Sunday 14 August 2016

Summer Sunday Yardtime...

It’s another summery, back yard Sunday evening in Lancaster, the clouds are breaking up and it’s gone very still. After what seems like many weeks of unsettled, cool and showery weather, we’re promised a week of higher-than-average temperatures; 21°C daytime for most of the week ahead! That should be a good 5°C warmer than we’ve been used to, and with light winds too - balmy. At least it will get me ready for a week in the warmth of Alpine France at the end of the month. Compared to my last back yard blogging session, it already seems like the summer has marched on rapidly towards the next season; sunset time is now 20:43 and the light is already fading at just short of 21:00. The swifts are still reasonably active though, screeching around above our rooftops. When the skies fall silent at sunset in a few weeks time, we’ll know that autumn is well and truly building.

On the steps of the Ashton Memorial in Williamson Park after Lancaster parkrun on Saturday morning.
We’ve had an active weekend, with Liz and Rowan visiting us here in Lancaster. Rowan came up by train from Twickenham and Liz drove from Beeston with Diva the dog. It was a weekend dominated by various sports; running, walking and swimming - quite appropriate given the Olympic action in the background that has kept us entertained in between. On Saturday morning, we were up and out early for the institution that is the parkrun. There’s a most lovely circuit around Williamson Park in Lancaster that was launched in early January this year and I’ve managed to fit in 14 of the sessions so far. I’ve a long way to go to catch up with Liz, who was out on her 50th parkrun appearance this weekend, a great achievement. Her local parkrun is Beeston, but she’s also done Cardiff a few times too. Lancaster is described by the run organisers as ‘slightly hilly’, due to the undulating figure of eight around the main park and also adjoining Fenham Carr woodlands. We were also joined by Sam and Rowan, who show us all how it’s done, coming in with fantastic sub-20 minute times and in 3rd and 1st places respectively. Well done indeed :-)!

After our morning trundle, we caught up with some more of the overnight Olympics action over breakfast. We then packed a picnic and headed up to the University so that Liz and Rowan could take a look at the latest developments at the Green Lancaster EcoHub. After having lunch there and spending some time being entertained by the antics of the newly re-stocked chicken flock (seven in total right now), we headed on down the A6 to Nicky Nook fell on the western edge of the Bowland Fells, overlooking the Lancashire plain. There are good views from the top, but the purple flowering, heather clad moors cast a dark shadow in my mind. It was one day after the ‘glorious twelfth’, or in other words the far less than glorious start of the grouse shooting season on the barren uplands of England and Scotland. The circuit improves vastly however on the way back as you pass through the lovely dense deciduous woodland cladding the valley containing Grizedale reservoir (North West Water land). Showing us how diverse it can all be where native woodlands is left to thrive.

On the way up Nicky Nook Fell.
On Saturday evening, we were back in Williamson Park for this years’ Dukes Theatre production, ‘The Hobbit’. It was the last night of the summer promenade production, using five different locations in the park to play out Bilbo’s journey through Middle Earth. It was a very entertaining production, and the atmosphere of the park is wonderful. The walk between the penultimate and final scene involved a spectacular wander through the trees, illuminated with coloured lights and lanterns, with the sounds of wood elves echoing around as they appeared and disappeared off in the woods. Gandalf looked on wisely from high on an embankment above the pathway.

Swimming at Capernwray Dive Lake. Photo: Rowan Axe.
Sunday was a rather overcast day in general and we started the day with another Olympic fix. This time it was the 10 000 m track race, featuring Mo Farrah. Another outstanding Gold from a great champion of the sport. Packing another picnic, along with many other things, we headed off a short way up to the M6 to the Capernwray dive lake. This was a location that I had not visited before, but one of my neighbours who is more heavily involved with the COLT’s (City of Lancaster Triathlon club) has been recommending for a while. It’s a great, little known facility. That is, unless you’re into diving, as there were around 200 divers suited on the lakeside or submerged somewhere in the abyss of this flooded former limestone quarry. We had not come to dive, but to do some open water swimming. After signing in and getting all the relevant info on which buoys to swim around etc., we wet-suited up and set off into the perfect blue water. Swimming in this lake was an incredible experience. None of the usual brown murky water that usually characterises our lakes, this place felt more akin to one of the large Alpine lakes, without the bitingly cold glacial meltwater. We swam a few times around the red buoys marking a 500 m swim circuit right around the lake perimeter. There are purpose built rocky reefs and every now and then, you swim through clouds of bubbles, ascending from the divers somewhere in the depths below. Quite a surreal experience. The lake is also stocked with an interesting variety of fish; among many others, there are trout, sturgeon and even pike. Some of them are absolutely huge. We didn’t see any of the mega sturgeon though, claimed to be up to around 3.5 m in length! Some divers told us the water was relatively cloudy today, due to the number of divers churning around in the depths. As a result, there were no views from the surface column of the multitude of submerged paraphernalia ranging from a small passenger aircraft to several boats and a former RAF helicopter. I did just about get a view of some white dive tanks lurking below at one point.
Capernwray Dive Lake from the cafe terrace. Photo: Rowan Axe.
Rowan and Liz headed off on their separate ways south this evening and Imogen is now up in the highlands of Scotland visiting her Uncle, managing to fit in a quick ascent of Curved Ridge on the imposing wall of Buachaille Etive Mor on the way up today. As for me, it’s now pretty much fully dark in the yard, although there’s still a faint glow in the sky out across Morecambe Bay. Back to the Olympics - I hear Andy Murray is in tennis finals action..!

