BB1807 : I Can Gather All The News I Need.....

Thursday March 8th 2018

So sang Paul Simon, anticipating by many years the simple needs of the BOOTboys not for New York but for the Lakeland Fells.  The trouble is that the weather reports or, to be more precise, the forecasts can be contradictory- even from the same organisation.  Even from Britain’s Meteorological Office.

The Met Office Mountain Information Service for the Lake District threatened us with a 60% chance of rain at midday and 40% at 3 p.m..

On the other hand, the Met Office’s Mountain Forecast said 20% chance of rain at midday and less than 5% throughout the afternoon.

So which should we believe?

The 9 a.m. reality looked to be much closer to the latter’s forecast but dare we take the risk?  So instead of going high we opted for an old favourite- Wansfell (visit number 15, putting it back into joint 1st place).  We decided to start from Troutbeck, in glorious sunshine, and go anti-clockwise for a change.  That was until Stan realised that he had forgotten his rucksac.  And more importantly his butties. We did offer to share ours but he hit on the very sensible idea of calling at the Old Post Office café in Troutbeck to purchase supplies.  The only problem was that it was not open.  It was, after all, still early.  However, this had set us off on a clockwise route which would mean that we would pass through Ambleside where he could stock up.

It was a pleasant, undulating stroll along Robin Lane and through Skelghyll woods down to Ambleside where Stan did stock up.  The load of course had to be shared by his companions.  Somehow I missed the added burden!

The climb out of the town is quite steep but rather than follow the road we opted to go up the more interesting route by Stockghyll Force before reaching the gate onto the fellside.  

The climb from there to the Wansfell summit is also steep but mostly very well paved with rock steps.  There were a few awkward places where the track was snowed and iced up but no great problem.

Objective achieved, we settled down out of the wind for our lunch stop, watched by an envious raven that was hoping for some leftover crumbs.

The descent to Troutbeck was without incident but at the bottom we had a dilemma.  Whether to go to the Mortal Man for a bevvy or to the Old Post Office for tea and cake?  Regular readers may be surprised to learn we opted for the latter.  The only problem was that when we arrived at the Old Post Office café, it was still shut.

Never mind, we thought.  We will jump in the cars and head off to our old favourite post walk refreshment village- Staveley.  When we arrived we had a dilemma.  Whether to go to the Brewery for a bevvy or to the Eclec café for tea and cake?  Regular readers may be surprised to learn that we opted for the latter.  Fortunately, this café was open.

The Met Office Forecast for the Mountain had proved more accurate than the Met Office Mountain Forecast. There we no more penguins to be seen.  I suspect they had got all the news they needed from the weather reports and had moved on to a more suitable clime- the cold and snowy sort the Bryan relishes.

Which leads on to how Bryan Braved The Beast.

Don, Thursday 8th March 2018

Bryan Braves The Beast

Whilst other BOOTboys composed their excuses, the only one brave enough to challenge the Beast from the East last week was, of course, Bryan.  He reports:

I had to expand the left hand photo below to see what it actually is.  Remarkable.

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