Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club
Walk & Event Reports
Sunday 8th May 2016
Annual Coach Ramble
Malham
Walk Leaders: Peter Flynn, Ian Rowley, Colin Taylor
Reports by Peter Flynn, Ian Rowley, John McKay
Photos by Peter Flynn, Lauren Sarasini, Ian Rowley, Mike Coates, John McKay
Peter's Report
Malham Cove. Sunday 8th May A Walk
Some days are boring and absolutely nothing happens. This was very very definitely not true today. For a start it was one of half a dozen days in a year if you are lucky - of utterly glorious weather. Absolutely perfect. Secondly we had a beautiful destination – Malham – which was at its best, warm, and everything fresh and bursting with life. The journey to Malham was, to say the least, interesting. Tracy was driving the coach, the Sat Nav wanted her to go down an impossible street in Settle, and sent her on a totally unsuitable route off the A 65 to Malham Village – a road so narrow that we had to slow even to allow cyclists to squeeze past. From Malham, Geoff, who was coming with us part of the way, took us on a delightful route to Janet’s Foss (or fosse?) – much better than the walk up the road which was the only one I knew. (Cf. the photos to see how lovely it was.) From there it was the six of us – Neil, Lauren, Alan, Moira, yours sinc, and – for her first trip out with the club – Jenny. From the Foss, we headed for Gordale Scar, a fierce, threatening looking narrowing of the cliffs, beloved of rock climbers, with a long waterfall up which we all scrambled. We had an early lunch and Jenny told us one wonderful story. She and a friend were on High Style and a couple approached them and asked “how do we get to High St?” They were not totally sure whether it was the route of the Roman Rd to the East of Ullswater, or the location for Boots, M & S etc. They said it was quite a distance away so the chap asked if they would show them how to get there on his map. No problem, they said, and he unwrapped a tea towel and among the gravy and red wine stains was a map of the Lakes ! From there it was a straightforward route to Malham Tarn and we had a little excursion up a hill overlooking it. We then followed the Pennine Way and came across Ian and the B party, stopped by an ice cream van. We then headed up the Pennine Way some more and came across the limestone pavement above Malham Cove – fairly crowded but spectacular as always. From there it was back to the village and on the bus to the Brasserie in the Courtyard where we were due to have a meal. Here there was consternation when a man came across to the bus and said that buses cannot park there and in any case the Brasserie was shut and there were no meals being served. Fortunately I had already been in and confirmed the arrangements and we had a superb meal. A great day, the sort that will live in the memory. Also, special thanks to Tracy for some brilliant coach driving.
Peter
Ian's Report
Settle to Malham Sunday 8th May B Walk
A beautiful day and a wonderful advert for the benefits of membership of the club. The visit to Malham was blessed from start to finish with perfect weather conditions and fine limestone scenery. Twenty three on the B walk that started with the promised steep pull out of Settle. The pace soon settled to a steady stroll with plenty of opportunities to admire the views along withthe usual friendly conversation. Despite the weather very few other walkers were encountered, the miles quickly passed and lunch was taken at a viewpoint overlooking Malham Tarn. It was decided to skip a closer inspection of the tarn and the number of cars in the car park next to the Pennine way probably indicated this was a sound choice. At this same spot an exhausted and ragged group of “A” walkers were encountered. Several of them begged to join the B group but were quickly whipped into submission by their heartless walk leader and the two groups set off along different paths towards the cove. The two groups met up again on the top of Malham Cove which, even with the large number of Sunday afternoon visitors, was still an impressive sight. A final amble down to Malham was followed by an excellent meal at a restaurant on the outskirts of Settle.Overall a splendid day that will linger long in the memory.
Ian
John's Report
Janet's Foss-Malham Cove Sunday 8th May C Walk
What a fantastic day for the Annual Ramble. It’s so much better walking in the sunshine and what a great area Malham is, lots of interesting features. It may not be “coach friendly” but Tracey, our driver, did a great job in getting us there. Today was an unusual experience for me, due to injury, I decided to do the C walk. I have only ever done a C walk once before and that was about five years ago but after today I might do a lot more. It was a fantastic walk and what a great bunch the C walkers are, it was a pleasure to walk with them. A nice leisurely pace, a long lunch break, with ice cream for afters, some great laughs, what more could you want. We made our way to Janet’s Foss, a lovely little waterfall in a delightful setting. We then had lunch at Gordale Bridge before taking a stroll to have a look at Gordale Scar, look was all we did and we headed back to Gordale Bridge to pick up the path to Malham Cove. A really unusual place is Malham Cove and the limestone pavement is unlike anything I’ve come across before. It does require quite a bit of care to walk along the pavement, I made my way across holding hands with a delightful female member of the club. We all made it safely across before tackling the steep rocky steps to the bottom of the Cove. There are 300 steps according to some “know all” I met on the way down, had he actually counted them I wondered, “Anoraks” are still alive and well and walking the hills. It was then back into Malham for coffee and on to the “Brasseire in the Courtyard” for dinner. What a lovely dinner it was, very sort of “Master Chef” and posh, not at all what I was expecting. I had Black Pudding for starters but it was like no black pudding I had seen before, it was pink, perhaps the chef is colour blind. Regardless of the colour it was delicious, the whole meal was delicious. All in all a great day and a great walk, many thanks to Colin for leading and to everyone else for their company. A special thanks to Peter and Lauren for organising everything.
John
