 I plotted a challenging three-day route in the Lake District to help me reconnect with nature and to push my body over some of the highest mountains in the UK. The weather was unforgiving at times but it did little to dampen my spirits as I soaked in the glorious scenery and let Mother Nature do as she's always done. Join me as I take on some of the highest peaks the UK has to offer, all the while making time to appreciate the natural beauty and remote wilderness of the English Lake District. Leave it nice and tidy. Away we go, bang on eight o'clock. Slept well but the tent mate. What's this boggy marzaphin? I'll go around. I'll go around. I don't mind getting wet foot but it's a bit early. Bit early for baza wet foot. It's the same story and I had it in winter but it was windy as well so the wind was knocking the condensation off and it was like it was raining in the tent. That wasn't as bad and it wasn't dripping on me but you know there was just so lots of it and where you're sleeping bag touches the tent that gets wet when you sit up it just gets on your head and now me tent's all wet in bag and I slept with the door open as well. What more can I do? I've had condensation when I've just been bivy camping and just used a tarp above me. If there's no wind and last night there wasn't any wind then I guess it's just science in it. You're just going to get condensation and I have to deal with it. Bring a little, you know bring a little sponge or a cloth to wipe it off with and just bat on. No danger. Hey mate. You're looking fella. Right off up that way. Legs feel alright. I must have done about, I don't know, I only did about 13 miles yesterday but I did set off at about one o'clock. The thing is is you can put a shifting out here but and not done as many miles as you think because you're climbing other things like this so you put a lot of work in for not a lot of distance so you have to lower your expectations when it comes to distance. You know like on for example the south downs way because it's down south it's pretty flat there's no really to go out so you can bust out 30 miles in a day and just do big numbers because it's flat as a witch's toot but you can't up here. It's a different ballgame. Steak pass, S house. Last time me and Fern took on steak pass this time it's S house up another this beast. This is the first real leg pumper of the day and this gets me up on to tops and then we stay on the tops and we head over towards Skyfell Pike and down, round, up of a great gable. Honest there. There's a lot of big elevations today and I don't know I don't know how much I'll get done. I have no idea. I'm a bit dehydrated. I've not been smashing as much water as I should because I foolishly bought the two litres of sparkling water and I've been decanting it into my little water and shaking it and taking lid off just to try and take edge off of the fizz but it's hard to quaff it. My air fizzy water. No sign of rain. There's a few threatening clouds and it is forecast for lightning and all sorts of weather conditions today and tomorrow but so far so good. It's still not quite there yet but the views are amazing. Look at that down the valley there. There's a bit of a mist in the air. It's threatening to rain but it's holding off. It drizzling a little bit but the temperature's definitely dropping. It's taken me about an hour to get up here from campsite and I'm looking for some water to dip in man. It was muggy down there. The air is getting a bit cooler up here and it's a bit more refreshing but down there I was thinking I'll just jump in a puddle. I don't care. Definitely want to freshen up though. Come on. It's mad. I can see the rain bouncing on the town but it's not on me. The wind's blowing this way. Like it's raining there but not here. Crazy times. Stick around for more obvious things like that when I explain to you how it's sunny in one side of the country and not at the other. How come it's not night time everywhere? The rains have come. It did just bat it down. I got my jacket on that thankfully isn't waterproof but it's keeping wind chill off me and these clouds look pretty ominous mate. There's reports of like thunder and lightning and if that's the case if it's lightning I'm going to start heading down just off the peaks because it ain't worth getting zapped but we'll see it's taking a turn for worse anyway. I was going to go for a swimming angle time but it's cold now. Temperatures drop right off since I've got up here. Right I'm going to find a little bit of rock to sit up against and have some of me fizzy water and a bit of a rest. Rest the legs and then we'll head on up that monster over there look. See you think