The wind continued through the night but fortunately there was no rain. High thin cloud partly obscured the moon first thing but as I didn’t have too far to walk today I delayed my start until the sun was up. I set off at 8:20 and followed the concrete road and had an interesting view of the tower of Shap Abbey peering up out of the valley where it is almost totally obscured from view. When I reached the concrete bridge over Swindale Beck I cut across to the left to join the road heading SW into Swindale. It was overcast and blustery but I had a nice view into the valley. I had an easy and pleasant walk along the lane and saw a couple of young women in a land rover and trailer sorting and feeding some sheep. At Swindale Head I turned right and headed up the Old Corpse Road track. The weather continued overcast and cold but at least it wasn’t raining.

Looking in to Swindale.

Pitch above Swindale

The conditions were ideal for walking and I climbed steadily up the pass to a point below the summit where I cut off to the left towards High Birkin Knott. I didn’t follow the faint path but kept to the left of the ridge to get out of the wind. I could soon see my objective, a flat promontory jutting out from Low Blake Dodd. It was as I’d imagined it from the map but there was some steep ground to cross to get there. I followed the contour round then carefully descended to some rocks before crossing to the shelf where I planned to camp. A small stream descended from the ridge above so I had all I needed for a pitch. The thing I didn’t need was the blustery wind but it should be OK as long as it doesn’t get worse. As I put my tent up I could hear distant whistles and shouts and eventually caught sight of a shepherd and his dogs doing some rounding up of sheep.