Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club

Walk & Event Reports

Wednesday 1st May 2019

Skirwith - Kirkland - Blencarn

Leaders: Chris & Tom Fortune

Report by

Tom Fortune

Today proved to be a day of changes. It started with the weather the forecast which had been dire all week but 24 hours earlier offered a reprieve. So it was with only the slightest sense of trepidation I felt as we departed, the solitary mere male in a group of ‘the Carlisle Coven’ also known as the’ Scone Club’ we headed south. The forecasters had it wrong and the longer we drove the heavier the rain fell. As we left Penrith we could see the area of moorland that was our destination covered in mist and low cloud. The main attraction of the planned route was the extensive views offered by walking in open moorland. This was no longer an option, so remembering the old military maxim “The key to Air Power is flexibility” followed by “And the key to flexibility is indecision”. We hastily had a mobile re –assessment and came up with a more suitable walk in this area around Acorn Bank of similar length but less exposed to the elements and this had the added value that for 2 of the 5 of us it was a new walk.

One of the notable aspects of this new venture was the degree of faux wild life sightings that happened. Beginning with ‘Ranger’ Judy’s sighting of a Heron sitting in the lower branches of a riverbank tree (a plastic bag) Next I spotted a Muntjac deer bounding across a field (turned out to be a large and slightly mad dog that had got ahead of it’s owner). Finally, me again, a beautiful if rather unusual egret nestling on the river bank (again the wonders of plastic!).

All in all not the day as planned but an excellent day out in delightful company.

Tom