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BB2209 : So Good They Went
There Twice
Thursday
17th March 2022
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Jay-Jay Okocha is the
former
Nigerian international footballer who used to play for Bolton Wanderers.
In fact, in 2017 he was voted the best player
to have ever played for the Wanderers which, considering it had been the
province of the great Nat Lofthouse, is quite some accolade.
The fans so liked their attacking midfielder
that they printed T shirts with the slogan:
Jay-Jay,
so good they named him twice
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Today's outing somehow
reminded me of Jay-Jay.
The plan was to do a 1191BB, or
to put it more sensibly, BB1911 in reverse.
That meant starting at Ludderburn, a fairly obscure location to
the east
of Windermere (the lake) then heading south over Gummer’s How and Simpson Ground
to High Newton However a threatened downpour
in the late morning led to a rather contrived way of doing the same trip but
avoiding the bad weather.
The key was to start, mid-way,
at the Gummer’s How car park and set off straight up the nose.
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OK it is a fairly short climb in the greater
scheme of things but it does feel like a proper mountain with some awkward little
craggy bits to negotiate.
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It was fairly cold
with strong gusts of wind and the Lake District hills were shrouded but we made
good progress.
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Once we reached the trig
point we could take it much easier and head north through Bare Allotment to the
Blake Holme Plantation where, protected by the trees, if the threatened rain
did come, we would be somewhat sheltered.
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In fact the threat started to become a reality as we emerged into the
open so wet weather gear was quickly donned. It didn't stop the sheep
trooping across the fields to be fed.
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Soon we were back at the car
that had strategically been left at Ludderburn.
Time to take shelter whilst the deluge passed through. But where? was the question. The obvious place was the Hare & Hounds
at Bowland Bridge so that is where we went and entered the premises. Unfortunately (for them) it was only 11:45
and they didn’t open until noon. Why
they didn’t just invite us in and offer us a coffee if they couldn’t yet serve
food or alcohol, I don’t know. But they
didn’t, they just turned away custom.
Never mind, we thought. We‘ll return up the hill to the Mason’s
Arms. Unfortunately (or maybe
fortunately as things turned out) they were short staffed (Thank you, Covid /
Brexit) and were only open for bookings.
Our walking strategy required us to start the next stage from way down south
at High Newton so that is where we headed.
Ignoring what used to be The Crown and is now the rather posher “Heft”,
we drove on to Harry’s CafeBar at Yew Tree Barn. What a superb light lunch we had. Cappucino to my specific temperature and
froth requirements. Half of me wished I
had ordered the Sea Food Chowder that Mike was clearly enjoying whilst the
other half was delighted that I was tucking into the most delicious
Ratatouille. It was so good.
It might surprise you know that
none of us had any alcohol with our lunch.
We didn’t want to undermine our performance for the second part of what
should have been the first part of the adventure.
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We passed High Newton Reservoir
and followed the bridle path through pleasant countryside until it was time to
turn into the woods for the Simpson Ground Reservoir.
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Rather than take the marked
footpaths that would lead to Sow How Lane, we followed forestry tracks that
would lead directly back to where we had parked the car.
The problem was that there had been a lot of
heavy machinery that had clearly been used for a great deal of logging. They had left a quagmire in their wake. We emerged from the woods distinctly muddier
than we had entered.
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Now it was decision time. We had
completed 1191BB. Should we call it a day or should we
undertake a second ascent of Gummer’ How?
We are (or at least I am) very fond of this mountain in miniature so the
decision was simple. It’s so good that
we’ll go there twice.
To make things
more interesting we opted to keep to the east of the hill and then attack it
from that side. It’s less dramatic that
way and the track had been made much muddier and difficult to follow, thanks
to the many cows
that had been traipsing round, but the final climb was satisfying.
It was rather sunnier than in
the morning but the Lakeland Hills were still obscured.
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Feeling rather smug at our
second conquest, we descended the craggy ground that we had climbed
several hours earlier.
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On reaching the
car we headed back to High Newton's Yew Tree Barn, the home of the so good Harry’s CafeBar. Had it been
so very good that we should visit it
for the second time? It would have been
very tempting apart from one thing. We
had come prepared to eat on the fells and had walked round with a sac-full of
goodies to eat. After completing the
steepest part of the descent, Stan had found a suitable place for us to have
our afternoon tea (or coffee in my case) where we ate our butties and Stan
treated us with FlapJack.
So in summary, Gummer’s How was
so good that we went there twice and Harry’s CafeBar was so good but the second
visit will have to wait a while. But not
for long. I think Jay-Jay would have understood.
Don, Thursday 17th
March 2022
Comitibus:
Don,
Stan, Mike, Terry
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