Thursday afternoon, 24th May 2012, saw us traveling up to Calder Bridge on the far western fringe's of the Lake District as we were attending a wedding the following day. The big day belonged to a girl that we have known for about 26 years as she is our neighbours daughter. The wedding took place at Low Wood Hall, Nether Wasdale and what a fantastic place to get married as the sun shone and the Wasdale fells of Whin Rigg & Illgill Head provided a stunning backdrop.
The Bride & Groom, Nicci & Chris, looked great together on their big day
After the ceremony we all made our way back to the Sella Park Country House, Calder Bridge, for a fantastic reception and party in fantastic surroundings. You wouldn't think that the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing site is just across the fields
But with the River Calder running through the woods of the country house grounds, you could be a million miles from anywhere
After the wedding ceremony it was time to relax and have a few drinks before heading into the marque for the traditional wedding celebrations
A big thanks to Nicci & Chris for for an excellent wedding and we hope that the future brings you lots of happiness together
CHEERS :-)
Well after all those celebrations the day before and the weather being as hot as ever, we decided that we'd have a walk around one of the near by lakes before we made our way home. As we have been to Wast Water before, we decided that Ennerdale would be the perfect place as there was access all the way round. It didn't disappoint. The view down Ennerdale Water with Great Borne to the left and High Stile in the far background
We made our way round to Anglers Crag but we decided to stay on the path that took us around the bottom of this as we just couldn't be bothered to do any climbing, even though it was only a small climb
This is where we get our first view of Pillar, to the right, with High Stile to the left, that dominates the valley
This was turning out to be a great peaceful walk with the sun beating down but luckily there was quite a breeze blowing down the valley that made it much more bearable, otherwise we might of fried!! :-)
We did find a bit of shelter amongst the trees where we rested and took in the views
We made our way through the trees and came out at The Side before making our way round to the end of Ennerdale and had half an hour basking in the sun sat on the beach :-)
It was such a peacful location that even the locals were taking it easy
As we came out of the fields and crossed the bridge to take us onto the forest road, there was a distinct lack of water in the River Liza
This part of the walk is very straight forward as you stay on the forest road for quite a bit, passing numerous pic-nic areas along the shore line of Ennerdale Water. We took advantage of one of these and dipped our feet in the water. Despite the soaring temperatures, the water was freezing and I wouldn't of liked to go for a swim, no matter how inviting it looked!!
We followed the road round to Bowness Knott Car Park where we again had a rest stop and took in the views from Pillar to Anglers Crag.
A bit further round and the wind started to whip down the valley and stir the water into life again
And it made life awkward for a couple in a canoe who were trying there hardest against the wind
All what was left to do was make it back round to the Bleach Green car park. A great end to a great weekend in the far western region of the Lake District, taking in a Wedding and a Lake :-)
Saturday May 5th 2012 saw me back in the Ogwen Valley Snowdonia and camping at the Gwern Gof Isaf campsite just down the road from the mighty Tryfan. This was only meant to be a short walk up to Pen yr Helgi Du and back down again using the service road to the Flynnon Llugwy opposite the campsite. It did however turn into a 6 & 1/2 hours of pure pleasure taking in the third highest summit of Carnedd Llywelyn and generally having a leisurely walk around this great area.
The view from my tent of the route I was to take
The first part of the service road is a bit of a struggle and takes a bit of huffing and puffing as it goes straight up from the road. It soon starts to get less steep and then you can concentrate on the views ahead and the ones behind.
This is the view towards the Ogwen Valley with Tryfan, Glyder Fach, Y Garn & Pen yr Ole Wen taking centre stage
and the way ahead towards Bwlch Eryl Farchog and the way up to my two summits for the day
Despite high cloud and cool temperatures it was feeling quite warm when the sun came out. There was very little in the way of wind and it was a pleasure to be out and about in these conditions. Once I arrived at the Flynnon Llugwy it was time to leave the road and take the path that leads to the top of the ridge
once at the top of the path the views began to open up even more with a great view down the ascent path with Moel Siabod, The Glyderau, Tryfan and the campsite below the sparkling Flynnon Llugwy
And the view down the other side of the ridge towards the old quarry buildings below and across the valley towards Craig Eigiau
After looking around for ten minutes or so I took the path that led up the very pleasent and short scramble to the summit of Pen yr Helgi Du
Once at the summit, the views all around were clear, the air was cool and I had the place to myself.
Great :-)
It was that clear that Snowdon was poking its head out from behind the Glyders
I decided to have a look around the plateau and have a bit of lunch just taking it all in. It was at this point I decided to go up to Carnedd Llewelyn as I was in no rush and had plenty of time on my side. Also the weather was being kind and there wasn't that many people knocking about. I wonder if that was the case across the way as the train huffed and puffed up the Llanberis track!!
So it was back down and onwards towards Llywelyn where I came across some climbers having fun climbing up from Cwm Eigiau far below
There was quite a biting wind blowing up the gulley and it looked hard work but good fun.
This is looking back at there climb that shows how high it is
Time to move on and get away from the biting wind blowing up this ridge. It must of been really cold climbing up there and I for one was glad to be able to get away from it and in the relatively warm walk up to Carnedd Llywelyn where there was still patches of snow lying about. Again the views opened up around from the rocky summit plateau.
After hanging around for a good 45 minutes it was time to make my decent, going back the same way with good views all the way down the valley
I decided that I would ignore the way down towards Flynnon Llugwy
And continue on back upto Pen yr Helgi Du and make my way down from there. Its an easy enough path to follow as its quite a broad grassy plateau
with some great views over towards the Ogwen Valley
and dead ahead towards Moel Siabod
The path down was soon found and joined up with the service road as I was looking right down into the view that occupies much of this walk
From here on it was just a case of a gentle walk down the road and back to camp
which was now bathed in sunshine
as was the whole of the days walk.
At the end of the day I met some friends and went for a meal at the Plas y Brenin Mountain Centre and took the opportunity to get a photo of my favourite view of the Snowdon Horseshoe as the sun was going down about 9.15pm. A great end to a great day of my weekend in the Ogwen Valley Snowdonia
This is a short video I took while having lunch at the summit of Pen yr Helgi Du
