A Lands End to John o'Groats cycle via the Three Peaks

Day 12. Thursday, 09/06/2011: Old Dungeon Ghyll, Langdale to Scafell Pike to Threlkeld

Actual walking distance 19km. Walking ascent 1107m. Total walking distance 31km. Total walking ascent 2125m.

Actual riding distance 39km. Ascent 419m. Total distance 1191km. Total ascent 11961m.

Start of walk to Scafell Pike.

The weather today was a mixture of sunshine and heavy showers. We had a later start than normal because the hotel did not serve breakfast until 8:30 AM.

Colourful sheep in Langdale.

In retrospect what we should have done was have our cereal at 7:30 AM, do the walk, then come back to the hotel for our cooked breakfast for lunch. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Rossett Gill.

We had a very light shower just as we were starting but the skies cleared and the sun shone on and off for most of our climb. When we were just a few hundred metres away from the summit we could see cloud building up around the top of an adjacent, lower peak and very soon the summit of Scafell Pike was shrouded in mist.

View back down Langdale.

When we arrived on the summit there was little to be seen but soon the mist cleared and we were able to get a reasonable view. We asked another climber to take photos of us on the summit but I think it would be fair to say that he was not a photographer and had certainly never used a video camera before.

Shelter at Esk Hause.

With lunch consumed and the temperature dropping we beat a gentle retreat down the mountain ever conscious of the heavy rain showers that were tipping down all over the place. We nearly made it back dry but unfortunately we got caught in quite heavy rain with two or 3 km to go. Back at the hotel we had to repack our walking kit in our big bag but could not do so as our rucksacks were soaking wet.

First good view of Scafell Pike.

The hotel had a commercial size tumble dryer that took all of our wet kit and dried it while we had a cup of tea. We finally packed the bag and our panniers and set-off for Threlkeld. The traffic on the narrow roads was just as bad as it had been yesterday with people trying to squeeze past or overtake into the face of oncoming traffic. Our route took us down into Ambleside and then up over the hill before descending towards Threlkeld where we again arrived at a decent time.