Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club

Walk & Event Reports

Sunday 6th July 2014

A/B Walk

Crag Hill, Causey Pike via Mine Road

8 Miles Grade 2

Leader: Pete Rutland

Report by Peter Flynn

Photos by Lauren Sarasini, Peter Flynn & Pete Rutland 

When the walk leader casually tells everyone that walking with this group is a bit like an extra scene in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” then it could indicate that some “interesting” conversations are taking place.  The “interesting” conversations were basically an attempt to teach some of the basic skills of dating to one gentleman who has a self proclaimed difficulty in the area.  By means of fairly robust, though purely verbal, rôle play members of the group indicated how to deal with a number of different situations that might arise  – Geordie, Irish,  Essex,  Jamaican and plain Cumbrian – and where there were slight complications that could crop up in real life.  This was fine,  the gentleman was fully satisfied that he could in the future deal with any of these situations,  but the problem was that we were overheard by a number of other walkers and they must have been totally convinced that this was a group that had escaped from a secure institution.  The backdrop for these fell walking eccentricities was the Lakes at their absolute glorious best.  The forecast was for heavy, thundery showers with sunny intervals,  and we had a combination of brilliant sunshine, heavy clouds,  no rain,  but wonderful colours with the heather just starting to flower and a clarity of the fells around that was truly amazing.  Seven of us walked the old track to the mines at the head of Coledale Valley,  where we had a discussion about the mining of pyrites, a metal that is used widely, according to the cognoscenti,  as a conductor of various weird and wonderful things.  The track up to Coledale Hause was steep and we then made a slight diversion to Wandope where we had lunch in the sunshine with views that might be equalled but could not really be bettered in the whole of the UK.  The ridge from Eel Crag,  over Sail and to Causey Pike was amazingly quiet – maybe a dozen people on it – and while 5 went down the track to the valley bottom,  Lauren and I did a diversion over Rowling End.  A wonderful walk,  great pity (for them) that more did not join us, a really good laugh instructing Mr X (rhymes with hill) in the delicate art of seduction.  Many thanks to Pete Rutland for planning and leading it.

Peter