Looking at rocks.

My dad worked at Shap Granite and I grew up in Tebay so I was always going to have an interest in geology.  From my house I could see the Silurian mud stones ( I believe these are now called the Windermere supergroup , Shap Granite, Carboniferous Limestone and Borrowdale volcanics.

It was time to look at rocks again.  I left the car at the Blencathra Centre and followed the path around above the Glenderaterra Beck.  The rocks being Skiddaw mudstones laid down in an ocean trench 480 million years ago.  This trip was to look at the Skiddaw Granite which is exposed in Sinen Gill. This is part of a batholith of granite underlying the Lake District, it intruded into the Skiddaw mudstones 400 million years ago.  The heat metamorphosed the mudstones and as you get closer to Sinen Gill the mudstones gradually change.

The first gill is about half a mile from the granite and the mudstones have developed white crystals of chiastolite.  As you walk further the mudstones get harder and become hornfels often with dark spots of cordierite.  Eventually in Sinen Gill you come across a 2m high waterfall of granite blocks.

The granite is pale in colour and is exposed in the beck bottom.

On the surrounding slopes are some very hard examples of the folded hornfels.

Not an expert so apologies for any inaccuracies.

Backpacking Food

 

First we made a beef mince stew with onions and carrots and then added frozen peas.

We have a couple of plastic trays but just use parchment paper to stop the stew running through on the rest.

At the same time as the stew we dried a sauce bought at Aldi.  These dry down to next to nothing and can be added to almost any stewy type meal.

The finished stew was spooned onto the trays.

The stew was then dried for 24 hours or so in the dehydrator.  It was cooked in camp in a plastic bag inside a home made cosey.  We like to use bowls to eat from and these are extremely light.  By cooking in a plastic bag the pan is still clean and can be used to make tea or coffee whilst the meal is cooking.
The meal above has had some smash powdered potato added.

This meal has had pasta added to it.  The remains of the plastic cooking bag and the cosey are also in the picture.

The dehydrator is made by L'Equip and shortly after producing these meals the element burned out.  This is the second time this has happened, the first occasion was under a year and I got it replaced .  I have had it a while now so I contacted the manufacturers with a view to purchasing an element.   If it's customer care you 're after don't use this make .  They have not even acknowledged my e mails.
Unless they respond shortly I will have to purchase a different make to process my meals for the summer hols.