Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club

A Walk, Great Dun Fell. B Walk, Bannerdale Crags 

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"B" Walk

Sunday 9th June 2013

Bannerdale Crags, Souther Fell

 

A glorious day, fantastic weather but only fourteen people turned up at the Sands, nine for the "A" walk and five for the "B" walk. Just what does it take to get people out. A club with two hundred members and only fourteen on a day like today. Where are you all ?. You missed a treat. Five of us set off on the "B" walk, Sandra (leader), Heather(heavily bandaged knee), Pat, Steve and Me.We arrived in Mungrisedale and started putting on our boots. I felt like bursting into song " Where did you get that hat". It's funny how the sunshine brings out a strange fashion sense in people, especially walkers, white, previously unseen legs suddenly appear alongside some weird headgear.

We set off in the sunshine for Bannerdale Crags. After only a few miles Heather and I thought it was our lucky day, our big moment, we had both been on Saturday's first aid course and were itching to try out our new found skills.

Sandra tripped, went "A" over "T" and landed flat on her back. Heather and I went into action like a well oiled machine, despite the fact that Sandra was conscious, heart still beating, breathing and perfectly ok, we were convinced "CPR" was required. For the second time I felt like bursting into song, "Staying Alive" the choice this time. I think Heather giving "CPR" would be hysterical, as her choice of song would be "Nellie the Elephant", the casualty would be fine but anybody watching would probably die laughing. I would love to see Vinny Jones singing that. We were disappointed we weren't allowed to try it out. We reached the top of Bannerdale Crags and carried on down into the valley where we stopped for lunch before heading off for Souther Fell. On the way down from Souther Fell I discovered that the battery had fallen out of my camera, Pat remembered seeing it lying on the path so we both headed back up the hill and sure enough we found it. We called in at the village pub and had some nice refreshment and I bought half a dozen freshly laid duck eggs.

I headed home feeling like an English batsman. A great day, many thanks to Sandra and everyone else for their company.

 

John McKay

"A" Walk Sunday 9th June 2013

Great Dun Fell & Cross Fell

 

Nine of us set off from the beautiful village of Milburn at the foot of Great Dun Fell with the forecast for a bit of rain and by the time we returned we were sorry we had missed it.  The weather was hot,  the gentlemen were sweaty,  the ladies glowing.  (That's how they described it.)  After some lovely countryside near the start we took the direct route, aiming for the "golf ball"  up to the top of Dun  Fell to find that the annual convention of crane flies was under way. From there we went over little Dun Fell,  past the source of the River Tees and wide ridge with drainage on the East into the North Sea and on the West to the Irish Sea.  The actual footpath - part of the Penine Way - was an amazing series of sandstone slabs which were brilliant to walk on and took us across a lot of otherwise boggy land.  On Crossfell we found the crane flies had followed us but they were friendly little chaps and didnt bite,  and seemed genuinely interested in what we were eating and drinking and in our hairstyles.  From Crossfell it was back down over Wild Boar Scar,  across the beautifully named Grumply Hill and quite a long and lovely walk across both moor and farmland to Milburn. En route we came across a lovely bridge (see photo) in the middle of nowhere, purely for a rarely used footpath,  and we were lucky enough to have one of Britain's top bridge engineers to explain what sort of bridge it was and to tell us it would have cost around a quarter of a million to build.  A lovely walk, despite the heat and the craneflies,  quite relaxed in many ways and very different from the Lake District.  

 

Peter Flynn

 

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