you've climbed all the way up and then all big boys are up there. It's bouncing. Bouncing down now but it's beautiful. It's such a lovely sound. I'm cold. This thing ain't waterproof. I'm woefully under prepared for it rain. Well by that I mean I just don't have my waterproof jacket. It is lovely. I'll show you. Come. Come on. It's coming for me. I'm about to be engulfed. So I was soaking wet quite chilly and now just as we're heading up to the highest part of the Lake District, Scarfell. It's taking it out of me I tell you. It's taking it out of me. Cold and wet and intense wet as well. I think it's forecast to clear up around five or six. So I'll see what state of play is there, how cold and where I am and where I am. And if the sun comes out, you doubt it will. But if it does, I'll just wild camp and hopefully dry all my stuff in the sun. But it starts low innit. I was hoping to get some quality views once I'd got to the top at Big Boy and it's this. The whiteout. A bit of respite in this shelter from the wind. I do have like a thin merino wool layer that if you forget too cold I'll bang that on because merino wool keeps you warm even when it's wet. In fact I might do that because it's chilly innit. It is chilly. Should we see if there's a nicer one? People just leave shit tickets everywhere. Scruffy, scruffy people. You can't see, you can just make it out in the fog. We're going all the way up there. It's just been like, it's a fair old slog. But I'm going to get my merino wool layer on just to have a bit of respite from this wind and cold. Take five minutes to see if it blows over and then head further up. It's cleared up a bit. I've got my merino wool layer on. We should just take an edge off that to the coldness and it's cleared up a bit and I'm heading up over here and we'll go top out on Scarfell and hopefully the clouds stay off so we can get the views from on top of there. I just bumped into a couple and they must be in England like on holiday. Just wearing just the maddest stuff. No bags or anything like that. Asking me back there where Scarfell Pike was. I was like, have you not got a map? They're like, no, no. We're just sort of asking people. I thought, that's risky business. On a day like today when it can instantly, you know, within seconds it can just be white out. It's forecast thunder, lightning, heavy rains throughout the day and they're just wandering around asking. Hoping that they'll find someone because not many people out today because of weather. Hoping they'll just find people to ask where to go. Best of luck. I'll say that it's that way. Follow me if you want but I don't think they can keep up. So I think they'll be all right. I've given them, I've shown them mapping, told them where to go. I hope they're all right anyway. All right, here's a bit of a leg pumper. Just making my way through all these stones. Thankfully people have made cairns leading the way through and over there in the distance is the summit of Scarfell. Still a way to go through this labyrinth of stones. Stopping. I'm stopping. It's 12 o'clock. I'm not eating out. Eat nature. Don't mind if I do. Oh, don't mind if I do. Oh, that floor is wet as fuck. Steepest like steep scree. Still not, still not there. Feels like since I woke up just been going uphill. Last push to the top of there. Might have a mouthful of fizzy water. I've got a like a porridge and a couple of real termat meals but I don't think, I don't fancy like warm fizzy porridge. It's not the one is it? So I'll have a glug of fizzy water and then we're going to head down from Scarfell to Wastill Head eventually and I know there's an alehouse there. So hopefully get a bike to eat, fill me waters up, have a rest and then do what I did yesterday. I think is just leave the pub, hike for an hour or so, find some way to keep jobs of doughnut. There we have the summit of Scarfell Pike, done and dusted. I mean you'd be pushed to get that to yourself really. It's a very popular climb and what I'm thinking as I'm walking over all this scree and it's hurting my feet in my trail run there's a little bit. I'm thinking how on earth did I do that barefoot? There's the top. Oh my god, I feel a bit emotional. No, no, no. Save it. Save it. Oh, it's because of having no sleep and that. And you know, do it. Oh my god. There you go. Yes, mate. I don't know if tooting camoons feet or something like that. Yeah, just saw man, real saw. No blood. No blood. Not broke my skin. The toes are breaking up. Look at that. Hand from bottom. That was the last time I was on this mountain. I didn't have any socks and shoes on. A wonderful time. Couldn't do it again. Right, I'm getting hungry now and