The Plan

Looking at a calendar last week we realised that we were running out of time before our next walk to pop up to Keswick. Mick had two pairs of boots to return to George Fisher, which we really should have done a good six weeks ago, and delaying further wasn’t going to help us to get refunds on them.

So, it was a bit of a late decision that we would drive up there on Thursday morning. It would, of course, be rude to drive all of the way up there without taking some level of advantage of the hills, so the plan encompassed spending a night.

The proper way to plan such an excursion is, in my opinion, to spread the approrpriate map(s) across the floor and pore over them.

In the absence of paper maps (because we weren't at home when the plan was hatched) we had to resort to looking at Anquet maps on a computer screens. Not ideal, but it was all that we had available.

A couple of potential areas to visit sprang to mind, but mindful of the fact that it is the week of a Bank Holiday and thus was likely to be rather busy up in Lakeland, I dismissed my first thought of parking on Honister Pass and heading up Dale Head and taking in a high-level route around that area.

My next thought was of the northern fells. More cursor work on Anquet Maps saw a vague plan (being generous in the use of the word ‘plan’ here):

- Start at the road-end beyond Mosedale

- Head up towards Lingey Hut

- Head over to Knott

- Then over to Great Sca Fell

- Then over to Meall Fell

- Then to Great Cockup (purely because I've wanted to go up it ever since I saw it's silly name on a map)

- Then somehow back to the car

That’s as far as the planning went. All we needed to do was pack and go.