Earlier this year, we made a last minute decision to visit Sale Water Park for the City of Trees Go Wild event. City of Trees are a movement aiming to restore Greater Manchester’s woodlands and generally make Manchester greener through planting trees, and their Go Wild event was aimed at getting kids outside.
Earlier this year, whilst Rowan was off gallivanting with his Anma and Grandpa, Rick and I decided to go for a big walk. Rick had always fancied climbing Helvellyn, preferably by the edges, but we were taking Rocky and Pebble with us. A few years back, during a walk by a local canal, they had both fallen in, so Striding Edge was deemed to be just n0t suitable for our giddy furry pair. Instead, we decided walk the Helvellyn range, south to north for a brilliant high level walk.
Lying just off the A591 between Ambleside and Grasmere, Loughrigg Fell is one of the Wainwrights I had been looking forward to climbing with Rowan for a long time. It’s a busy little fell though, so we waited till mid-week in a school holiday to make a day trip for a mountain adventure.
Running up to getting married in Coniston earlier this year, we were up in the Lakes for meetings with the hotel on several occasions. After one, much shorter than expected, visit to the venue, we found ourselves with some free time but no walking gear to venture onto the fells with. We decided to make our way to Grasmere to visit Allan Bank, former home to William Wordsworth and Canon Rawnsley (one of the founders of the National Trust)
Around nine months after first walking the Kentmere Round, I found myself back in the South Lakes ready to walk those hills again. This time, I was with Sarah and her gorgeous rescue staffie, Chester, a.k.a. Chester the Adventure Dog. On my first wander over the Kentmere Round, Kathryn and I added in High Street (the route of which you can read in more detail here). Today, we would follow more or less the same paths, except instead of High Street, we would add on Gray Crag instead.
“A family fell where grandmothers and infants can climb the heights together, a place beloved.” This is how Alfred Wainwright described Cat Bells, near Keswick and we couldn’t wait to get exploring this little fell.
After our quick visit to Beeston Castle earlier in the year, we joined English Heritage knowing that we would be returning to explore the grounds a bit more carefully. The opportunity arose during the Easter holidays when we attended one of the many events held at the site – we went hunting for dragon eggs!