thirsty. I could always filter some water and just get on it but I might just wait. I've still got a bit of fizzy clover. I celebrated up there with a little sip of fizzy water. Yes, reckless. I know. Proper chunky mountain range. This one, like some beasts up here. But for me, it's a bit too popular and people come from all over the world to to climb it. So you never have top to yourself really and I think you're better off just climbing ones that are a little bit shorter than it and just unless you want to clock scar fell then fair enough. But it's not my favorite, I don't think. You're going to rescue that fella? Where is it? He's about five minutes from the river. This side? No, the other side of the river. He's not broken anything or strained out. I asked. He says he was just tired because so he didn't want to fall over again. No, he's just round that corner up there. I can't remember whether I told you about that guy I passed, but I passed the guy and he was just outside. I was like, are you all right, mate? I could see that he'd cut his shin. Now it's big, just a little bit. We're cut on shin. I says, are you all right, mate? Is it broken or sprained or out? And he was like, no. Was I laughing? I was like, no. And I was like, can I do anything? I've got first aid kit and do you want arm and a yoghurt bar or whatever it is? I've got off with him and some stuff. Now I'm all right. He says, oh no, someone has come past already and formed mountain rescue for me. I was like, all right, must be bad then, eh? And he was like, no, I'm just tired. He says he's just tired. He's there. Look up there where that mountain rescue got. I can't, I'm just tired. I'm tired. But I mean, fair enough, he's tired and he might go ass off a tit again and whatever, but that's the choice that, you know, you chose to come up this mountain. If you're tired, just have a rest then come back down. There's one, two, three, one, two, three, four people, five, four blokes in a woman going up there, mountain rescue with alt clobber to carry him down because he's tired. I just feel like if you, if you haven't got the engine for it, don't do it. And that's what I'm learning about. Skyfell Pike is lovely. It's a beautiful hike and all that, but it's too busy. There's too many humans, I see. There's a lot of litter and there's a lot of people like your man there who's just, they think it's easy and he just wants a free ride. Like I felt like he just wanted a free ride down, like getting carried because if leg ain't broke or straight, he just hurt his shin and then said, oh, I'm tired and I don't want to fall over again. Get like, you know, start, just do a little bit of it. It's no point in trying to gun it out with at top if you, if you haven't got the engine for it. So yeah, you do need, you do, you need a bit of fitness if you're going to be doing Skyfell Pike. It's no mean feat. Maybe I'm just being a bit harsh because I'm, I'm hungry. I'm hungry and I'm tired. I should have got a lift down. I'll sit on, I'll sit on top of him on stretcher. Take me to a pub. We're nearly there guys. We're nearly at bottom, bottom of Skyfell. Nice little counterweight. Now this, look at that. That is you. So that is, a lot of people use this gate because it's a Skyfell Pike in it. It's the Skyfell Pike gate. It's a lot going on. Oh, right. Well, it's a counterweight, but it's like, it's like a kissing gate, but it doesn't really need that. It doesn't really need that because that's so, that counterweight. I reckon that's capped it and they've put counterweight on after it's capped it, but look at that smooth, smooth as you like. I'm done there. That's good. That's good. There she blows. The ale house of dreams. Please be open. Please be open. Please be open. Getting, you can say hello to your missies or plug anything you want to plug. There you go. There's Knuckles, Knuckles with a camera. It didn't happen. There we go. Sound job, mate. Sound job. There we go. Pubbing the background and I'm back off. It's maybe about six o'clock. I had a good feed, fishing chips and some prawns. It was a whale. Someone bought me a pint. Thanks very much. Did I need it? No. Was it welcomed? Yes. I was tempted to stay in campsite there, but it is only about six o'clock, sir. I would only be twiddling my thumbs, wouldn't I? That's where I'm going. Up there. So it'd be nice to find somewhere in the valley. It seems pretty calm down here at least. The clouds aren't moving over quick. Up there, sir. That tells me it's quite mild. Hey, mate. Oh, I did you cross the road? There you go. There's one. There's one such as that. Come on. It's one on top of Benchluck. So you can carry on up there. It's more of a gradual route up, but I'm off up here, which is pretty savage. I'll keep going. If I can find somewhere to camp on the way, I will, because I'm pretty knackered now. I've come back down. I've got a couple of hundred metres up. I was looking at my OS map and it didn't look like anywhere flattened out, and I would have had to put a proper shifting to get right up there, and I still don't know if there would be anywhere for me to camp. So I made the executive and lightweight decision to come back down into the valley and do another night in the valleys. Man, because it is beautiful. And at least I know I can get some, oh, fuck, oh, there's wet foot just before bed. