On top of England

We did it! We made it to the top of England's highest mountain.

Scafell Pike sits near the top of Wast Water, England's deepest lake, 79m. It feels remote. The lake is 4.88km long and surrounded by mountains. The road in was winding narrow single track, but it was paved. The only buildings are a handful of farms and a pub.

There's the pub on the left. We parked the car near the pub and walked across a sheep paddock.

And then began to walk up and up toward Scafell Pike at the top of a narrow valley. That's it up there in the middle with cloud skimming its top. This is the easy bit of the track.

After crossing the stream the path became steeper and rockier - 9.44km return and 899m of ascent to reach the peak at 978m.

Looking back down to Wast Water and out to the sea in the distance. It might not show in these photos but there were a lot of people, of all ages, including several families with young children ie, 6 - 10 years old. One father carried his 4 year old daughter on his shoulders the whole way maintaining a constant conversation with her about her toy bunny. There was also a man in his 60s carrying nothing but a guitar on his back - there is a story there.

 Getting closer. Scafell Pike on the left. And here comes the fog.

 Around the corner there was a tantalising view into the heart of the Lakes district. Angle Tarn and in the distance, Grasmere Lake where we walked the previous day.

 The beginning of the scree. The final few hundred metres up into the cloud which came down to meet us and rained on us.

 More scree all the way to the top. About 20m visibility.

There I am, in my green rain jacket on the top. Not alone. We all came, we saw nothing, we felt like we conquered but I think we were just lucky.