This wet weekend with John and Dave now seems remarkable to me by virtue of the number of pictures taken. Mercifully, my diary entry was not as verbose as usual.
22/23 March 1986
Wet Muker
Saturday
8 am start almost on time to pick up Dave. Trundle up
motorway and across to Muker via Sedbergh to meet JM at 10:10. He was cold
after a 6:30 am start and arrival at Muker at 9:30.
The rain stopped and we had a pleasant walk to
Gunnerside by the river.
We passed the Farmers Arms in Muker.
Wind very strong and whipped up spray. John reminisced about
his Munros and told us he had had to transfer his records to a hard disk (haha)*.
Got to the Kings Head soon after 12, but it didn't open for
a while. Had lunch on a wet bench then went into the pub to dry out. Structural
changes have not enhanced it. (We regularly visited this pub in those days.)
Up Gunnerside Gill. Lots of disused lead mine workings. Pleasant
woodland path at the start, but something has stripped the bark from many of
the trees, making sad ugly scars. The rain came down. Hard.
We
headed across the Gill (interesting) to North Hush, then west into the gale
towards Keld.
Then down to Muker by the Swale. Welcome tent refuge from
the very unpleasant wet. Good meal except that I mislaid my caviar, then down
to the Farmer's Arms for more Theakstons and an Austrian planning session.
Sunday
Lots of sleet and rain and wind made the outside world uninviting.
Lay in until 10:30 and then up and away by 11:15.
Drove to Healaugh then walked to the pub at Low Row, via
footpaths and by the river. Unpleasantly wet. Spent a long time in the pub and
after debate laid out on steak and kidney pie.
This path along a wall near Low Row will be familiar to those who have walked Wainwright's Coast to Coast route.
Back via Barney Beck. Lots more damaged trees and lots of
dead rabbits. Hungry rabbits eat bark? (It had been an exceptionally hard winter.)
Surrender Bridge.
Good old Dartmouth Performance Clothing waterproof. I had that for many years.
Cold and uneventful, but at least a day out. Return via
The following day heavy snow in the Dales would have blocked
our way back. The following weekend, a cold wet Easter was celebrated by the
commencement of decorating of our house at 27 South Drive
* transcribed verbatim - how times change!
Here are our routes. 18 km with 600 metres ascent on Saturday; 11 km with 250 metres ascent on Sunday. Click on the image.
2 comments:
Interesting post Martin, Typical outdoor weekend in those days.
Going even further back to 1967 we camped in Muker [on The Pennine Way]
The evening was spent in The Farmers Arms. I remember sitting around an open fire with half a dozen local farmers, eating pie, peas and gravy. The drink flowed and the tales exaggerated. We had a late start the next morning! Happy days.
I expect The Farmers Arms is a gastropub now - I hope not.
Hope you are coping with being locked in.
I'm glad you like it. These old photos and diary entries are keeping me, and the surviving participants, amused and entertained at this time. My visits to Muker only go back to the mid 1970s, but it was a good little campsite with a welcoming nearby pub, which we kept revisiting.
Revisiting is now on my Post Lockdown ToDo list...
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