Nearly skiing

 After a dusting of snow I headed for the Lake District  Ski Club.  I was late, the roads were covered, I had to go via Rhegged to defrost the windscreen.  I was later.  The Skoda is the worst car I've had for coping with snow so I parked in the main car park rather than risk the lane to Greenside  Mine.

Just as well as there was a Landrover in the ditch on the first hill.

By the time I was climbing the hill behind the mine I was nackered, carrying the heavy skiis and wearing the boots.

I got as far as the first plateau,  I told myself it was still a long way, conditions looked marginal to say the least.  Headed down for the car and Keswick for chips.

Yewbarrow

A strong, cold north easterly was forecast with cloud on the eastern fells. So we headed south west for , hopefully, the best weather. It clouded over but we did stay out of the cloud.

Scafell, across the valley, was also out of the clouds but everything further north was cloud capped.

We did not linger on the summit but scooted along the top until there was an "off road " escape to the valley and somewhere warm to eat the sandwiches.

Beda Fell

This must be my least visited area of the Lakes. It's quite a drive and I've never liked the narrow lane down the side of Ullswater. I parked on the hill above Martindale walked across the bridge and up onto the ridge.

This is an attractive ridge with good all round views. Martindale forest across the valley looks worth exploring.

After the summit and a few sandwiches I descended to Dale Head farm and the road. There's a gate just north of here with a track across the valley. If you wanted to explore the forest or climb Gowk Hill you would cross the valley here. Unfortunately walkers are forbidden.

The excuse seems to be that it's a deer park. The real reason seems to be that the Bungalow is a Holiday cottage. So the cottage occupants don't seem to be upsetting the deer.

I guess if you went up the valley past the Bungalow deer might be encounterted, but to cross the valley north of the bungalow to climb Gowk hill would disturb nothing.

Interesting door lintel spotted on road side.

Winter Preparation

I had a bad cold at the weekend so took the opportunity to put the new cover on the campervan. I dont know how well these work , but we sustained frost damage to the water system last year. I've drained it more thoroughly this time.