David and Rod came up with this route back in January and ever since then we've been waiting for the perfect day to carry out the walk when all three of us could get together at the same time, it was agreed it had to be a good forecast.

With Spring arriving slightly later this year it mean't we kept having to put the walk back even further and at times looked it like we were never going to walk it at all, that was until last week when a strong forecast it looked like we would finally get to walk our 'Woundale' walk.

Both David and Rod have already been through Woundale previously but me, Woundale is a place I've only seen through the car window whilst travelling along the Kirkstone Pass. It's fair to say I've been looking forward to this walk since it was first mentioned all those months ago. Not just only do we all have Woundale to look forward to but to add a twist to the route we decided to gain Wansfell Pike via Kelsick Scar, an ascent that neither of us had tried before.

In the words of Lou Todd from Little Britain "What a kerfuffle" this morning turned out to be. Having arranged to meet at 08:00am at Miller Bridge Ambleside I arrived early to find the lane has now been double yellow lined from Rothay Bridge all the way to Miller Bridge with the exception of a single yellow line for the duration of about fifty yards, this line was already occupied by a couple of motor homes. Rod and Michael had already arrived and were sat, as was I bewildered at what to do next, as it stood we were currently blocking the road so we decided to drive back to the Rothay Bridge end and wait for David who arrived a short time later "can't park, the road has been yellow lined from top to bottom" as quick as a shot David said he knew of some parking spaces (now that's knowledge!) between Ambleside C.E Primary School and and St Mary's Church, we quickly made our way through town and minutes later parked with ease leaving just one space left, phew.

The change of our starting point really was no hardship we just had to change our route through Ambleside to reach the Old Lake Road. It's a mild summery feel to the morning each of us wearing standard issue shorts. The forecast is for a dry day with plenty of sunny spells and if these minutes spent kitting up besides the cars are anything to go by were in for a grand day. Having locked the cars we made our way through town partly through a back street known as the Slack then emerging in front of the old Market Hall building before leaving Ambleside for the Old Lake Road from where we'll pick up Skelghyll Lane. It's still early and Ambleside is pretty quiet but give it a hour or so and you'll be hard pushed to find any room along these pavements.

We left the Lake Road and picked up the Old Lake Road before turning left into Skelghyll Lane on route to Skelghyll Wood, the lane is leafy, narrow and climbs steeply soon leaving the noise of any traffic behind as Hayes Garden World, or as David liked to call it "The Starship Enterprise" commands our fore-view with Loughrigg Fell in the distance. To the north, Snarker Pike as views over the Fairfield Horseshoe start to unfold.

Just prior to reaching the sign posted 'Jenkin Crag' we tracked deeper into Skelghyll Wood towards Kelsick Scar, as previously mentioned non of us had used this path before and like little explorers we were quite eager to see what we would find.

The path climbs through the wood, often steep in places with pockets of Bluebells either side of the path, soon the path comes in line almost with the tops of the trees before arriving at a stone wall accessed via a ladder style, we cross the style and leave Skelghyll Wood behind.

This part of the fell side is crisscrossed with stone walls which, when observed on a map can look a tad confusing knowing that a path passes through, the reality is there is no confusion at all, a prominent path traces all the way towards the summit having only to pass through two gates and one ladder style if I recall.

We traverse the grassy ridge between Wansfell Pike and Baystones crossing over the numerous grassy outcrops while detouring around the boggy bits before arriving at the summit, at the same time the couple we had been following left in the direction of Nanny Lane. The temperature dips slightly as high cloud moves in temporarily right over our position.

With little to no wind we're going to have to walk our way out of the shade if that makes any sense!

In may not look it but it was very busy as we crossed the pass, a bus had just pulled away having left half a dozen walkers while the car park opposite the Inn was busy with tourists eating lunch outside on the benches while motorbikes came and went as do cyclists having successfully ascended the top of the pass. It was all very relaxed and our heads could have easily fell in with the crowd, but our feet still had Red Screes to climb.

Time to pull our socks up lads.

We reached the bottom of The Struggle at the mini round-about and turned into the main street where we had our own struggle in walking the pavement there was just that many people about, traffic was backing up both in and out of the main street all the while folk looked on through cafe windows and bars whilst relaxing just watching the world go by.

We turned right onto Compston Road, the main street through Ambleside whilst squeezing our way along the pavement before turning into Vicarage Road where at the end of the street awaited our cars all the while our nostrils are treated to the smell of fish and chips from a nearby chippy.