I arrived in Coniston just before 3pm which gave me plenty of time to catch the 3:35 to Ambleside. I parked my car and walked in to the village to wait. There was a woman waiting at the bus stop so I sat on the wall to wait as well. When the bus was over 5mins late I asked her if it was usually this late. She said it was a school bus as well and the driver may have had an unruly lot to pick up. The bus arrived and she was right. It was full of not just shouting but screaming children. Some screams were so loud they almost hurt my ears. I tried to read but with difficulty. The bus was having problems on the narrow lanes with motorists coming the other way. Approaching Hawkshead the bus came to a stop. A car coming the other way had tried to get in to the side of the road but still couldn't make anything like enough room. The elderly driver sat there perplexed and didn't know what to do. The bus driver was unable to reverse as it is against regulations. I was worried that this further delay would mean I'd miss my next bus in Ambleside. Eventually the man got out of the car and his wife got in the drivers seat. She sat there gazing at the controls and looked as though she'd never driven a car before. She sat there confused. Other motorists came up but realised the problem and reversed away. Realising that we were now stuck I decided to take some action, I told the bus driver I'd drive the car out of the way so he let me off and I asked the lady to let me reverse the car back to a wider section of road.

She agreed so I reversed the car a short way until the driver could get his bus through. We were on our way again but now running very late. Most of the screaming kids got off in Hawkshead. The woman who'd got on with me was also hoping to catch the 555 bus connection in Ambleside so I told the driver and he said he'd do his best to get us there on time. He drove the final miles fairly fast and we approached the Ambleside stop with seconds to spare. A few moments later the 555 Keswick bus arrived, what a relief? I caught the bus and headed north, through Grasmere and on towards Dunmail Raise. Before the climb I got off at the Town End bus stop.

Just off the bus at Town End.
Steel Fell is in the distance.

Garden shed before the climb

It was 16:45 and the light was fading fast. The weather was very overcast and gloomy which didn't help. I took the minor road down through Town Head and the bridge at Helm Side. I turned right on to a private road. Over the wall to the left was an interesting green garden hut with a distinctive red door. It’s a steep climb up to the buildings at the end of the road. The impressive house had blinds pulled down on all its windows. I can only presume this is another second home, probably only used at weekends. It would be an interesting exercise to see how many houses in rural areas like this are actually lived in all the time. I expect it would be very few. Through the gate at the end of the lane I turned right and followed a nice path up the ridge towards Steel Fell.

It was steady going and after climbing through a rocky steep section I came to a nice grassy flat area. It would have made a good camp but there was no water. I could now see the lights of Grasmere in the distance and the cars driving over Dunmail Raise far below. I continued up until the path levelled out near the summit of Steel Fell. There were occasional small shallow tarns so I found one with a flat area nearby and pitched my tent. It had just gone 18:00 and I had to pitch the tent by torchlight. The weather continued gloomy then the cloud level dropped. The distant lights were then obscured.

A very gloomy view back to Grasmere