Crummock Water

If I had told my friends 50 years ago that I had accepted my wife's challenge of climbing Cat Bells they would have fallen about laughing. This is the most climbed hill in the English Lake District and among serious fell walkers is a bit of a joke.

I first went up it 60 years ago at the age of 19. Then again with the family about 40 years ago. Then it was forgotten as the challenge of more serious peaks took hold.

Why then is it now a challenge. Fourteen years ago I was diagnosed as having Hyrdocephalus (water in the brain). An operation saved my life but left me using an electric scooter for five years. Then seven years ago a further op using more advanced technology produced a clinical miracle and since then I have walked in the Dolomites, the Swiss alps, the Pyrenees and the Picos. Plus 10,000 miles in after breakfast daily walks.

Cat bells was successfully conquered today in beautiful weather. It was not too easy. The number of people who have climbed it since .mr. Wainwright published his guide must easily be in six figures. They have eroded the grassy slopes and the stony paths and there are several sections of challenging (for oldies) scrambles needing both feet and hands. My beloved walking poles can become almost a nuisance in those bits.

But we made it and I must also praise the achievement of my wife with her troublesome hip. She even carried the rucksack.

The picture was later in the day at an easy stroll in the National Trust woods at Crummock Water

A most satisfying day.