You have to love those times you squeeze in an overnight on the fells, Friday afternoon spent picking up some treats, Friday night spent on OS maps plotting a route, where to camp, where could we get a good sunset and sunrise? a few peaks? a great round trip and somewhere to park for free?

We both finish work Saturday lunch time and drive over to Great Langdale, we park on the road up to Blea Tarn, put our surprisingly heavy 70L packs on and head towards Langdale Fell looking for the Cumbria Way footpath. The weather is the best of a British summer and as a result, there are a lot of walkers about, those more seasoned and those lost out of Liverpool, now I'm prone to a few luxuries but the crates of beer on there heavily laden trolley carts looked extremely ambitious especially when they ask us for directions and appear to want to meet friends at Angle Tarn.

Late Start

The joy of starting later in the afternoon, it was probably 4ish by the time we got on our way, is that everyone is heading in the opposite direction and that is a satisfying feeling, I don't know why but it feels like a small victory, more importantly, it is a lot cooler and that will definitely help with the 600 meters of ascent that we have before we get to Angle Tarn, our final destination is somewhere between Esk Pike and Crinkle Crags depending on how we get on.

It’s a grueling effort with our backpacks as we make our way up to the tarn, I have my 70L Salewa Camino rucksack on and its like having someone hug you which is great if you are emotionally needy but as I'm naturally hot anyway I lose my own body in sweat before we reach Angle Tarn. We stop often, zig zagging up, we start to worry that the end is further than we thought, but, as always all of a sudden, we are standing between Hanging Knotts and Rossett Pike looking for Angle Tarn. The Tarn is set down behind a raised mound with Esk Pike as its backdrop. There are already two tents set up at the lake, but with them already starting to find the shade we are determined to get higher.

The ascent from Angle Tarn to the saddle of Great End and Esk Pike isn't nearly as demanding and it’s nice to feel the sun on us again. Scafell Pike comes into view and although not the most impressive looking summit it is still the highest in the UK and for that reason holds a certain appeal. We sit in the sun on the slopes of Esk Pike in the warm evening sunshine admiring the views to Keswick and the top of Scafell as we eat a homemade chorizo, tomato and red onion pasta and its then that we decide on an unscheduled pit stop to 977m and Scafell Pike.

Scafell Pike

We push on to just below the summit of Esk Pike, set up our tent, dump our bags, snack on some M&S Belgian chocolate that definitely borders on frivolous rather than essential and we head for a round trip to Scafell Pike to make sunset. We leave our camp about 7.30pm and enjoy the freedom of no rucksacks. Four hundred extra metres of ascent and six kilometres of unscheduled walking are going to take their toll tomorrow but it’s a beautiful evening.

Back at our tent we reward ourselves with those stunning views again, more M&S chocolate and two cheeky little bottles of red wine! Does life get any better than this and do I care about all those people now judging me?? I am afraid not.

The next day

It was surprisingly cold in the night and life in the tent definitely needs practice but I wouldn't have swapped it for anything. Once up we sit in the sun and enjoy some already prepared overnight banana and chocolate oats and then check out the map for the walk ahead, Bow Fell, Crinkle Crags and Pike of Blisco.

The walking is varied and enjoyable, some of the ups and downs are quite demanding with a large pack and we end up down climbing Crinkle Crags having taken the goat path over the top rather than the main path, we remove our bags and Grace climbs down and I lower the packs down, we could have backtracked but where is the fun in that?

The morning felt longer than we had anticipated but we are continually rewarded with great views back to where we had come from and Pike of Blisco is looming larger and larger.

As well as those moments where the clouds break and you have a view framed by the sky or where nature treats you to a unique moment. There are those other unique hill walkers, real hill walkers not just those scousers we bumped into, there was the old couple who were descending from Angle Tarn who looked like they should be wrapped in a blanket with a cup a tea but who gave me great hope for my future. There were the two guys who had camped out one with a day pack and the other one with a rucksack too big for a sherpa. There was the seriously overweight Slovakian truck driver who was on the verge of a cardiac arrest but determined to get to the top of Great Knott to show his mates the photos back at the pub in Slovakia, lastly, there was the older American couple whose only question was what happens if you need a wild poo!! We probably would never have spoken to these people at any other time, only on the Fells!

Finishing on Pike Of Blisco was a great way to finish our walk as we could see back towards Angle Tarn, across Crinkle Craggs which was now stunning as the weather is moody and threatening to rain, it actually reflected our mood as we were both a bit hangry and not back to the car as quickly as we had hoped, the way off Pike Of Blisco is steep and required some more down climbing and then an awful lot of steps down, it is relentless but the sight of our car is spurring us on.

Back to the car for one o’clock we are hangry, elated, tired, hot and looking forward to a slap-up celebratory lunch at Chesters, a chance to relive the 1850m of ascent and 25km of walking remembering the moments never to be repeated, the views, the hardships, the sunset from Scafell Pike and the very random fellow walkers.