BB1320 : When Donny Fell Into The Bog

However, with three walks in two and a half days totalling 28 miles you might well think that Don had a secret C2C ambition.

Today’s training session (?) was partly inspired by our Bampton visit. I was seeking something not too far away and not too strenuous after the efforts of the previous two days.

What threw the calculations was the fact that we were unable to park at Swindale Head, nor even Swindale Foot, thereby adding three miles to our outing.

The weather was not as good as we hoped.  We climbed the Old Corpse Road wondering how they got the coffins over from Mardale.  The answer is in the name.  It is not the Coffin Route.  It is the Corpse Road, so the body would be strapped to the back of a donkey.

Heading up the Old Corpse Road; Swindale behind

On the tops it got worse.  Soon we were walking in fairly thick cloud with limited visibility.  Fortunately, once we had reached Selside Pike there was a fence that greatly enhanced navigation.

By now, Tony was screaming for food but we made him wait until we had reached Branstree.  This was not out of our usual badness but to be able to shelter behind a wall out of the bitter wind.

As we dropped down into Mosedale, the weather grew better.  We called in at the Cottage (a bothy) for a break.  We were pleased to see that it was in good order, tolerably clean and with six armchairs.  Had we lit the stove we might still have been there.

Boggy lower Mosedale

Down the somewhat boggy valley we plodded until we reached the descent into Swindale, alongside the impressive Forces Falls.

The bottom of the Old Corpse Road was soon reached and thereafter we retraced our weary steps through a sheep shearing yard and back to the cars.

No, I am not in training for the C2C.  That is definitely enough walking for me this week! Stan or Bryan would no doubt have completed all three outings combined inside eight hours but not me. Twelve days of it is beyond my comprehension.  

But what was all that about Donny and the Bog?

Epilogue

I often plan these reports as I walk along, especially on the more boring stretches such as Mosedale’s tedious marshy terrain.  All of a sudden this came to my mind (with apologies to Alfred Noyes):

I was nearing the end of a BOOTboys blog
There was not much to say and little to log
We were down in the valley, out of the fog
When the Comitibus stood there, their eyes all agog
'Cos Donny fell into the bog.

There are certain inaccuracies in this but why spoil a good bit a plagiarism?

It was a stream, not a bog, but was fed, in part, by the water from Captain Whelter Bog.  And Donny didn’t quite fall in but did get a good wetting of the left leg (and filling of the boot) thanks to jumping with the wrong foot on to the wrong (i.e. mossy) side of a rock with the inevitable result.  Tony rated it a seven.

And everyone's face grew merry and bright,
And Tony danced for sheer delight.
"Give me the camera, quick, oh quick!
He's crawling out of the muckment."
Click!

Then the Gardiner suddenly slapped his knee,
And doubled up, shaking silently,
And the ravens all croaked as if they were daft
And it sounded as if the old buzzard laughed.
When they saw that the subject of this epilogue
Was Donny, who fell into the bog

Don, Thursday 30^th May 2013

Tony and the Vulcan

It seems that James (planes), Martin (balloons) and John (gliders) are not the only pilots in our ranks.  Here we see Tony at the controls of the renowned Vulcan bomber, stationed at Carlisle.

BOOTboys routes are put online in gpx format which should work with most mapping software. You can follow our route in detail by downloading bb1320

To discover which Wainwright top was visited on which BB outing see
Which Wainwright When?

For the latest totals of the mileages and heights see: BB Log.

Photos have been gleaned from many sources although mostly from me! Likewise written comment.  Unless stated otherwise, please feel free to download the material if you wish.  
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