Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club
Walk & Event Reports
Sunday 21st February 2016
A/B Walk
Improvised Walk in the Newlands Valley
? Miles Grade ?
Leader: Judith Mingins
Reports by Judith Mingins & Peter Flynn
Photos by Pete Rutland
Judith's Report
Nine of us met at the Sands car park in awful weather, so a vote was taken not to do the A walk.( poor Pete). John said we were meeting Joe and Kathryn at Skelgill so we all set off. When we got to Skelgill another vote was taken not to do the B walk. (poor John). The weather was so bad and no views in sight it was decided to do my walk up the Newlands Valley to the dam, which we did. Two new hardy souls were with us Alan and Jo, hope the Cumbrian weather hasn't put them off.
Joe had a mishap when one of his gortex gloves fell in the stream and disappeared in the foaming beck. It probably reached Workington before we left the valley. The rain never stopped all day but the crack was good. I think everyone enjoyed themselves especially the tea/ coffee and scone/ cake in the Cabin at Portinscale.
Judith
Peter's Report
There are damp walks and wet walks and walks like today’s. It fits into no known category, unless there was one that required a snorkel and mask. It would be an understatement to call it wet. It was the sort of wet that penetrates everywhere and interferes with all the normal day to day actions such as putting on mitts or gloves, finding things in one’s pocket, taking items out of the rucksack. Any aliens from planet Zog, landing in the Newlands area today, would have turned right back and crossed Earth off the list of desirable and habitable planets. However, 9 of us gathered at the Sands Centre this morning, along with about 1000 Jehovah’s Witnesses having their annual convention at the Sands. The temptation to join them was very strong, but instead we cancelled the A walk and headed to Skelgill for an A/B walk in the Newlands Valley area. Here we were joined by Joe and Catherine, Among the party from the Sands were Jo and Alan, a new couple recently moved from Beverley. Welcome to you both and I do hope today has not put you off too much. We crossed Newlands Beck and contoured round the shoulder of Hindscarth heading for the artificial tarn created by the long-ago miners. Here we had our soggy sandwiches, and then tragedy struck! Joe dropped one of his two best mitts in the stream. While it would not have made a lot of difference to how wet they were today, the mitt started to drift away. Lauren made a valiant attempt to rescue it but the force of the water was so powerful that it was simply swept away downstream. We headed back via Newlands Church and here Joe and Catherine decided (unilaterally) to extend the walk for a mile or so. The betting, in the lovely café in Portinscale we headed for was that they were damming Newlands beck before it reaches Bas Lake so as to try and salvage the invaluable mitt.Thanks very much to Judith for leading the walk so well.
Peter
PS. Has anyone lost a black walking pole – picked up on the bus by mistake last Sunday?
