Hi Jill, it was Jayne Hill's idea for me to use the first comment slot to include a walk description. I think it works quite well, although I do wish I could edit my comments and I wish the format allowed for paragraphs. I'll continue to do it for the interesting walks. I've never seen a sight like those caterpillars. The really strange this is that there seemed to be more of them on the (faint) path than there were to either side of it. Caterpillars in a mass suicide pact - whatever next?

said fornside 2007.05.27 at 14:52:21 PDT

Fornside Chronicle - my description of this walk. We started off up the bridleway at Horsemoor Hills and headed to the excellent viewpoint above Brockle Crag and then headed steeply up the Great Cockup. Because the day had the only good weather forecast of the bank holiday weekend everyone who was in the Lakes had resolved to get a good long walk in yesterday. Cockup was reached easily enough and we then headed for the wonderfully named pass of Trusmadoor before making the ascent to Meal Fell where we had lunch in the summit shelter. A simple ascent to Great Scafell followed and then we turned our eyes to Knott. I have been up Knott three times before - each time I was on my own with not a soul in sight. This time the fell was crawling with people with about 18 on the summit as we approached! But they all left in a hurry just before we arrived! ;) Although Ann and I have done all the Wainwrights before, neither of us had done the traverse from Knott to Great Calva. It proved to be as strightforward as it looked but it was remarkable for on odd phenomenon. On the descent from Knott to the col before Great Calva we could not avoid treading on what must have been thousands (maybe millions?) of Caterpillars. Each was about an inch long and brown in colour and they ceovered the ground for a distance of several hundred yards. The terrain was a mix of short grass, bilberry and heather. Great Calva was another busy summit with difficulty in taking photographs without stray people getting in shot. An easy descent to Little Calva followed and then a very steep descent alongside a fence to the top of Whitewater Dash. Fortunately this was a descent of only a few hundred feet but (in descent) the path was difficult with the heather being a bit of a pain. A short detour to photograph the waterfall and then it was an easy walk back to Peterhouse. 8.76 miles of wonderful walking with Five Wainwrights, four of which were new ones for Jo.

said fornside 2007.05.27 at 04:23:43 PDT