Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club
Walk & Event Reports
Sunday 24th July 2016
A Walk - Barbon to Ingleton
11 Miles Grade 2
Leader: Graham Bell
Report by Peter Flynn
Photos by Peter Flynn
When it became clear, about three quarters of the way through the walk, that we were going to be late, the leader and several others had a discussion about the penalty on this occasion. It was decided (not, I may add, by myself) that the ultimate sanction would be another picture of a chilli con carne. It was agreed that 2 such pictures would bring a severe warning and 3 and the person in question was out! Hopefully our leader today will be spared such indignities as he did a brilliant job of leading a very complicated (and long) walk across some of the most beautiful and unfrequented countryside in Yorkshire. The weather was funny – lovely warm spells followed very rapidly by heavy rain, and virtually everyone had to take off waterproofs and then don them again with considerable frequency. The walk went through the village of Barbon at the start, onto what seems to have been the estate of the local big chief, along a river, up onto the fells, down to the lovely farmland to the north and west of Ingleton. As Graham, who was leading, pointed out, since doing a recce, about 3 or 4 weeks ago, the whole countryside had changed quite dramatically. The bracken had sprouted up to about 5 times its height. Paths were extremely difficult to see and with the effects of the rain, just walking through such terrain left us drenched from the waist downwards. But, when we reached the farmland, the bracken had gone, we had a nice dry wind and were not so bad, though waterproofs came on again for the last 15 minutes. The great wit of the group – Neil – commented on a large hole (cf. picture) in a dry stone wall by asking if that was where we should go to get our money. Despite the weather and the terrain, it was a lovely walk, super company, good chat and thanks once again to Graham for leading it.
Peter
