The forecast said the cloud would clear by lunchtime and as I made my way up from Patterdale to The Hole in the Wall it looked as if it might just happen!
This must be the most famous stile in the Lake District.
To give the weather some time to improve I first headed for Birkhouse Moor.
Despite taking an early lunch and hanging around for quite a while, the cloud wasn't showing any sign of lifting, so I headed for Striding Edge anyway. I found the Dixon memorial easily enough...........
but the rest of Striding Edge was.................how shall I put it?.......................atmospheric. In other words there was no view at all!
As I reached the chimney at the far end of Striding Edge..........
the cloud broke for about 30 seconds and Red Tarn came in to view, but then disappeared again.
Having helped a couple from Newcastle up to the summit, I joined a queue of people to take a photgraph of Gough's Memorial.
It was packed on the top! I then headed down Swirral Edge...........
and up Catstycam.
You guessed it, just as I reached the top, the cloud came back down again, so I couldn't see a thing from the top. This sheep didn't seem too bothered; she had a very dodgy haircut to worry about!!
As I reached Red Tarn the cloud lifted on Striding Edge but not on Helvellyn........
so I decided to go back over to Striding Edge and cross it again to get some better photos, but just as I got there the cloud came down once more and so I called it a day.
The walk was followed by a very nice pint of Tirrill's 'Old Faithful' and a packet of cheese and onion crisps at The Patterdale Hotel and very pleasant it was too!
I think I will go back to Helvellyn on a cold, clear day in the Winter when there is some snow on the ground and who knows I might just see something!!
All photographs taken with either a Nikon D40X (10.2mp) or a Nikon Coolpix 4200 (4.2mp)
