Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club

Walk & Event Reports

Sunday 31st January 2016

A Walk

Outerside

8 Miles Grade 2

Leader: Ron Kirkley

Report & Photos by Peter Flynn

No doubt put off by the dire weather forecast,  only 19 caught the bus from Carlisle this morning and of those,  only 4 embarked on what was an A walk with a difference.  To satisfy the doubters – there was a slight drizzle for part of the time,  but the weather was warm for the time of year,  we had no hurricane Gertrude or Sam or Beelzebub or anything – it was amazingly calm.  What was different was the luck;  we headed up Barrow,  had  a brief discussion about which point exactly was Barrow Door,  and then on to Outerside.  We were in quite thick mist the whole walk and had lunch,  still in mist on the summit of Outerside,  and because we could not see anything of the surrounding hills,  Ron went back to the photos he had taken on the recce,  just to prove that there were hills round about.  Just at that moment it was as though a curtain had been drawn back.  We suddenly saw not all but 50% of the surrounding hills – Sail,  Eel Crag and part of Coledale Hause – but only part.  The curtain still blocked the hills directly to the North.  However it was a moment of magic,  no doubt 2 or 3 thousand years ago,  it would have been put down to divine intervention by one or other of the cloud / weather gods.  The photos will hopefully show it,  though I suspect they won’t do full justice to what happened.  A lovely walk,  not the highest or most challenging,  but very enjoyable and many thanks to Ron for planning and leading it.

Peter