I'd booked a couple of days leave and I couldn't be happier with the weather, with lots of autumn sunshine forecast from midweek, with today looking like the brightest from the lot. It's been ages since I last planned a walk from Seathwaite and to add to that, six years since I last walked Seathwaite Fell, I just needed a route to link them together, and hey-presto, we have the Sty Head Round. I planned to arrive a tad earlier, but I hadn't slept well and stayed in bed an extra half hour. It was dark when I left home, but the sun began to rise into a cloudless sky just gone 07:30am - thirty minutes later I was parking up in the Seathwaite Valley. 

It was a calm, chilly morning, not helped by the valley being in shade with the sunlight just breaching the highest tops as I began my kit up. For the second week in a row, I'm wearing my fleece-lined walking trousers after the forecasters predicted a severe windchill at height. Seathwaite during the week is nothing like it is at the weekend. I can hear the birds singing and the sound of faraway gates closing; it's a far cry from the hustle of the weekend. All the parking spaces close to the farm had been taken up, but I managed to park within earshot next to a camper van whose owner looked like he'd just returned from the toilet block, and morning nods are shared. Further up, a Dutch-registered Skoda had just parked up; its owners began to kit up at the rear, and a morning was shared again as they passed. The couple head straight through the farmyard, where I turned right between the two barns before heading for the footbridge over Grains Gill.

Two herdies were guarding the wooden footbridge who scuttled away as I climbed the steps like their lives depended on it. After crossing Grains Gill I joined the fell side but needed to cross the wall from right to left via the wooden ladder which was wet and very slippery. After making the crossing, I joked to myself that it would have been safer to jump the wall using a trampoline and a pogo stick.

Safely over I joined the stone staircase, which, although dry, was covered in dew and once the slabs were reached, I made sure I took great care, almost coming a cropper when my walking pole jammed catching me off balance because it was still lopped around my wrist. Nice waterfalls though.

I left the couples and began to make my way towards the top of the gully. There is no cairn or feature to identify the gully head; locating it was the easy part: deciding whether to descend left or right, leaving me guessing for a few seconds. I stick left and begin the steep descent, manoeuvering through boulders and zigzagging where I could down numerous grassy shelves. Half the way down, I switch right; it was just as steep but less rocky, and gradually the steepness gave way, and soon my ears were being treated to the sound of Taylorgill Force a couple of hundred meters away. I was back in the sunshine and on the footpath, where I kicked my feet into the backs of the boots and pulled up my trousers, ready for the final descent into the Seathwaite Valley. Before I did, I made my way to the water's edge and scooped a handful of water into my mouth, swilling it around before spitting it out. I was good to go.

The sun beamed down as I descended the stone staircase, only passing a solo walker who gave me an encouraging 'afternoon.' I remember thinking he sounded like a newsreader; perhaps he was. Flanked by the viciously steep Hind Crag on Glaramara I soon found myself at Stockley Bridge, where a senior walking group had congregated. I wanted my final photo from here, but I didn't let my frustration show as I passed through the group with smiles and hi's. Further down the track, my frustration returned, but I overturned it again, thinking, 'That will be me one day.' Sunlight flooded the valley, Grains Gill sparkled in the light; everything was too perfect, but all walks come to an end, and this one had just minutes left. I stopped to take one last look at Seathwaite Fell, not bothering to capture it because the direct light was causing havoc with the camera, so I committed the scene to memory instead.