At 8.30 am on a bright and sunny morning nine of us gathered at the foot of Catbells. We welcomed two new guests, Dave and Julia Duggan, plus Dennis and Martyn, our regular friends from Northumberland, and Trish from Bassenthwaite.

Jan led us across Newlands Valley to Rigg Back and up the valley in the shadow of Ard Crags. We had just begun the descent to Buttermere when we were joined by Jim and Joan Cave. They had missed our start but had little difficulty catching us up having just returned from a month walking the South West Coastal path.

We arrived at bustling Buttermere village and succumbed to the temptation to tarry a while at the little café to enjoy ice cream and coffee in the sun. An unexpected treat!

Then it was away again around beautiful blue Buttermere and up Scarth Gap Pass. The view across to Fleetwith Pike was enhanced by a mass of bluebells carpeting the slope of Warnscale.

After the final struggle up on to Haystacks there was a welcome break for lunch beside peaceful Innominate Tarn with AW somewhere around us. Winnie enjoyed her usual splash watched by Meg from the bank.

Revived we moved on to the old Honister Slate Quarries and down to the Hause. We eventually joined the Allerdale Ramble above Borrowdale for a short distance before turning left up the Rigghead Slate Quarries track onto High Spy. On the way down to Maiden Moor several stops were made to appreciate the views on this particularly clear, sunny day.

We left the ridge to drop down into Newlands Dale by the old miner’s track along the flank of Catbells which took us back to our starting point about 5.30pm.

Many thanks to Jan for a wonderful and energetic day. The route and weather couldn’t have been better.