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant bog foot. All right, it's nice and flat, and then we can tackle that monster tomorrow. I've had enough. I've done some elevation today, mate, and I just want to pitch my tent and chill out. And I'll tell you something as well. These rocks, the beauty of this tent is that it just looks like a rock. It's like a graphite colour, isn't it? Like grey, just like a rock. Shall I go here? I think I'm just going to go here, mate. This is as good a place as any, isn't it? Oh yeah, this is it. This is it. You can't even bother to do any fancy transitions. I'm just broken. I'm knackered. Just here. That'll do. There we are, look. All set up. Obviously it's set and set up. No point in showing you through it. Lovely stuff. What a day. I've had all the weather today thrown at me. Lots of elevation. Oh, look at this. Last bit of sun, look. How beautiful. It's a lovely evening. I couldn't make it to the top of there. I just thought, right, get down here. It's eight o'clock, so I've done enough. Our midges are starting to get in, so I'll best go. Right, join me tomorrow where we take on that unit, great gable. And for now, I shall leave you in the capable hands, hopefully, of future me and everybody's favourite time, map time. And here we go. Map time. Something a bit different on this map time. Sometimes leaving these old school maps and heading face first into the future of map time. I'm going to be testing something new out and it could be the future of map time, but I'm going to slowly integrate it and we're going to still keep all school maps because I like the feel of them. I like the look of them. And I'm going to still keep the old maps, but we're going to integrate it with some new stuff. And it's just the future of map time. Everybody's favourite time. I woke up here and I set off. Now this is the Cumbria Way, which goes up here. Now I didn't go that way. I went left. This was quite savage up here. You can see by the compact contour lines how steep it is. It's very steep. I got to about here and the heavens opened over this stream. Then I went to have a little look at Angletown because it looked amazing with the rain bouncing off the water. On I went up and up. I took refuge around here, put my marina wool layer on, had a little sip of fizzy water and then on I went up here. This is where I saw that couple who were just, they're probably still there now to be honest. They were pointing up here and they were like, is that Scarfell Pike? I was like, no mate, no mate, it's that way, but I don't know. Good luck. Best of luck to you. On I went up here. You really do lose the path up here. It's just a lot of stones and boulders, but thankfully people have put cairns so you can sort of make your way through it. I stopped up here for a little break to take in the scenery. On I went. There are some, look, you can see here again with these contour lines, steeped down into this little valley and then steeped back up again. On to the top of Scarfell Pike, as usual, there's a few people on the top of there, but it was really nice to be up there again and I began the big descent down and it was bringing back some lovely memories of the time I did it with my mate Joe. On we go. Around about here, this is where I saw that bloke off I went. I'd not eaten all day so I was starting to get pretty hungry by this point, but coming across here you can start to see the ale house. So off I go, down into these fields, hit the road to this ale house where I got my food and a pint and if you're watching mate, the guy who bought me a pint, thanks mate, it was much appreciated. On I went and then up this valley and I did actually go up here to about here and then realised I wasn't going to get anywhere flat. So came back down, had a little look around and found the perfect flat pitch and that's where I am on my flat bit of ground ready for tomorrow's ascent up into the clouds. Right that's it. 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