When Rod emailed me last Monday about walking this weekend it usually means he's wasn't having the best start to the week and that made two of us. By the time Wednesday came I'd emailed Rod a route that I'd had on my mind for a couple of weeks which took in Silver Howe, Blea Rigg, Sergeant Man and Tarn Crag from Grasmere.

Rod Returned my email asking did I fancy walking the Greenburn Horseshoe and I replied yeah why not. Rod's final email came with a twist 'why don't we walk the Far Easedale Horseshoe?' a walk that met both our needs and that was it, we agreed on a time and all we had to do was get through the working week.

As you know we'd had a blinder of a week with wall to wall sunshine and blue skies galore only for it to break come Saturday, typical eh. Undeterred, and despite a rather unhinged forecast we kept to our original plan and arranged to meet at the lay north of Grasmere for 08:15am.

By the time I arrived in Grasmere it wasn't just raining but bucketing down and drastic times mean drastic measures. We needed a plan B.

I left home under the clearest of blue skies which broke as I continued north and it had completely clouded over by the time I reached Ambleside. As I drove towards Grasmere speckles of rain started to hit the windscreen and by the time I arrived in Grasmere my wipers were going like the clappers. Not only was it raining but the car was being rocked by the wind which had been forecasted to get much stronger across the tops.

A pair of waterproof trousers would suffice which I could easily slip over my shorts and to protect from the wind I changed my light base layer to a thicker one while adding my boots still sat in the drivers seat. More cars started to arrive whose occupants just like me waited for the rain to ease which it did in between the downpours. Rod arrived and span his car around during which time the rain had eased enough to have a quick chat outside the cars, our Far Easedale walk deserved a better hand that we had been dealt and that's when Rod added "I've come along the A66 and it's much clearer further north, let's drive to Briar Rigg near Keswick and we can make up a low level walk from there"

By this time it had started to rain again and we were using our hands to stop the wind whipping the rain into our faces "I'll follow you mate" and with that I span my car around and followed Rod over Dunmail Raise to a view that almost caused my jaw to drop.

Despite the cloudy skies as we drove past Thirlmere Reservoir I noticed how vivid the waters surface looked and as we approached Legburthwaite the grey skies were confined to our rear view mirrors.

The contrast between central and northern Lakeland was amazing even to the most seasoned of fell walkers.

Twenty minutes later we were parking up at the end of Spooney Green Lane under a mix of cloud and warm sunshine. Kitting up for such a forecast when the temperatures were set to reach the twenties was going to be tricky because quite rightly so we couldn't rule out another soaking but we had to protect against the wind too which left us no other choice than to add waterproof jackets from the off. It's going to be a uncomfortable sticky start to the walk but as the morning progresses choosing to wear our waterproof jackets proved to be the best choice.

It's going to be a 'make it up as we go along walk' given the interchangeable weather and wind which was carrying the clouds above our heads at a fair rate of knotts. The initial plan is to head for Latrigg then up onto Lonscale Fell via Skiddaw's tourist path.

Just in case it clouded over we fixed eyes on the path from Latrigg which diverts from the tourist towards the Col between Jenkin Hill and Lonscale Fell located about eighty yards beyond the zigzags.

It wasn't the cloud that nearly caused us to the miss the path but us jabbering on about Glastonbury's line up and who we were looking forward to watching later that night.

It had been raining on and off and as we reached Lonscale Pike summit it clouded over for a few minutes with Blencathra taking the brunt of low cloud and a passing shower.

From Lonscale Pike our 'making it as we went along' would now ventured further north onto Burnt Horse which is the fell seen lower right and to reach it, a devilishly steep descent via the fence line seen centre.

Having decended Burnt Horse north ridge we joined the Cumbrian Way just as a large family were heading towards us who were the first people we'd seen since Latrigg. We passed with Hi's then began the slight descent towards the footbridge over Glenderaterra Beck.

We were a good deal out of the wind by now and with a warm sun over head Rod removed his Waterproof jacket for the first time while I opted to keep mine on until we'd crossed Glenderaterra Beck a little further on.

We left the Cumbrian Way and made the slight descent over Glenderaterra Beck which was when the skies darkened. Continuing on I spotted a curtain or rain passing over Blencathra and Mungrisdale Common below. Looking as localised as it did we prayed we'd only get hit by the fringes of the shower but what was light rain turned into full on vertical which saw Rod reaching for his waterproof as I waited on.

The rain continued to pour as I looked down on my tanned hands which were turning white with cold. As we rounded the valley above the Blencathra Centre as quickly as the rain started it stopped and the sun came back out by which time I was soaked through to the boxers. The good news was the wind coupled with this warm sunshine should have me dried out in no time.

The bridleway ended in the centre of Threlkeld close to the Primary School. Passing the School we arrived at the T-Junction and turned right towards Keswick where we agreed to stop to eat lunch before taking on the Threlkeld to Keswick Railway path.

We found a bench at the far end of the village which overlooked the A66 which was set back on a verge overlooked by a canopy of trees and no one really knew we were there unless you walked past us. Eating lunch and strecthing limbs as the traffic hurled past Im sorry to say it wasnt one of those 'lunch with a view' kind of moment unless photos of blurry traffic is your thing.

We estimated to walk from Threlkeld to Keswick in about an hour which we over ran by about ten minutes due to Rod being asked to complete a survey about the new path by two pretty young girls (had these been male I'm sure he would have passed!) I was asked too but from a safe distance declined. I was still wearning my jacket and my body tempreature felt like it was creeping into the red but with just five minutes of walking left I sweated it out when really I should have removed it miles eariler. Rod found a very narrow footpath walled between a treeline and a fence which was only wide enough for one person, sure enough we encountered a young girl walking a panting Husky and luckily there was just enough room to pass.

The footpath lead us onto a second path with Brundholme Road on one side and striking views of Lonscale Fell and Skiddaw on the other. Our cars came into view as did the many others which had parked up after us. Once my jacket was removed I waffed my base layer up and down to let the wind on my stomach and back which felt heavenly. We'd walked through everything from strong winds, sunshine and vertical rain and as a reward, the sun always came out afterwards.