The forecast was for heavy rain and strong winds, not good for wild camping so we did day walks at the weekend.
We got the bus to Rannerdale to see how the bluebells were doing. As we neared Rannerdale it was raining and we almost stayed on the bus! We were pleased we didn't because the weather perked up and we had a good hour or so. We started climbing up the steep path to Rannerdale Knotts.
Over Crummock Water to Low Fell
Starling Dodd and Great Borne
We went up at Squeaky speed. Fast. Very fast.
Beefy and Squeaky on Rannerdale Knotts
It was very blustery on the top
Across to Low Fell from Rannerdale Knotts
Squeaky having a mad few minutes
She spins around and bites at the grass sometimes
Rannerdale Beck from the ridge
We could see the bluebells but were we too early, would they be at their best?
Buttermere
The tops were covered with cloud
The Rannerdale Knotts Ridge path
We were going to descend into Rannerdale and then veer right into High Rannerdale
Beefy and Squeaky in High Rannerdale
Bluebells!
Bluebells in High Rannerdale
As you can see a weather front was coming in. It started chucking it down so we got the storm shelter out. It only lasted five minutes and we were on our way again.
Bluebells again
Rannerdale Knotts, Mellbreak and bluebells
Waterfall on Rannerdale Beck
We stopped for lunch here. It was blustery and it started raining so we deployed the storm shelter again.
On the way back down to Rannerdale
Rannerdale Knotts beyond the blue bells
Whiteless Pike and the lovely bluebells
We thought we had come at the right time, not too early after all. We walked to Buttermere for the bus, we had an hour to wait, better walking than standing waiting, we were cold and damp, we would only get colder waiting at Rannerdale.
Our route was Rannerdale - Rannerdale Knotts - Rowantree Beck - High Rannerdale - Rannerdale Beck - Rannerdale - Buttermere 8.9km with 320m ascent. A not bad day out, we didn't get too wet and we'd had some nice views and the bluebells were lovely. I said to Beefy when we were on the bus that we sounded very middle aged talking about going to see the bluebells
It did tip it down later so we were pleased we hadn't gone camping.