After spending the night just outside Keswick we headed back to Seatoller for our second hill of the weekend which would bring Chris's total of wainwrights to 212 and I'd be on 191. Rosthwaite Fell was our intended target and we parked in the Stonethwaite Farm campsite near the Glaramara Activity Centre and not too far from the start of the walk.
The forecast for today was cold, frosty, clear skies and not much wind and that suited us fine as the hope was to get some great pictures and tick another wainwright off the list.
The path leading from the farm was pretty clear to start with and then it all got a bit muddled. There wasn't exactly a clear path but we knew from the map which direction we should have been heading so kept on that heading.
Chris said on the way up, over slippery rocky, grassy, frosty and quite steep ground that this would be fun on the way down as neither of us had brought our poles with us today but we had a few hrs before we had to contemplate that.
The path up was confusing. There was an older couple ahead of us and they seemed to find their own route which is what we did in the end. It wasn't a bad route up it was just confusing as we knew that on top there were 2 summits and we wanted to claim them both, just to make sure we'd actually done the Wainwright.
So onwards we plodded over slippy rocks and at some point beside a little stream running down. The weather was lovely and with all fells in fine weather, the higher you got the more the surrounding landscape opened up to you. Stonethwaite & Borrowdale behind us was just lovely. Thornythwaite Fell in front of us reminded us of the day we did Bowfell - Thornythwaite leaving a car over at Langdale and one at Seatoller which turned out to be a belter of a day.
Finally reaching for the Tarn at Leaves at the top we turned left to make our way up Bessyboot. It was a rocky affair reaching the summit cairn but extremely pleasant as the conditions of the day meant we could take our time and really enjoy the views stretching out before us.
After a quick drink we were off again back down to the tarn to make our way up to Rosthwaite Cam. Whilst on Bessyboot we spoke to the older couple that had reached the top before us and he assured us that Bessyboot was indeed the true Wainwright and that our tick had already been completed so the wander up Rosthwaite Cam would be for pleasure only and I did wonder if it was worth doing as I was a little bit tired from yesterday's walk and wasn't sure I had the energy but boy oh boy I'm so glad I did.
Starting out on the path from the tarn up to what seemed like an extremely rocky top of Rosthwaite Cam got me just a little bit excited as I do like a bit of a scramble and looking up it was just possible that we had a little treat in store.
The top of Rosthwaite Cam was just that. A short but nice little scramble up through the rocks to the summit where the wind blew and left you feeling quite exposed which was tremendous. This is one of the reasons I love walking so much. That thrill of standing on a stone on top of a rocky hill with the elements whipping around you - exhilarating.
Not much time was spent on the top and we quickly made our way back to the path that would lead us down hoping we'd find a much clearer path for the descent.
The path was patchy in places but we made it down and back in good time and enjoyed the lovely golden light bathing Borrowdale and the surrounding hills with the faint warmth of the afternoon.
So there we have it. 2 more Wainwrights achieved this weekend and just a few to go before we can claim to have ticked them all. Chris is already talking about his next challenge (could be Corbetts).......watch this space !
