The first full day of the trip and my first two mountains, which sounds like a greater achievement than it was as the two peaks are only a couple of hundred metres apart. The weather was warm for September. There was no rain, very little cloud and visibility was excellent.

From the campsite, I walked through the woods towards Braithwaite, then turned right at the road and walked a short distance along a steep section of the road to a small car park. A small path, the less obvious of two paths exiting the car park, leads very sharply up hill and through trees before quickly opening out. From there, the route to the summit is obvious and the views are constantly spectacular.

Here I am near the top of Grisedale Pike, looking back at the path I’ve taken to get here.

The very fine conditions came with a disadvantage. At each of the two summits I visited, there were huge swarms of flying ants. Fortunately, at least, these swarms were localised to the very tops of the mountains, and walking just a short distance away was enough to avoid them.

After reaching the top of Grisedale Pike, I walked along to Hopegill Head, where there are views of Buttermere lake. Afterwards, I went back down to the top of Coledale Beck, where I photographed Eel Crag, which leads up to the summit of Crag Hill; but that’s a walk for another day.

The long, gentle footpath back to Braithwaite crosses Coledale Beck, then keeps it in view and to the right. I skirted around Braithwaite again, following the footpath through the woods to the campsite just to the north of Braithwaite.