Blogging at 18:15 on Friday 28th June from N 54.61610°, W 03.10820° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:54.61610%2C-03.10820
We woke in thick cloud this morning, which put paid to any more spectacular views. First up, we drove the short but very pretty road to Tan Hill where we dumped the truck and took the bikes out over a gorgeous gravel track that runs back to Bowes (pic). As well as really enchanting scenery, the birdlife was grand with loads of curlew in full call, snipe, golden plover, oystercatchers and wheeling lapwings.
One compulsory cafe stop in Bowes later, we returned to the truck and then had a bumble north to the coordinates shown at the foot of Skiddaw where we're hoping to kip.
The predicted heatwave's arrived here and it's sweltering. Instant summer! Even the grasshoppers are stridulating like it's the 1970s, ie before we'd managed to decimate their populations. It's grand to hear.
The weather could not be more different from the last time I had sight of the zig-zag path up Skiddaw. Last time I was here my brother and I ran the peak in a white-out. It was singularly the most reckless thing I've ever done. We were one stroke of luck away from being in real trouble.
Anyway, we're in the area now to try to fulfill Emma's obsession by completing Whinlatter parkrun in the morning. It's by some considerable way the hardest parkrun, (with the most height gain) in the country. I suspect that the heatwave isn't going to be especially helpful...
Sent from my Nexus 4