LAKE DISTRICT
When the weight of the world gets a bit much and the mountains are calling, the quiet NORTHERN FELLS of the Lake District offer the perfect escape.
There are times in life when you need the mountains more than normal. For some much-needed distance from the noise, and as a way to regain balance when life starts to veer off-course. Correct me if I’m wrong, but over the last few years the noise of modern-day life feels like it’s been getting louder. There seems to have been an onslaught of BIG WORLD EVENTS, one after another. At times the unsleeping, unrelenting media offensive has felt like a psychological stress-test in SAS: Who Dares Wins. And the pace of, well, everything, seems to have ramped up a good few gears. Quite frankly, it can all seem exhausting and leave us longing for a break.
That’s where the mountains come in. Pretty much any mountain will soothe the soul in times of need. But for me the Caldbeck Fells in the northern-most part of the Lake District are hard to beat. Just a quick nip from the A66, these accessible hills are ready to deliver their dose of hill therapy with practically no messing. Before you know it, they will sweep you up and away from life and let you gasp in the air like emerging from water after holding your breath for just a bit too long. There’s nothing tricky or hidden about them – they are straightforward, restorative fells. Relaxed walking on springy turf where the weight of the world can fall away.
So it was to these peaceful Northern Fells that I headed in search of a much-needed reboot. My own life had entangled with these fells. The last time I’d walked here was on a family walking break that had proven to be rather eventful. With a serious crash on the A66, we’d helped to carry injured passengers out and away from burning vehicles in a humbling display of co-operation and solidarity. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was also the last time I would climb a hill with my Mum. But here they still were, unchanged, dependable.
Up and away
Escaping the confines of the car, the sense of peace was immediate. The lane from Mungrisdale to Calebreck crosses open access land, through fords, and is surrounded by open countryside that skirts the very edge of the Lakeland fells. It feels curiously remote for somewhere not far off the beaten track. There was no particular plan for the day, other than just a good walk. A simple loop of the highest points, High Pike and Carrock Fell seemed as good an option as any. Legendary Himalayan mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington once said in an interview with The Independent: “There are two things I ins
