WHITBARROW CRAG 7.5 Miles
Walkers :- Anthony (leader), James, John R, John W,
Danny , Martin.
The roads were busy but we drove uninterrupted to our parking spot beneath the towering cliffs of the crag.
On our last visit to Whitbarrow the glorious views were obscured for most of the day by thick, drifting mist. Not so on this occasion as crystal blue skies thinly populated by fluffy white clouds allowed 360 degrees of superb views.
As we left the car park the car next to us disgorged a family from the Netherlands who gave us a friendly greeting before setting off on their own adventure.
We started our walk following the same route as our previous visit. Climbing steadily upwards through thick woodland. About a mile into our walk we left our once used route and followed a different way towards our goal.
Our coffee spot almost chose itself as a log adorned clearing sucked us in to share the friendly warmth of the late morning sunshine.
Here one of our number regaled us with a harmonica version of the theme tune from "Last of the Summer Wine" which was deemed most appropriate in view of the attendant company.
The pleasant surrounds and the congenial company led us, once again, to commit the cardinal error of not thinking and following the "Obvious" rather than the "Correct" path. Our ever alert leader quickly spotted the mistake and soon had us back on the "True" path.
Once again our task was to climb steadily upwards through the all enveloping woods for quite some way before we burst breathless and sweating into the sunshine as we approached the several summits of the hill.
Here we see super-fit Danny leading the way.
..........and the rest of us following on.........
Before us, as we broke out of the trees, was a substantial dry stone wall beyond which stretched the treeless but scrub and rock strewn top of the fell. Although we were hot and sweaty we , for once, acted sensibly and decided to stay on the leeward side of the wall to have our lunch. There was a cooling breeze which would quickly have chilled us had we crossed over the wall to stop for lunch.
Lunch over we began to pick up our bags when the dutch family we had encountered at the start of our walk clambered over the wall and stopped to chat for a minute or two. Of the thirteen walks they had done on their holiday (wow!) this they declared was the best.
So over the wall and a short trudge up to the unusually well built cairn that marked "Lords Seat"
Danny has not fallen by the wayside in the biblical sense but is taking a photo of the local flora. Above Danny's head and beyond the bush the cairn can just be seen on the horizon. And here we all are gathered around it. A lone walker was kind enough to take this snap.
The wonderful weather continued but a sneaky breeze kept us on the move afraid of becoming cold. Fabulous views lay before at every point of the compass. Here we see Danny snapping away at one of them.
From here a short dip and a further albeit short climb took us to a further viewpoint (the "Goodies" kept coming) and then after a final drinks stop and a brief and non-threatening encounter with some very "Horny" beasts (behave yourselves -- they were cows !) we went knee-wreckingly down, down, down until we arrived at the car park. A welcome cool drink of Martin-provided shandy and the presentation to Anthony of the "Magnificent" walker of the week trophy and one of the best walks of the year was complete. Well done leader.
