Weather:
Dry with sunny spells. Low cloud till mid afternoon. Warm and
humid
Distance
8 miles.
Started
at: Tarn Hows car
park
Three go to Hodge Close
Quarry - an adventure in Cumbria.
After a thoroughly boring journey
up to Cumbria - (Paul and Susan talking French - or at least making a feeble
effort to do so, like "what's the French for jam"? "Now I should know that but
can't remember it", etc etc etc) our day started when we boarded the Windermere
ferry. Paul and I thought it was wizard, but Susan just said "I've been on it
loads of times". I just knew the front of the car would scrape the ramp on the
ferry - it did. On the ferry we pulled up behind a vintage motorbike - A
Matchless - and as it turned out, we saw several more vintage bikes throughout
the day. We arrived at Tarn Hows car park at half past nine. It was very quite
as we set off round the right hand side of the tarn, but cloudy. It is a zig zag
route to Black Crag summit, going through the decaying remains of Iron Keld
Plantation. It was then a shortish walk to the summit of Black Crag. Here we had
sandwiches which were jolly decent, and enjoyed the views whilst we
ate.
Leaving Black Crag summit we made
our way over pathless terrain to Low Arnside and on to Hodge Close quarry. This
is a spiffing place where we had a super adventure. By the time we arrived here
Susan was feeling tired (probably from the after affects of a full bottle of
wine the previous evening - we don't think she can take her drinkypoos any
more), but undeterred our little band of three started the long and steep decent
in to the quarry. Initially we fought our way though jungle like bushes
pushed aside a few branches, walked the pole, and noted the hazard of old
machinery and industrial leftovers. Deeper we went - probably 75 to 100 feet or
so, when suddenly we saw the two archways. Paul and I thought it was top hat,
but again Susan seemed nonplussed by it all. She would later find herself
getting excited hugging a tree! After solving some mysterious questions we'd
asked each other, we set off to climb out of the quarry.
After climbing the steep track bed
to escape from the quarry we turned left and settled down on an embankment with
good views across to Wetherlam. It was here that we did something new on our
walking trips (which we may well incorporate in to future walks). After we had
done it I took some time to come round, but Susan felt much better straight
away. What it was I can't say here, as Pam and others will want to enjoy the
experience on later walks.
So after a while we set forth for
Holme Fell, a neat little fell with fantastic views along the length of Coniston
Water. We had another five minutes here before the long descent to Yew Tree Farm where we had
a cup of tea, and scones with damson jam. The jam and scones were delightful. A
word of warning though - the jam has damson stones in it - I thought I'd broken
a tooth, so loud was the crack.
After leaving the farm we headed
across the road up a steep path to Tarn Hows Cottage, and then along the road
back to the car park.
From there we drove to Coniston,
had a pint in The Sun and then went in search of Fish and Chips. In the centre
we found an outlet that advertised takeaway food. We asked for three fish and
chips and in return was asked for over £20. Needless to say we declined and
walked out. We got our food eventually in Grange over Sands.
Today's walk was a great walk with
great views - but was different to most mountain walks as we crossed roads and
came upon dwellings, something we don't usually do on our walks!!
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Tarn
Hows from the start of the walk. Please watch out for the sign warning
that grass can be slippy
Black Crag
from the Northern end of Tarn Hows
Tarn Hows from
the northern end
The weather
was poor as we ascended Black Crag - this is the view of Lingmoor
Fell
Paul and Susan
at the summit
Over the stile
to go and have lunch
Zooming in on
The Band in Langdale
Paul and Susan
on the pathless descent from Black Crag to Low Arnside
And Paul makes
use of this strategically placed bucket to cross a tiny
stream
Low Arnside
Farm with Lingmoor Fell behind
I don't know
who started it - but they're hugging each other!!
..and just
look at the satisfaction she got
A little
further on and we came across this quaint old cottage near Low Oxen
Fell
Hodge Close
quarry - Paul met another Leylandiian
The view from
the tunnel
And now the
view looking the other way
Hodge Close -
it was here that we did it for the first time proper
After we set
off again there are good views down to the quarry.
This is
zooming in on the iron work that juts out from the left archway -
obviously some sort of railway as rails are still in
situ
Leaving Hodge
Close we made the ascent up Holme Fell - this view suddenly
appeared
and looking
the other way the Langdale Pikes are in sunshine
Coniston Water
from the summit
This time
using zoom
Susan and Paul
on the lower summit of Holme Fell
Holme Fell
summit - where there is a chance of a rest!
This is on the
descent to Harry Guards Wood - the weather is now
lovely
Yewdale Tarn
from the descent path
Looking back
to Holme Fell from the ascent to Tarn Hows
Farm
