Friday 14th November - Hill

 Tomorrow I'm going to reach the summit of Scafell Pike. 

I'm just over a mile away now.

My marker is the tartan one; Ang may recognise it from one of her extraordinarily complex cross stitch sections from the last but one challenge!

I'd always thought of Scafell Pike as the highest mountain in England, but apparently it's only a hill;

Of course, I'm not really slogging up the mountainside; this is the last bit of the current virtual hike I'm on, following a route all around the Lake District. The scenery has been breathtaking.

I have been up Scafell once, nearly 60 years ago. My father took us on some epic walks around the Lake District one cold damp Easter Holiday. (My mother sensibly stayed warm and dry in the hotel and looked after our dog!) That was the year I learned about Kendal Mint Cake, and Keillors Butterscotch, and that water from the moorland was the colour of tea and tasted delicious, so unlike our Thames Valley Water. 

I don't remember much, except the waterfall beside the hotel - we stayed at the imposing Borrowdale Hotel - and that there was snow at the summit of Scafell, and once we had lasted out for the long long hike up, we still had to face the long long hike down. Walking in the Lake District is very different to walking in Buckinghamshire!

So, there we are. Another item on the scavenger hunt.

Another poem, this time by R S Thomas