Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club
Walk & Event Reports
Sunday 8th June 2014
A Walk
Croglin Fell
8 Miles Grade 1scr
Leader: Peter Flynn
Report by Gordon Green
Photos by Lauren Sarasini & Peter Flynn
For a fine morning in June it was a pitifully small turnout at The Sands . "We few , we happy few , we band of brothers---! " cries Shakespeare's Henry V to the depleted English army . Carlisle located a few miles from arguably the best walking country in the whole of the UK saw only 4 Carlisle and District Ramblers waiting at The Sands to join a leader and his partner out near where they live by Carrock Fell .
Where were the rest of you all !!!! ?? Were you still in bed like de- activated robots waiting to push a shopping trolley round Tescos for your Sunday exercise !?!
As it happens it was probably best that the more faint hearted of you stayed at home because what followed can only be described as "Wild Rambling " in the sense that the TV people these days bombard us with programmes about people doing "Wild Swimming " , "Wild Fishing " etc ---- maybe for all you Sunday Tesco fans there will one day be "Wild Shopping" with all the thrills and spills and chills of racing round the aisles !
Anyway it all started out normally enough with our valiant leader Peter Flynn taking us out towards Carrock Fell despite his partner Lauren's ominous commentary that "he's frightened them all off with the walk description ". As promised it was indeed rather pathless and the steep ascent was challenging over peat bog and springy heather . But we were in good spirits and as usual cheered on by the astute political commentary of our club Chairman , Neil , who has recently returned from helping Nigel Farage win the European Election . Congratulations to our Chairman on being selected to become the new mascot for UKIP . We are looking forward to seeing his face on all the posters !
Onwards and upwards we went till at the summit Peter , our leader , pointed his stick towards the valley below , "That's where we will be walking down for several miles -- there is no path and we'll have to do a significant amount of wading across the beck ! " Now I have an observation about Ramblers and particularly the Carlisle and District . You can take a Rambler through any form of outdoor hell and he/she will bear it like a trooper -- but don't let them get their boots wet by wading through water ! Oh God no ! I have seen Ramblers in sub zero snowbound landscapes hanging by their fingernails to rocks in order to prove they are up to doing "Grade 1 SCR " ( Grade 1 walk with scramble ) . I have seen Carlisle Ramblers cheerfully clinging to precarious clods of earth up dangerous gulleys hovering over 50 foot drops. I have seen feats of courage which would make skilled mountaineers quake in their boots . But on the subject of boots -- don't ask a Rambler to walk in a stream and get his / her boots wet !! So what Mr Flynn then led us onto was a breath of fresh air ( or fresh water in this case ! ) and bucked a trend in the most imaginative way
We descended to the most delightful water fall where we had a contemplative lunch listening to the calming rush of water . Then came the real aquatic walk . I think we must have forded that fast flowing beck 15 times with the cooling and pleasant water lapping to our knees . Sticks were essential to hold footing to slippery rocks .But there were no sudden immersions and we functioned as a team to get each other across . However soon we began to come across steep and rocky gorges where the water roared around us in frenzied white foam alternated with deep dark pools where one false slip would find you in 20 feet of black , peaty water reminiscent of Dante's description of The River Styx in Hades . It was like something out of the movie "Deliverance" . I could practically hear the ominously twanging banjos in the background when you know no good is going to come out of it and you wonder who will be left alive at the end . Peter led us on across rock ledges and giant boulders strewn at the side of the torrent . Our progress was halted by one particularly nasty rock ledge where you had literally to take that "leap of faith " and jump into a stretch of water whose depth you could only guess at . Ah such fun and exhilaration and what you stay at home Ramblers missed today --indescribable !
At length we reached the sun dappled uplands where the stream became tamer . Time to descend on a proper path at last . What a relief !
Thank you ,Peter, for a challenging walk with lots of interest
Gordon
Your Overseas Correspondent
