Breezy Burnbank, Blustery Blake and Gusty Gavel Fell..........

Hurrah, the weather forecast, after being up and down all week, had finally settled on a Saturday that was at best, variable. That'll do us so after a 6am alarm and house exit at 6.45 we were off up the M6 towards that well known junction 40 for Penrith. The hills today would take us past Buttermere and start us off just behind Melbreak with 3 on the agenda we hoped for a good days walking as well as some good pics.(fingers crossed)

The national trust car park was easy to find and unlike most national trust facilities there was no pay machine. So all those £1 coins I'd been collecting all morning were of no use after all. Brilliant! The first part of the walk was ahead of us with the initial part taking us through a forested area which is always a treat when the sun is out and you get it filtering through the trees casting shadows all around. The little wild flowers are just starting to come out and the baby ferns are all still curled up ready to spring into action later in the year.

Once up and out of the trees the we could see the path clearly heading up left towards the top of the hill, well I say top, I mean the top part that I could see. There was still a long way to go before the top of Burnbank was reached however the walk was pleasant and good underfoot. Not much bogginess and views back to the Solway Firth and over to Buttermere and the surrounding hills were coming into view.

 

Lots of little birds around and their chirping accompanied us for most of today’s walk but unlike the meadow pipets of 2 wks ago we couldn’t see these little birds quite so well, they were well hidden in the heather and gorse.

The top of Burnbank Fell was up and over a fence. No stile here so it was a hover over the wire whilst balancing on 2 rocks sort of manoeuvre but we managed it and then after the obligatory picture taking on the pile of rocks it was back over again to follow the path up to Blake Fell.

Quite a distinctive path and easy to follow and walk, not too steep but enough to keep your muscles working. The most noticeable change was the wind, the higher we got the more blustery it became and soon was very windy indeed. Luckily at the top of Blake Fell there is a little shelter and once hunkered down in that there was not even a breeze. Poke your head out and it was near blown off !!!!

We ate lunch here and I took my #summitselfie 

and then we were off again to our last hill of the day Gavel Fell. Down off Blake and then up the well marked path to Gavel we were passed by a man laying a scent for the trail hounds that would be on this route later in the day. It was spooky as I'd only listened to a programme about the trail hounds of the Lake District on Radio 4 earlier in the week and here was the man, laying the scent of paraffin and aniseed for the dogs to follow later, just like was mentioned in the radio programme. Pity we wouldn't still be there when the dogs came over as I'm sure that would be an incredible sight to see.

Gavel Fell touched and ticked and it was time to head downwards. We followed the path south and then took a sharp left which skirted us round the fell with Hen Coomb on our right we were reminded of the day we were there, back in 2012 when Chris reached his 100^th Wainwright milestone. It was a gentle path down and the path gently lead us round and down until we were almost back at the car park, no before we happened upon a field of sheep with one only too happy to have his picture taken. 

Great walk, great weather and 3 more boxes ticked. I wonder what we'll do with the rest of the day???