Wainwright Walks 2: Catbells Classic

Hills: Catbells, Maiden Moor
Date: Sunday 14 March 2010
Weather: A bit windy, otherwise good
Who: Self, Stuart (my husband) and friends
Time: In total 3 ½ hours

Welcome to ‘Wainwright Walks, the Malbec way, part 2: Catbells’ in which I (together with my husband Stuart and various other cohorts) continue my mission to bring our own particular brand of hillwalking (involving amongst other things a detailed scientific experiment to work out the optimum ratio of good evening/rioja/ Glenfarclas pre walk to headache during walk) to the Lake District. Not only were we following in the footsteps of A. Wainwright, Julia Bradbury, and her TV crew, we were following in the footsteps of another luminary of hillwalking and blogging … the one and only Fatdogwalks. (www.wherethefatdogwalks.com) whose post on the same hill we had recently read. I’m not really sure which is the hardest act to follow!

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Wainwright Walks 1: Hungover on Haystacks

Hill: Haystacks
When:13 March 2010
Weather: Generally OK: a fair bit of low cloud but our hill stayed clear (yay!)
Who: Self, husband and two mates
Time: 5 hours, including lunch stops and unscheduled waiting around…
Post walk drink: Merlot for some, real ale for others

Welcome to the first instalment of ‘Walking with Wainwright, the Malbec way’ in which I, accompanied sometimes by my husband and various friends, tackle walks made famous in the Julia Bradbury TV programme… but with rather more swearing, definitely more alcohol, decidedly less camera equipment, and absolutely no embroidered combat trousers!! We’d decided to book a weekend in the Lake District with two mates, one who we’d walked with several times in Scotland and another mate who prior to this weekend hadn’t done anything more hilly than the North Downs Way. It’s important to note at this point (for later reference) that I an English, my husband is Scottish, and one of our mates is from Belfast.

There were a few lessons learned from this trip about how not to plan a hill walking break…