Sunday 7 August 2016

Doing it in Duddon...

Surprisingly, it is still possible to get away from the summer holiday crowds on some Lakeland fells. Even more surprisingly there are a few valleys, mostly tucked away on the western side, that see few visitors in this otherwise manic land bursting at the seams with summer visitors seeking the inspiration of the likes of Beatrix Potter, William Wordsworth and Arthur Wainwright... Despite being right on our doorstep, we generally prefer to reserve outings on the more well known Lake District Fells for the relative solitude that autumn and winter bring.

The peaceful upper Duddon Valley with Little Stand in the background.
It's a wild and wet, almost autumnal, August Sunday evening in Lancaster and the nights are starting to draw in (pretty much dark by 21:30). We're just back from a lovely weekend spent with a fine assortment of our Lancaster University Hiking Club friends at the Dale Head bunkhouse in Duddon Valley. It's a lovely secluded spot, just south of the Hardknott and Wrynose passes road. This steep, precipitous lane receives significant tourist traffic through the summer, offering a cut through from the Central Lakes to the popular valleys of Eskdale and Wasdale of the west. Turning off this road at its lowest point between the two passes at Cockley Beck leads down a narrow and much less frequented lane through hay meadows of the upper Duddon Valley. The Dale Head bunkhouse is based in a collection of old stone farm buildings amongst the meadows, surrounded by craggy hillsides, dashing upland becks and softer flushes of young deciduous woodland, gradually developing in the former conifer dominated Dunnerdale Forest on the slopes of Harter Fell.

Seathwaite Tarn (Reservoir)
Pike of Blisco.
Imogen and I arrived over at Dale Head after dark on Friday evening and settled in to the lively, convivial atmosphere in the bunkbarn. Thanks to Mark for providing a selection of fine northern ales in mini-kegs from Booths supermarkets across Cumbria. The mattresses were very comfortable and I slept very well in the country air and awoke refreshed on Saturday despite the late night.


We were a large group, so there were several parties heading out on differing activities on the Saturday. Sam was running a fell race in Borrowdale and two separate groups were heading off to climb; one lot on Dow Crag, the other on Long Scar (south side of Pike of Blisco). A significant number of us however headed out on foot from Dale Head, south along the River Duddon, ultimately aiming for Seathwaite Tarn on the western side of the Coniston Fells. The day started fairly warm and sunny, just as well as there were two sets of dubious stepping stones for us to traverse the river and back. At the second crossing, Mark took an impressive, full body plunge into the Duddon following an interesting manoeuvre over one of the large boulders forming the stepping stones! After this, Jim was then inspired to cool off with a full head plunge (see video above). All fun and games! We ascended up to Seathwaite Tarn, and then up the ridge leading to Grey Friar. This was a new Fell for me; as it is an outlier of the Coniston group. There are good views from the ascent and the summit, always good to see the hills we know so well from a slightly different angle. After Grey Friar, we continued across to Great Carrs and down to the top of the Wrynose Pass. Heading up on the north side of the pass, we observed Tom, Harriett, Daniel and Daphne climbing on Long Scar off to the right of the path. We continued up, passing Red Tarn and on up to where Crinkle Crags begins. From this point, we headed off due south along the almost level finger of high ground leading to Little Stand (741 m). This juts out into the head of the Duddon Valley. As a result, the descent down its nose, back to Cockley Beck can certainly be described as a direct, efficient and mostly pathless way down grass, boulders, heather and lastly a small amount of bracken and bog in order to loose the required 500 m of altitude to the bunkhouse below. Very satisfying indeed. The weather had gradually turned more autumnal as the day progressed and by late afternoon/early evening, there was a brisk westerly wind bringing increasing cloud and ultimately persistent drizzle to valley level. We had another very enjoyable evening in the bunkhouse filled with antics and acrobatics thanks to what can only be described as a 'flexibility challenge' game involving picking up a small cardboard box off the floor using your teeth, all the time without using your hands for support. Enough said on that, hopefully it paints the picture :-).

Enjoying much merriment in the Dale Head bunkbarn on Saturday evening.
On Sunday, the wind was still a prominent feature, but the clouds were whipping across at a fairly high level and the rain had ceased. A group of us headed out, again crossing the stepping stones leading to the riverside footpath following the River Duddon. This time however, we took the forestry tracks leading gradually up through Dunnerdale Forest. This wraps around the eastern, southern and western flanks of Harter Fell, and we followed it right around to the western side of the Fell. It is a lovely little Fell with hundreds of little crags and rocky outcrops. The path to the summit from the west weaves through these and quickly leads you to the keep-like summit area where there are several turret-like crags guarding all flanks of the mountain. After a nice lunch stop in the shelter of one of the summit crags, it was time for a bit more pathless activity through long cotton grass and bog on the eastern side as we headed back down towards a now mostly felled area of the forest near Castle How. This little crag rose above the River Duddon immediately opposite the bunkbarn, however in order to avoid a steep hack through deep bracken, we diverted northwards slightly to Black Hall farm and then back south along the River. Most satisfyingly, this enabled us to pass through (once again, as we re-joined the end of our route from Saturday) a field with the highest density of Hardwick's (sheep) that most of us had ever seen! Lovely little herdwicks.

A great weekend, thanks to Harriett for sorting out the bunkbarn and to Jim, Richard, Imogen, Lorna, Sam, Daniel Daphne, Harriett, Tom, Fran, John, Mark, Jenny, Andy, Ben, Calum and Steven for your company on this summer gathering in the hills.