BB2203 : In Search Of Naturists

Thursday 19th January 2022

It was a lovely day.  Time to get back into the mountains.  That is what we planned until we had a second look at the weather forecast.  

Hmm.  Winds of over 30 mph.  Windchill feels like -7°.  Let's go somewhere lower and warmer.  "Why not go looking for Naturists?" someone said.

We have had our own Naturists, or at least skinny dippers.  The late and sadly missed Graham for example on BB0407.  Also Terry, who was unable to join us today, on BB1434.  And we have observed, from a discreet distance, others who plunged into tarns.

Whitbarrow Scar seemed the most likely place. The original plan had been to walk the full length of the Scar but Martin fooled us by arriving at Mike's rather than us arriving at Martin's.  That was no great hardship as not only did it save us a couple of miles, Mike, or to be more precise Jean, presented each of us with a hot sausage just like the good old days when he ran the hotel.

Up we went through the Township Plantation and along the open land to Lord's Seat.

We paused at the cairn.....

..... with its tribute to the Founder of the Lake District Naturists Trust- a place to find them if anywhere would be.  

However, as none were present we continued south to the far end from whence, to my amazement, I could just see our house.

Less surprising was that we could see the estuary.

We dropped down through Buckhouse Wood.  The plan for the return was to take the permissive path northwards through the woods, past the special needs school and on to Bell Rake.  

However, someone decided that was too far and too steep.  It would be better to take the gentler climb up from the school.  Well, it might be gentler but it has rather more exposure to steep drops than some might feel comfortable about. Fortunately the limestone was dry and we were going up, not down, so the grip was good and the exposure didn't seem so bad.

Having passed the cairn (still no Naturists), we stopped for lunch, sheltered out of the wind by a limestone cliff.

The return to Mike's was via a slight deviation from the way we had come up.

What humans had we seen?  Quite a few dog walkers but no Naturists.  Maybe it was too cold for them.  We finished off at the Hare & Hounds at Levens, socially distanced in the outside shelter.  Conveniently, there is an electric heater on a time-switch in the shelter.  Presumably installed to keep the chill off the Naturists whilst they enjoy their pint.

Don, 20th January 2022
Thanks to Mike for his photos

PS  My apologies to Canon Hervey and his descendants.  It was of course the Lake District's Naturalists' Trust, a rather different sort of body, that he founded in 1962 but I have occasionally been known to twist the facts to fit the story!

 Comitibus:  Stan, Mike B, Martin, Don, Holly, Robin, TV Mike

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STATISTICS

BB2203 : In Search Of Naturists

Date:

Wednesday 19th January 2022

Features:

Whitbarrow

Distance in miles (Garmin):

9.3

Height climbed in feet (MM):

1,616

Comitibus:

Don, Martin, Mike B, TV Mike, Robin, Stan

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