walking on his own too. Here is a link to my pictures and data:
http://picasaweb.google.com/alecjcook/20100807Edale#