Here we are, the early morning brigade, about to walk up Clough Head and over to the Great Dodd. The Vale, which others will set off in later, in another 45 minutes, is just off to our right. Unbelievable day … if anyone walking with us is new to the Lakes, I hope they don’t think the weather is always like this. It’s incredible. Great session last night, lots of songs as well as lots of tunes, great to have other musicians with us, Nick Passmore and so on, Rowan sang, the women’s choir sang… But now we have to get up that hill – that’ll sort everyone out! This group is going up to 700 metres there, and then 850 metres later – so we’ll be just under 3,000 feet by the time we get onto Stybarrow Dodd and Great Dodd. Then we’re going to go down Sticks Pass and meet the other group which will have done a slightly easier route, so we all meet down at Legburthwaite, in the car park, near to the Lodge at Thirlmere. This is the first of the divided walks – looking forward to it and we’ll see who’s with us at the top! JJ 

Photos: see if you can guess which team is doing which walk!