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BB1339
: Sallows and Amazon
Thursday
6th November 2013
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The
Lake District has many literary connections, ranging
from William Wordsworth, De Quincey, Sir Clement Jones,
Postman Pat (sorry, John Cunliffe) plus several more through
to Melvyn Bragg. Plus of course Alfred Wainwright.
And Arthur Ransome.
Indeed Arthur Ransome
has a room dedicated to him in the Museum of Lakeland
Life in Kendal.
As
a somewhat disillusioned young man, in 1917 he took himself off
to Lenin's Russia and became well known in very high
places.
Was he a spy? Maybe.
Or a
double spy? Perhaps.
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You can find out more
by reading the Daily Telegraph's review of Roland Chambers'
biography The
Last Englishman
although if you look at the Amazon (N.B.)
website, whilst many enjoyed the book, some contributors
were less than impressed by this interpretation of the Ransome Story.
It was much later that Ransome started writing his stories
about the Walker children and their adventures in the
Southern Lakes.
As
a child, I was never much into Swallows and Amazons,
I have to confess to preferring A A Milne's Winnie
the Pooh, Enid Blyton's Famous
Five and Capt. John's Biggles. But the destination of today's walk brought
the subject to mind although you might well consider the relevance to
be extremely tenuous!
Our
first objective was Sallows which is a W (i.e. a Wainwright
peak) so if you mix the two together you get Swallows.
Pathetic, isn't it? Plus you've already seen the Amazon
reference!
I
doubt if the Walker children would have ventured out
today! To
be fair, it was fair when we set off up the Kentmere
Valley to park by the Church.
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Mike
provides Linthwaite sausages
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Tony
and the Edward VII post box
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As
we climbed
the Garburn Road it clouded and became cooler (the Met
Office had forecast a chill factor of -12°).
Also short sharp showers, sometimes rain, sometimes
light hail, passed through.
On reaching Sallows
summit, it was blowing a gale so we didn't linger but
made our way round to Sour Howse where it was little
better. As we dropped down towards the valley, we found
a suitable place to stop for lunch, sheltered from the
wind by a small patch of conifers.
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The
Kentmere climbing rock
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Comitibus
: Descent
from Sour Howes
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The
weather brightened considerably as we descended, thought
the stream were in spate aking crossing them, at times,
challenging. Sadly, no one fell in so my photographic
efforts to capture the moment were in vain..
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Tony
and the Edward VII
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I
thought Tony had been this way before so I was somewhat
surprised when he detoured to examine the small abandoned
shepherd's cottage, with much of its iron fireplace still
in position.
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Cottage
for sale
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Open
plan kitchen / lounge
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There
is a sheep hill not so far away
As
we made our way along the riverside, we passed a building
where the upstairs is a gallery (closed for winter)
and below is a garage. The door was open and an
ancient tractor was spotted. Then I noticed that
beyond it was an old car wrapped in protective covering.
In a strange sort of role reversal, it was Tony
who had to stop me from looking under the cover to examine
it further so I am unable to report what it was.
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Name
that tractor
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Name
that car
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On
return to our starting point, Tony and I decided to have a look
in the church, St Cuthbert's. Its exterior is
very plain and the inside mostly likewise except for
the cushions adorning the pews. Each one crotched
to a different pattern. Perhaps the most poignant
one, at this time of year, being a Remembrance Cushion.
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St
Cuthbert's Church
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The
Remembrance cushion
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Walk
over, we made our traditional call at Staveley's Hawkshead
Bravery which seemed to be having a Celebrity Chef convention.
The arrival of such acclaimed hoteliers as James
and Mike soon had the chefs genuflecting.
Some
members of the Comitibus seemed to have worked up a
thirst that was beyond the capacity of the Brewery to
satisfy so I dropped James, John and Tony at Alexanders and made
my virtuous way home. It looked like they were
in for a session to celebrate John having conquered
two more Ws: Sour Howes and Sallows. They
must have done that in some style. Just after
10 p.m. I received a message from James saying that
he had just got home after the longest walk yet. I
suspect that they had Swallowed enough to have drunk
the Amazon dry!
Don,
6th November 2013
| STATISTICS:
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BB1339
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| Date:
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Thursday
6th November 2013
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| Distance
in miles:
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7.9
(Garmin GPS)
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| Height
climbed in feet:
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1,529
(Memory Map / OS)
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| Features:
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Sallows,
Sour Howes
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| Comitibus:
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Don,
James,
John Hn , Martin, Mike, Tony
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BOOTboys
routes are put online in gpx format which
should work with most mapping software. You can follow
our route in detail by downloading bb1339 .
To
discover which Wainwright top was visited on which BB outing
- although it may not be that up to date - see: Which
Wainwright When?
For the latest totals of the mileages and heights (ditto) 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.
A reference back to this website
would be appreciated.
.If I have
failed to acknowledge properly the source or infringed
copyright, then I apologise.
. Please let me
know and I will do my best to put things right.
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