On the third attempt at climbing the Old Man of Coniston there was finally a view at the top! And the view is stunning. Wendy took the day off after a few heavy days of hiking so dropped me off in Coniston. 
She went off to Ambleside to get a massage and do some shopping. After racing up the Old Man I cruised along up to Swirl How and round to the Little Carrs and Hell Gill Pike (I imagine this sounds like utter gibberish but maybe some nerd out there has a map and a few hours to check it all out). I stopped there for a sandwich, and then - drama struck. An elderly couple were hiking a little further ahead of me and one of them fell and started screaming. He had cracked his lower face on a sharp rock, badly gashing his chin and knocking out all his lower teeth. He was bleeding badly so we called the emergency services and eventually they said they would need to send a helicopter out because of the remote location, although we had to get him down quite a bit lower to a place where the chopper could land. I helped them down to Three Shire Stone getting rather nervous every time he stumbled where they were picked up by the dedicated mountain rescue team. By now it was getting late in the day and I was some way from where I needed to be so I raced off back over the Little Carrs and Swirl How to Goat's Hause where I took the beautiful jagged ridgeline made up of Dow Crag, Buck Pike and Brown Pike before dropping down to the Walna Scar Road (a run down track) which took me down to the village of Torver, where I met Wendy in the Wilson Arms, a charming little pub. We had a drink there and watched two dogs scrap with each other. While Wendy was distracted one of the dogs ran up and peed on her shopping bag. Appalled, she started reprimanding the dog for its behaviour, during which the other dog also peed on her bag!
She went off to Ambleside to get a massage and do some shopping. After racing up the Old Man I cruised along up to Swirl How and round to the Little Carrs and Hell Gill Pike (I imagine this sounds like utter gibberish but maybe some nerd out there has a map and a few hours to check it all out). I stopped there for a sandwich, and then - drama struck. An elderly couple were hiking a little further ahead of me and one of them fell and started screaming. He had cracked his lower face on a sharp rock, badly gashing his chin and knocking out all his lower teeth. He was bleeding badly so we called the emergency services and eventually they said they would need to send a helicopter out because of the remote location, although we had to get him down quite a bit lower to a place where the chopper could land. I helped them down to Three Shire Stone getting rather nervous every time he stumbled where they were picked up by the dedicated mountain rescue team. By now it was getting late in the day and I was some way from where I needed to be so I raced off back over the Little Carrs and Swirl How to Goat's Hause where I took the beautiful jagged ridgeline made up of Dow Crag, Buck Pike and Brown Pike before dropping down to the Walna Scar Road (a run down track) which took me down to the village of Torver, where I met Wendy in the Wilson Arms, a charming little pub. We had a drink there and watched two dogs scrap with each other. While Wendy was distracted one of the dogs ran up and peed on her shopping bag. Appalled, she started reprimanding the dog for its behaviour, during which the other dog also peed on her bag!
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