The quieter corners
THE SUN APPEARED at 5.04am as a small, blood-red ball over the broad back of the Pennines, gradually growing in strength as it climbed through the horizon haze into the early morning sky. As it rose and brightened, it turned orange, and flared brilliantly across the surface of Ullswater like Greek fire. We watched this spectacle from the summit of Helvellyn. It was warm and completely windless; the kind of stillness in which you instinctively bring your voice down to a whisper, even though you’re on the top of England’s third highest mountain with open space everywhere. A couple of people had walked up here to watch the sunrise, but we had been alone on the plateau for our camp the night before, and before that we had walked up Striding…
