This walk is months in the making and has been tweaked by David, which originally visited the Langdale Pikes before changing the route for an excursion over Lingmoor Fell owing to how busy the Pikes will be now that it's the school holidays, and unlike the original walk, David made this route into a two-car walk starting from Grasmere and ending in Elterwater.

Silver How, and Lingmoor Fell, I can hear you saying, sounds like a breeze? All I can say is the route isn't to be underestimated, with ascents and descents aplenty with the tricky descent of Megs Gill thrown in. The length of time it took to complete the walk even surprised David. Anyway, that just meant more fell time, right? While Rod planned to meet us at the layby outside Grasmere, I had arranged to meet David at the parking spaces outside Elterwater around 6:45am. Arriving early around 6:30am, I found David had just parked up. After a good stretch, we exchanged our thoughts on the forecast before I swapped my gear into David's car and before we knew it, we were heading to Grasmere.

After crossing the top of the headwall, the ravine appeared steeply below to our left; surprisingly, we spotted a chap topping out at the head of the ravine, having just ascended the gill proper. The walls of the ravine were steep, and care had to be taken to reach the gill below.

The gill itself was crossed with one stride; the trouble was, there weren't many places to put your feet on the other side! With steep-sided walls we found a faint path to follow, side-stepping where we could until the ground began to level out.

We joined the Cumbrian Way and passed an almost full Baysbrown Farm campsite, where our noses were treated to the smell of cooked breakfast, before flanking Great Langdale Beck just a stone's throw away to our right, all the while the Langdale Pikes dominated the skyline ahead. Continuing along the C-W, we passed through Oak Howe, where a large stone barn overshadowed a nearby farm house.

The path forked left back towards Baysbrown campsite where we head right and eventually caught up to a group of D.O.E, students each carrying the equivalent of their body weight on their backs. Some were even in full waterproofs; others were in T-shirts. We converged at a gate, and courteously let them go through first before Rod asked one girl, "Are you enjoying your day?" No, I'm not, she replied. We weren't sure if she was joking or being sarcastic, but it wasn't exactly a good mindset if they were heading for the high fells via Esk Hause later.

With the summit behind us we left the crowds behind, passing two girls no older than seven or eight having the time of their lives, their father in tow quite some distance back happy to leave them to it. It was great to see the young ones enjoying their fell time. Bellies rumbled, and we agreed to continue off the shoulder, where we knew a stone bench lay in wait. Would it be occupied though? The bench came into view, and so did a family of four who were on the move - "I "think they're leaving" Our timing was spot on. It was the first time we'd stopped all day, well into the day, in fact, and we were all a tad surprised at how long and how much the route had taken out of us.

We tucked into a well overdue lunch in silence whilst taking in the views of distant Windermere and Ill Bell ridge. Groaning, we stood to our feet and re-shouldered packs light of their food with hydration on the dwindle. Continuing our descent, we agreed that instead of descending as far as Dale End, we'd take the old quarry track, where we passed a solo walker walking with a prosthetic leg with two dogs in tow. The guy appeared on a bend, and it came as a shock quickly followed by admiration. I squared him in the eye. "You ok, pal?" Of course he bloody was. We left the guy to it, continuing our descent as Baysbrown campsite came back into view, as did Megs Gill and Silver How, where I spotted half a dozen dotted about its summit. We had descended into heat and humidity as we left the quarry track behind in place of Burlington Quarry.

On the other side of the quarry buildings, our path continued to descend, where we came into line with Great Langdale Beck - Silence until we rounded a bend in the river to be met with children boulder hopping in the water while grandparents looked on. Last half mile now until the hustle of Elterwater and its famous oak tree in front of a packed Britannia Inn which is the kind of pub I'd be happy to skip by, but those pints and wooden benches didn't half look inviting.