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The far Northwest of England. Home to the Lake District and Carlisle. Hadrian's wall country. Barrow-in-Furness bus station being eaten by a monster for a Chewits TV advert. It must be Cumbria!
From August 11-13 2006:
• While in Carlisle I needed a walk and found this cool tunnel under the railway line on the outskirts of town.
• After visiting Barrow-in-Furness I found this windfarm. The sheep didn't seem to mind it at all.
• I find these vast machines beautiful, and don't know what all the fuss about them is about. They're no louder than the wind.
• Majestic, magnetic, mesmerising. And that's just me! Modern windmills of my mind. Or summit.
• A view of Wastwater, England's deepest lake, from it's Southwest end. The big hill in the middle is Great Gable.
• Across Wastwater are England's biggest Scree fields. They continue far underwater too. That's my car there too.
• I am the world's biggest liar. Really I am. The Wasdale Head Inn hold this competition every year.
• The Inn at Wasdale Head is a local landmark. It's close to 'the so-called' smallest church in England. It's not. I've been in smaller.
• Sunset over the Inn on August 11th. The day before The Big Climb. I hoped the red colour was a good sign, and nothing to do with blood...
• Good morning sunshine! This was the only weather report I got on the day of my 'Death or Glory! Preferably Glory!' event.
• I took a walk before breakfast, having worked late into the night on a magazine article. There were some nice views to be had.
• Ain't it pretty? This is the view behind the pub. There's another geocache hidden beyond the bridge and up the path.
• What's wrong with this picture? Before breakfast things took a slightly surreal turn.
• Ready for Death or Glory! The team of 14(approx.) in the car park below the mountain get ready for the BIG climb.
• Looking back onto Wastwater from about 1000ft. This view was a good guide to how far we'd walked, and how high we'd climbed.
• With about 3,200ft to climb, we needed several breaks. This was one of them. The top is hidden beyond the cliff behind.
• King of the Hill! Well, I did get to the top of it, wearing more than just a t-shirt.
• Success! The DoG team at the top. It'd not been as bad as I'd had expected it to be. Which was nice.
• Bob, International Bear of Adventure got a free lift up the hill too. He was still beaten by Curly though... [More Bears]
• I pose alone at the top. I did feel a whole lot better than I looked though.
• The view was wonderful. We could see the nuclear power station on the coast and Scotland, as well as the Blackpool post.
• The most squinty picture of me, ever. I'll have to go back up to take a better one, some time. Maybe not too soon though.
• A view of the top, complete with England's highest Trig Point from a few yards below the peak. The viewing platform's good to get out of the wind behind.
• Returning from the top via the same path we'd walked up, the Lingmell route, we got to gauge our progress by Wastwater again.
• Below the summit, two of the team talk about our route as they inspect a map. The area below here is called Brown Tongue, which I liked. :)
• Outside the Wasdale Head Inn again, the 'survivors' (note we're down to 12!) drink a well earned pint or two. I left early to reach Wales at a sensible hour.
Cumbria video clips:
48 second/7.26Mb mpeg video of me climbing Scafell Pike with a team of geocachers for an event called 'Death or Glory! Preferably Glory!.
As above, but a smaller 1.55Mb .wmv file version.
34 second/5.07Mb mpeg file. Outside of Barrow-in-Furness I found this great location covered in wind turbines.