I arrived at the large layby around 5:30pm and parked up behind another car whose occupants had just left, one chap who was running closely followed by his mate on a bike. It was still hot with little to no wind and during the time it took me to lace up my boots my car was being attacked by so many flies I dared not leave the boot open through fear of more entering, the pesky sod's saw me leave earlier and quicker than I had intended but I just couldn't hang around any longer.
I picked up the path just behind the layby which at times, lead through shoulder high bracken before passing through a metal gate and more bracken. I'd only been walking for the best part of five minutes and already I had a fight on my hands which was when it occurred to me that I may have to repeat this later while wearing a head torch, something that I really didn't want to be doing. Right I said, you ain't going back through that later so I recalculated my timings (i.e. time spent at the summit ect) so I'd at least have the last light on my return.
I'm heading for the ridge seen in the distance which is divided by Miller Gill but first I have to cross Townend Gill. |