A NIGHT AT THE THEATRE

Wednesday 21/04/2010. I had a pleasant evening down in Stockton-on-Tees at the ARC theatre for the next in their series of spoken work events, this one called "Your Are Here" A poetry night though perhaps a bit of an exageration to call it a night as the show lasted an hour, no break and that was that. Despite it's brevity I enjoyed it for there are few opportunities for live poetry events in our area. The performance poets in attendance were Jo Shapcott, quite a well known poet whom I recall seeing a few years ago reading at the Words by the Water Festival in Keswick with A E Fanshawe (who died not long ago). On my flikr page I have used a poem from each of the writers performing tonight, to illustrate and go with the pictures taken for my British Literary group on flickr so I will not repeat them here, for Jo's poem called "Shopping" go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/summonedbyfells/4546111788/ (It ocurrs to me that I should be able to insert a page link that would allow direct connection to my flickr photo, as it is and until such time as I can work out how to do this, it will be necessary to copy and past the link to see what I am referring to). I have to say this sort of commentary poetry doesn't do a great deal for me, it all seems very ordinary and hardly worth the effort of writing it down, I can't see that it has much to say about anything. Conversely Daljit Nagra an Asian teacher had some interesting work on the theme of his growing up in a cross-culture environment, he had something original to say; at least to me. His writing opened a door and offerred a glimpse into another world of identity confusion but another world we all knew and think so little of now - that of childhood. The third poet of the evening was for me the best a fetching lass from Ulster called Colette Bryce, her wispy lines, her observational accurary catch at how simple description and a connecting thought process produce a striking imagery, for this reason I will repeat her "Nature Table" here, maybe it was her gentle but compelling Derry accent but whatever it was I thoroughly enjoyed her performance and felt happy to have encountered some new current work.

NATURE WALK - By Colette Bryce

If only my bag had been large enough,
I would have brought the lonely men in parked cars
by the river. I would have brought the woman
dabbing khol tears with the heel
of her hand. I might have brought the ancient couple
who read each word on the YOU ARE HERE
board, then turned and ambled on, heads
a little upward-tilted showing
an interest in everything.

I would have brought the coping stone
from the twelth pier of the original bridge, and the 4.06:
from elsewhere, curving (glittering) carefully across.
And all the busy people on it; all their coats
and phones and wallets. I might
have brought the restless gulls that dropped
like paper boats on to the water. And the burger van,
the girl inside with greasy hair,
her quite unsolvable crossword.

And put them all on my nature table,
and fashioned little cardboard signs:
a small display that would speak in a way
about lonliness and life spans, parked cars and rivers.

I bought some bark, and a couple of conkers,
one still half-encased in it's skin like an eye.

*************

And of course she brought them all with her!
My picture was taken by Daljit Nagra and shows me with Jo Shapcott.

**************

There is something about parked cars in the poetry of Ulster, or maybe there isn't, but Colette Bryce's line about the "lonely men in parked cars" chimes with other troubled parked-car associations with Ulster - like Paul Muldoon's:

IRELAND

The volkswagon parked in the gap
But gently ticking over.
You wonder if it's lovers
And not men hurrying back
Across two fields and a river.

Perhaps you need to know a little about Ulster's Troubles to get it, but I certainly do and so did poor Eamon Collins, beaten to death by the roadside in Strabane. In his book "Killing Rage" the role of cars, parked or about fearful business play a deadly if secondary role.

AROUND GREENBURN

Saturday 17/04/2010. This is my final trip in pursuit of unclimbed Birkett summits and my plan is to finish off the hills in the Consiton section of Birketts List in "The Complete Lakeland Fells" As with my Shap and Wasdale walks I will be combining Birkett's recommended routes into a single walk starting in Elterwater. Soon the walk passes the lovely Little Langdale Tarn to approach the first felll of the day, my targets are: Birk Fell, Wetherlam, Black Sails, Swirl Howe, Grey Friar, Great Carrs, Little Carrs and Hell Gill Pike. Having made many walks among the Coniston Fells only Little Carrs and it's lower extension Great Hell Pike will be new tops for me but I'm not bothered by that; these fells provide classic lakeland walking of the highest order and the sun continues to shine heralding another treat in store. From Elterwater it's about a two mile walk south-west out of the village passing the old slate mines in Sawery Wood then a bit of descent to pass Little Langdale Tarn and the famouse much photographed Slaters Bridge. After that it is a short uphill passing the one-time mine worker's cottages now all second homes and climbing club properties, I see the Climbers Club and the Yorkshire Ramblers have huts here at Low and High Hall Garth. A fine walk up the lower reaches of the Greenburn Valley gives excellent views of the Langdale Pikes before the good track is abandoned for a bit of a slog up by a boundary wall then strike off right and up to the top for the first summit of the day, Birk Fell. From here the route is obvious taking the ingenious footpath through the broken cascade of rock that is Wetherlam Edge, a big pull up and there is the summit with three or four fellow walkers resting, we exchanged cameras and took each other's pictures a courtesey on the hills that is very handy when travelling solo. Now comes a stiff climb up the Prison Band. (after a short detour to take in the often by-passed top of Black Sails, an outstanding vantage-point for pictures of Consiton Old Man and Levers Water). The Prison Band is bit of a grind and quite foreshortened so you never quite see the top until you are virtually upon it. But all good stuff and when climbed essetially that's all the day's climbing over. A stroll north down to the col beyond Swirl How's fine cairn to Swirl Hawes allowes access to a faint track leading over west for half-a-mile to the great hump of Grey Friar, a bit like Black Sails, Grey Friar just off the main trod gets far fewer visitors even when the main tops are quite busy like today. It's a case of retracing steps back to the Hawes and then a short uphill climb passing the poignant ruins of a World War II aircraft ruin and memorial (see my picture, Grey Friar in the background behind the remains of the hapless Halifax bomber) to reach the top of Great Carrs, a short downhill stroll along the edge above the steep drop into the Greenburn Valley and Little Carrs is quickly reached and the continuation along the top of Wet Side Edge soon brings the minor top of Hell Gill Pike beneath your boots. This seems an impressive name for what I thought was a rather inconspicuous top but perhaps it has a better profile from the other side of the Wrynose Pass. Now I take a path, not always easy to follow, over the side of the edge and gently down into the Greenburn Valley. I had thought about camping by the abandoned reservoir at the head of the valley, it looks a dramatic position surrounded by Wetherlam and the cliffs along Wet Side Edge but with all the old mine workings I decide that camping on the shoulder with fine views of the Langdale fells and Little Langdale Tarn would provide a better lakeland ascthetic, and so it was. An easy walk-out in the morning and I bused back to Keswick well pleased with this walk which with the Shap and Wasdale walks have given me a total of 28 Birkett Summits totalling over 16,000 feet of ascent and 69 miles of walking. Keep it up laddie, keep it up.

