Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club
Walk & Event Reports
Sunday 25th June 2014
A Walk
High Cup Nick
10 Miles Grade 2
Leader: Heather Perrin
Report by John McKay
Photos by Roger Trigham & John McKay
Heather does it again, a superb walk. She was quite right not to have any photos in her walk description. High Cup Nick really does take you by surprise, it’s quite a site, very impressive. Seven of us set off from the Sands and two more met us at Dufton. The last time Heather took us to Dufton we had torrential rain all day and going by the forecast I thought we might be in for a repeat performance. Fortunately the forecasters got it wrong, we had a great day, we did have a very heavy downpour late in the afternoon but it only lasted about twenty minutes, apart from that the weather was perfect. We headed out of Dufton on a nice path which climbed all the way till we reached the edge of High Cup Nick. Heather had planned the walk well, she had included a descent which took us to a view point where we could see this geological wonder in all its glory. The only downside to this was having to retrace our steps and make the steep ascent back up to the ridge, it was worth the effort. We made our way along the ridge to the end of the valley where we sat and had lunch with the most wonderful view in front of us. Heather suggested we do a little detour at this point to see a river which was well worth seeing, having not recc’d this part of the walk the map and compass came out and over lunch she worked out the plan of attack, it was a very impressive display of navigational skills and she took us no problem at all to the river and the bridge across. A ford which was marked on the map on the return route was nowhere to be seen, I suspect the water level was too high, so we returned by the same route back over the bridge to HCN. We made our way down a lovely path heading back towards Dufton. We came across quite a formidable obstacle as we passed through a farm, a large herd of cows, waiting to milked, completely blocked the path. We could have done with the Moo Man, a man who loved cows, that Heather and Lorna had seen a film about earlier in the week, it sounded riveting. To pass the time, as they waited, some of the cows were indulging in amorous activities so just in case they took a fancy to some of us, we decided a diversion was in order. We crossed some fields and several stiles and headed towards the woods. So far the walk had been wonderful but we were about to have the icing on the cake, the enchanted woods. It really was the most magical place, lots of beautiful and strange shaped trees, a lovely little stream, wonderful rock formations and magnificent displays of bluebells and greenery. It was so magical I expected nymphs, fairies and goblins to pop up at any moment. We arrived back in Dufton and made our way to the Village Pantry for coffee and cakes. A wonderful walk, a great bunch that provided some great conversation, including a theory that bearded men have a much higher sex drive than normal. Just as well those cows we came across were all clean shaven, otherwise we might have been in big trouble. Thanks to everyone who came along and a special thanks to Heather for yet another memorable walk.
John
