Sitting in the Giants Seat

For the last couple of years it has always been my intention to get a walk in at the start of British Summer Time. This has has seen me on Great Gable in the Snow and Blencathra in a howling gale in previous years, so I was relieved that the forecast was better for our walk up Cadair Idris known as the "Chair of Idris" a Mythical Welsh Giant. Strictly speaking, I was a day late for the first day of BST, but my trusty Sherpa wanted an afternoon on Barmouth Beach, so deferred to her for this day. Fuelled by a cooked breakfast we made slowish progress progress up the Minffordd Path, which I chose as it gave the best options photographically. This is a well made path that has seen some work in regards to steps etc placed. Whilst this makes the walk easier, it does take some of the "wild" nature away. The panorama was taken from one of the several roche moutannee that fringe the llyn. The more over processed image was taken much closer to Llyn Cau. Gaining our second wind after the breakfast had worn off, we move on and over the ridge at the back of the pictures to the summit trig point and success. Another Trail 100 hill (59 in total) bagged, plus a couple of Nuttalls.

A typical scree filled descent (Are they anything else) saw us stop for a few pictures for my photobook project and then the decision of which pub to drink at in the evening.

Great Borne Supremacy

Sunday was probably the first day this year where you saw the weather forecast and thought, "I will have some of that". low winds, no rain forecast and the prospect of some good views. Mrs Vic and I loaded the car and drove out the far west of the Lake District, to explore the hills overlooking Buttermere. At this time of year this part of the lakes is relatively quite and the the first three hours saw no one else except a few geese near the water. We approached Great Borne, our first Wainwright of the day , before we met anyone else. We then gently meandered across the tops, taking in Starling Dodd (Where Mrs W above can be seen drinking in the view over Ennerdale), Red Pike, High Stile and High Crag, before a knee crushing scree descent and refreshments (A pint of Jennings in my case and some Fish and Chips) before loading up and heading home. One last stop to catch the colourful sky over Crummock Water saw us spend 10 hours in total out and about and one can only hope we get more Sundays like this in the coming weeks.