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BB2518 : Bad
Things Happen In Threes
Wednesday
14th May 2025
Yes,
I know it’s superstition, not fact. And
yes, I think you are right that I have written
about this before but three bad things did
happen to me today and I think it is the
same three bad things as on a BOOTboy
day several years ago. As then, in
the greater scheme of things, they are trivial
and did not detract too much from what was
a splendid day out. But they were
annoying. I just hope I didn’t annoy
Robert with my annoyance!
Our
target was the Whinfell ridge from the north
end of Borrowdale (the Westmorland one).
The first ascent, where Bryan took
me on an ice axe training exercise many
years ago, is quite steep. That’s
why he took me there. Today, it was
a glorious day but the wind was distinctly
chilly. At least I thought it was.
Robert didn’t seem bothered by it.
Once we reached the cairn at the top
of Ashstead Fell, I had warmed up and we
could enjoy the vista.
Mabbin
Crag was next. The scenery is much
changed from last time as there has been
a massive tree-felling operation.
Consequently
the approach is not as scenic as it used
to be.
There
was one awkward gully to descend. Robert
did it in proper mountaineering style, facing
the rock and three points of contact. I
used the more rustic approach of five points
of contact using two cheeks, two hands and
one foot.
Further
on, we had to navigate our way through the
forest. Fortunately most of the boggy
areas were more or less dry.
After
emerging into open ground we climbed Castle
Fell. We approached the easy way,
from behind, enjoyed the view then tackled
the steep, grassy descent.
Whinfell
Beacon was in sight and was duly climbed.
From
here, we could see that there was a digger
doing something at the repeater station.
There was a digger doing something
at the repeater station. There was
a digger……..! Sorry!
As
we approached we could see that the digger
was breaking up the cement floor of an outbuilding.
Just why, we didn’t discover.
There
seemed to be less radio dishes than we remembered
so maybe it is being decommissioned or maybe
our memories are wrong..
We
pressed on to the second station.....
.....
where we stopped for lunch and to enjoy
the distant views.....
.....
before dropping down to Borrowdale, watched
by a fell pony and serenaded by a cuckoo.
That
was the hard work over, apart from the long
walk back up the valley, following the river.
The
views of the hills are fine and the fields
looked lovely where they were full of buttercups
and other flowers whose names escaped us.
A second cuckoo was entertaining us.
The
last bit of the track is somewhat hairy
as the river banking has collapsed and the
new path is too close to the edge for my
comfort. After reaching Hucks Bridge,
it was a short walk back the car and a not
too long drive to the Tap in Kendal.
So,
if you can still remember the opening paragraph
you might be wondering what went wrong.
On the other hand you might have noticed
that some of the pictures are not as good
as others. Here are the problems.
1.
The battery on my camera died. Don’t
know why because it had been charged up.
Something had been draining it.
2.
Not to worry, I’ll use the camera
on my phone. It’s nowhere near the
same quality but it too decided to play
up seriously, presumably because it knew
that on Friday it becomes redundant.
3.
Not only had the camera on my phone
packed up, its gps had been doing its straight-lining
trick and then of course packed up. Not
to worry, I had my SatMap gps in my rucksack
so out it came only to discover that when
we set off, I had forgotten to tell it to
start recording. And then its battery
ran out which was another puzzle until I
discovered later that it hadn’t been fitted
properly.
So
that’s the three bad things or, as you might
prefer to say, the three signs of my incompetence.
In my defence, I confirm that I do
carry an old fashioned paper map plus magnetic
compass (and whistle) just in case. And
even better, I had Robert with me whose
phone had its map, gps and compass fully
working and, in addition to his Relive,
was able to provide me with extra photos
for this report. Thank you Robert.
Don,
Wednesday 21st May 2025
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