Camping In Glenridding

On Tuesday as the weather was set to be dry for a few days we packed up the camping gear & headed for one of our favourite camp sites in Glenridding by Ullswater.

The camp site was very quiet so Crag enjoyed chasing around after a ball

Crag also helping Andy blow the airbed up (note the ball left on it)

We went for a little walk to allow Crag to have a splash in Ullswater.  Looking up at Arnison Crag which was to be our  first fell on Wednesday

And splash he did!

Arnison Crag with Birks (our second) to the right

Wednesday dawned bright with some sun & clouds so we set off for our first fell

We followed this wall until we were just short of the summit.  According to the map we are walking up Oxford Crag.

As we climb Ullswater starts to come into view

Nearly there we have left the wall just up the bank and a small scramble to the summit

The summit of Arnison Crag (433m)

Looking across to our next fell Birks

Arnison Crag summit with Ullswater in the background

It’s a day of following walls, this is the wall we will follow almost to the summit of Birks.  What was a bit rough was we had a drop down before the steep climb up.

From the bottom it looks even steeper

Looking back at Arnison Crag with Place Fell behind

We slowly make progress up the bank

St. Sunday Crag our third fell starts to come into view.

It’s not much of a summit but we have made it to Birks (622m)

There is only a small drop off Birks before we start on the highest fell of the day St. Sunday Crag.

A clear but steep path takes us to the summit

We can see more of Ullswater from up here

Once on the summit Fairfield is one of many fells you can see

Bowfell (just left of centre) which we were up a few weeks ago & Scafell Pike

A short view of the panorama on the summit.  It’s one of the few fells where you feel like you are in the middle of The Lakes as there are fells in all directions

Summit Video

St. Sunday Crag (841m)

 

We have just started our descent, we are over 800m up & not a tree in sight on the fell, but Crag has found a stick!

We retrace our steps down to the col with Birks, but rather than go over it again we take the lower path to the left.

Ullswater & Glenridding look a long way away.

And we are nearly down, looking back across at Arnison Crag

Again a really enjoyable camping trip & a fell with amazing views, let’s hope we can keep these trips up over the summer.

European Athletics Team Championships

Yesterday we were treated along with our friends Joyce & Ian to the first day of The European Athletics Team Championships in Gateshead.
We left with enough time to go & visit The Angel of The North

We were in the stadium a few minutes before the action began.  We thought we had good tickets & we really did.  We were 4 rows up just above the long jump / triple jump pit & this close to the finish line.

Across the stadium to the other stand which overlooked the pole vault.

And to our left the finishing straight

Johnathan Edwards in the BBC mixed area

Colin Jackson in there too

Our female triple jumper Yamile Aldama who finished 4th

Across the stadium to Holly Bleasdale who failed to clear a height & got 0 points for the team.

After about an hour the events on the track started, Dai Greene who finished 2nd in the 400m hurdles.

Jessica Judd who held off the Russian to win the 800m & record the first Team GB & NI win

Laura Weightman who finished 2nd in the 3000m

Then the first Team GB gold medallist Greg Rutherford comes out to warm up for the long jump.

Eilidh Child wins the 400m hurdles

The long jumpers arrange their markers to start their run up

Greg Rutherford being introduced to the crowd.  The Russian on the left ultimately won the event with Greg coming 3rd.

Greg walks on gold!

Preparing for his first jump

Then double gold medallist Mo Farah is in action in the 5000m

Mo ran with the pack until the last lap which he sprinted off & recorded a 50.89 last lap! Needless to say all the crowd were on their feet.

Mo did a lap of honour

The leaderboard before the final event which was the mens 4x100m which Team GB won to cap off an amazing afternoon of athletics.  As they have to cram everything into 2 days you are really treated to an array of entertainment as there was high jump, javalin, shot & hammer along with many other track events all in 4.5 hours.  We will definitely go again to another athletics meet in Gateshead.


We also now appreciate how lucky we were with the weather, this picture was taken from the BBC's coverage today!