15k Walk to the Ice Cream Parlour

Wainwrights: Latrigg, Lonscale Fell

Boll.. s!!! I just wrote a nice blog post for about 30 mins and lost it all... It's gone. All that work. Well, here we go again.

Had a good night's sleep not even needing earplugs as the high winds had mostly gone.
Rich had cooked a ginormous pot of tasty chilli and we had watched some Amazon Prime afterwards,  slouching on our new low camping chairs in the porch with the iPad propped up on our new low table.  Perfect!

Had some chocolate and banana pancakes in the morning before we finally moved to Castlerigg Campsite. Now that the back hols were over we had almost free choice of space. 

Pitched and left around 11am for today's walk opting for a loop straight from the campsite, heading for our chosen ice cream parlour in town via a hill or two. 

Again I was in tank top and shorts so far up North whilst Bristol was getting rain and thunderstorms.

Down the road we walked, crossed the river and enjoyed a nice wooded section as we skirted Latrigg's South slope to the West. 

We joined the Cumbria Way for a short section and then headed pretty much straight up to Latrigg's top through a support steep wood and then open hill side. 

Views from the top were absolutely jaw dropping and I had been keen to show Rich one of the numerous viewpoints like this you find around Keswick. That's why I like the area so much. A grand view is never far.

Down we went to the car park, which was only 300m down a great slope.  Most people had come this way today. It was busy but not too crazy.

I normally don't like touristy and popular places like this, but if that means I can get a decent coffee than I quickly shut up. And no, the cafe on Snowdon does not count!!!

Indeed,  there was a coffee van at the car park just when we thought how much money an ice cream van would make here on a day like this. 

We settled for coffees and had a lunch break in the sun. Awesome!

Eventually, we got up again around 2pm to do some more walking. After all we had a date at the ice cream parlour in town, right?

The mighty hunks of Skiddaw and Little Man were looming to the left, the sombre Blencathra range rising to the right. Most people chose either of the two for their next target. We chose Lonscale Fell,  the unassuming fell right in between its famous neighbours. 

Headed East towards Blencathra first,  then went once more very steeply uphill along a fence. What a slog it was. 

We were the only ones far and wide,  hiding and puffing whilst the only other mammals nearby were sheep, which eyed us like no other human being ever walks up here.

Eventually,  we got to the broad ridge at the top with core opening up over the back of Skiddaw and Blencathra which to me always feels like I'm looking at a well kept secret. Some hidden scenery that hardly anyone knows of. 

We walked to the East to of the ridge for a quick breather,  then to the actual top of Lonscale Fell. 

I assumed that there was going to be a good path down to the West to connect the Skiddaw and Blencathra ranges. It just made sense and although not on any of our maps, it was right there. 

We headed down it and eventually joined the broad gravel path that was coming down from Skiddaw. 

After some alone time on Lonscale we joined the more popular route again and walked all the way down into Keswick on the Cumbria Way. 

4:45pm we reached the first houses. Not knowing when our usual ice cream hang out was about to close we stopped at the first one that we passed by and were treated to some amazing Italian gelato!!!

Ciders in the... shade followed,  we'd had enough sun for the day. The food at the Square Orange,  a European style bistro which serves amazing pizzas and even more amazing cocktails. Strawberry Mojito.

We're quite pickled and pretty knackered now. Only a 25min uphill drag before showy and bed. A real Lakeland epic is waiting for us tomorrow!