Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club

Walk & Event Reports

A/B Walk Sunday 6th April 2014

Wetheral to Armathwaite

15.6 Miles  Grade 3

Leaders: David Bulman & Morven Burden

Report by Peter Flynn

Photos by Peter Flynn & Lauren Sarasini

When the planned A and B routes are quite challenging and the forecast is for heavy rain,  high winds and in general conditions that one would associate with the Day of Judgement rather than a stroll in the Lakes,  the sensible option would be to look at the options and choose something else.  This is exactly what the 7 brave souls – plus Dave’s collie,  Sam - who turned up to the Sands did.  Dave and Morven,  the walk leaders,  agreed that the open fells could be somewhat draughty and as no one had any ideas for the Hexham area (which was forecast sunny and warm all day),  we settled on a walk which no one had actually done,  but which we knew to be there – Wetheral to Armathwaite and back with a car left at a tiny hamlet called Brocklewath.  The walk was long but totally protected from the wind and pretty well from the rain.  We had two or three spells of 20 minutes or so of rain,   and the odd spell of light drizzle,  but apart from that it was an amazingly sheltered walk.  The only time we became seriously wet was when Sam had one of his frequent dips and then selected each of us in turn to stand next to and shake himself dry.  The whole walk was very beautiful,  lovely woods,  the odd sandstone cliff,  lovely views of Corby Castle at the start and a great variety of ducks,  geese,  herons,  oystercatchers and so on.  At one stage we were debating the merits of walking one way and sailing back to the starting point,  and just then we came across half a dozen in kayaks,  moored for their lunch,  who gave us the low-down on the rules,  regulations and the attractions of the rapids that would be encountered.   The walk was muddy in parts and very long – 15.6 miles according to Roger’s infallible GPS - probably equivalent in length to the two planned walks put together – and a future option might be to have lunch in Armathwaite and a car waiting there.  The real challenge was to cram 6 people and the dog (he had higher priority than me so I had to walk and be picked up later) into Lauren’s car along with all the rucksacks.  We finished with Morven in the boot,  Roger,  Chris and Helen in the back,  and Dave and Sam crammed into the front.  Great fun,  good walk and somewhat safer and more comfortable than Sharp Edge in particular.  We did discuss one point that might be worth thinking about,  especially for car walks.  When the weather forecast is atrocious,  it is quite possible to switch to something safer and more comfortable.  What if the forecast is brilliant?  Could we switch to some of the more challenging walks that rarely seem to be done – Sharp Edge,  Pillar,  Scafell or Scafell Pike and so on?   

Peter