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The Fellwalker by Peter John Farnworth
WALK 31 FRIDAY 20th & SATURDAY 21st JUNE 1986I have written about the longest day in Walk 6. Now it's the longest night of the longest day on June 21st! Many times, I have heard people talk about the longest day and what they have done to mark the occasion. We decided to spend the night on the highest mountain in England, Scafell Pike. Over the years, for one reason or another, I have never been able to get there on that date, so we are setting off to fulfil my ambition. We arrived at the Wastwater Hotel, Wastwater, at about 7.00pm on the Friday evening, after a two hour drive from home. What a lovely evening it was - very warm and clear - the perfect night. There is something about walking in the evening time. It was so still as we walked up and over familiar ground towards Lingmell via Piers Gill (see Walk 29 for more details about this area.) As we approached our turning off point, the sun was setting over our backs as we followed the path to higher altitude. As we reached the summit of Lingmell, we were there for two minutes when the sun started to slip down behind Pillar, over to the far side of the Mosedale valley. What a sight it was, standing there looking over the fells. The time now was 9.45pm.We left the summit and made our way at a steady climb towards Scafell Pike We stopped for a moment as the light was just fading, and looked back from where we had just come, to have one last look at Lingmell. What a sight to behold! There was the evening mist gently rolling in, which made it so peaceful, and the quietness of the fells with no one else around, only Mark and myself. When you stand here in these conditions, it makes you think how very fortunate you really are compared with some other people, who are not able to be in this position. We arrived at the summit of Scafell Pike just as the night closed in. Time now 11.00pm. We each had brought with us our plastic bags to jump into to keep the cold night air out, and to try to get a little sleep before dawn came. These were the same plastic bags we used on the longest day when we stayed the night on High Street (see Walk 22) but this time we brought a light blanket with us. But to continue…At this altitude, the cold night air was getting to me, so it was out of the bag. Time now 1.20am. Standing there and looking around, it was pitch black, but over towards the coast I could see Sellafield (BNFL) with it's lights full on. It looked like a lunar-landscape! After ten minutes I popped back into the makeshift sleeping bag and just lay there looking up at the stars, and there were some out that night. Time passed by and I had another look at my pocket watch. 2.15am. I gave Mark a nudge and we both stood there in the semi-darkness, hands deep in our pockets to keep the cold night air at bay, looking East. At about 3.15am we could just see the first glimmer of light to appear on the horizon. This give us hope for a good dawn, and to see the wonderful spectacle we had travelled so far to see. As time passed, the sky started to show more brightness, and now we could see where the sun would be showing exactly in the sky. At 3.45am, the horizon went a reddish/yellow/orange colour, which went deeper as time went on. By this time, other body's had risen from the ground, which surprised us. These people must have been there all the time during the hours of darkness and we had never seen them! What a wonderful view it was now as the dawn started to unfold and the colours became more vivid as time passed by. How can anyone put words together to describe the scene unfolding before our very eyes. I have not seen anything like it before in my life. At 4.30am the sun came blossoming out like the first bud on a flower on the first day of spring. It just showed it's head and out it popped, with the full splendour of the day to come. Another nice thing was that we were standing there with the early morning mist just lying over the lower summits, and this helped to make it feel as though we were really standing on the highest mountain in England.
We left Scafell Pike at 5.00am and headed towards Scafell via Lords Rake (see Walk 29 for this route.) This was a first for Mark on this summit. When standing on the summit of Scafell at this time of the morning (6.15am) it is so peaceful, with the early mist lifting from the lower fells, bringing forth a new day. What more can you ask for, when you can see the still waters of Wastwater way below in the valley? From here we followed the ridge to Rake Head Crags (see Walk 29) but this time we walked past it still following the ridge to pick up the Burnmoor Tarn path. Partway along, we passed a small stream where I had a good old-fashioned cold wash to start the day, my shirt around the waist. This woke me up a bit. From here we picked up the road, which in turn led back to the Wastwater Hotel (if it had been open I might have had a nice pint of mild, which I was just about ready for!) Time now 9.00am on Saturday June 21st. Before we set off, I got my small stove from the car and prepared a good breakfast of egg, bacon and tomato, with four rounds of bread each, and a pint mug of tea to finish off (can't you just smell it now…) After we had eaten, washed up, and put every thing back into the car ready for the return journey home, I found that I had one more job to do. I discovered a puncture in my back tyre, but we soon sorted this out. We got back home late on Saturday afternoon, very tired through lack of sleep. But we would not have missed it for the world. NOTE: As I have said before in this write up, how fortunate we were to have witnessed this wonderful spectacle. We were grateful we could come here and see it for ourselves. When you think of others who cannot get the chance, we were very lucky. This, without doubt, was the best walk to date. As they say, we were in the right place at the right time. Mountains walked that day: Scafell Pike 1 Scafell 2 Diagram & Stats
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