END OF MY WASDALE WALK

Friday 16/04/2010. Yesterday was quite a long day of walking and climbing I think I did about 21 miles in total taking in seven new "Birkett summits". As I had no chance of making Borrowdale in time to catch the last bus back to Keswick I walked till early evening and made my second wild camp of the walk just above Sty Head Tarn close to the Mose's Trod path where it joins the Sty Head track near the mountain rescue box. (See my picture). The cliffs behind me belong to the east face of Cam Spout towering over the Corridor Route to Scawfell. I had a fine and comfortable night and in the morning ambled down past the tarn saying hello to a few folks who were making the early morning climb up to the Scawfells etc. I spoke with two north-east lads who were heading to Lingmell to complete their round of the "Wainwrights" and I wished them well. By the coincidence of things they were fellow members of the Online Fellwalking Club (OFC) and on Lingmell encountered another member of the OFC amazingly also completing his Munro round on Lingmell. This surprising conjunction of Wainwright completions is written up with photographs on the Hiley website: www.loweswatercam.co.uk/visitors 18.htmlwhich is how I came to learn of my small part in it all! It's a grand sunny morning to end my walk and I have timed it to perfection as I reach Seatoller the Borrowdale Rambler (bus) pulls in and with the flash of the magic that is a bus pass I am soon in Keswick for a wash clean up and preparation for my final outing of this visit, to Wetherlam and the Coniston Fells around the Greenburn valley.

OVER ILLGILL HEAD

Thursday 15/04/2010. From my tarn-side camp I awoke to another fine day, brewed up had something to eat and was all packed up and away by 8.30am. As my first objective of the day is to complete the round of the three tops of Eskdale Fell (Great How) it's close companion fell, Whinscales then the pleaseant but unobtrusive top of Boat How at the southern end of Burnmoor Tarn before tackling Illgill Head it becomes obvious that if I can stash my rucsac somewhere in the region of Oliver Gill my progress is bound to be a bit quicker. I managed to find a suitable spot by the side of the beck coming down from the Gill and then made an easy climb up to the top of Great How along the rising shoulder of Blaeberry How and on above Raven crag to the summit. This route gives fine views of the Slight Side end of the Scawfells which will require my attention before my Birkett Round is complete. In little over a half-an-hour I had my first top of the day. As the next top, Whinscales lies less than a kilometer south of Great How and at an altitude 300' lower, it is little more than a ten minute downhill romp to reach it's undistinguished top. It does justify a visit as it gives excellent views of Scawfelll, Bowfell, Esk, the Crinkles etc. From here I took a pathless but direct lline to the edge of Oliver Gill followed it downhill, crossed the beck headed west to cross the Bulatt Bridge over the Whillan Beck then looping round Burnmoor Tarn Lodge to reach the flat summit plateau of Boat How. From here I retraced my steps past the lodge (taking a few pics) and on to retrieve my rucsac and head over to the start of the steeper climb to reach the top of the Illgill Head ridge. Once on top the ridge provides wonderful views of The Gable Pillar and Scawfell hills and today the weather is magnificent so all is well with the world and my tiny place in it! Met a couple of walkers on the ridge as I strolled in a liesurely fashion topping out on the summit cairns, taking a picture at the nameless tarn below Whin Rigg and then reaching that top after the short ascent from the ridge. Now I can get stunning views over to Morcambe Bay and the Irish Sea on my west side of approach downhill to the rather insignificant top of Irton Fell with the interesting view down Greathall Gill into lower Wasdale. The final top on my list is the least significant summmit I have encountered in Lakeland called Great Bank and at 1079' it just qualifies as a "Birkett", I had difficulty finding it through the protecting conifers and went a mile or so off route - crap navigation - and when I got there it's a paltry summit hardly worth the flog through conifers bracken and bramble and the descent into Miterdale is not the best bit of walking in Lakeland either! but still I have completed my round and now have another seven Birkett tops to tick off when I get home. Well done Freddie boy. Now all I have to do is walk back to Wasdale return over Mose's Trod to an overnight camp up on the plateau above Sty Head Tarn, where I slept the sleep of a happy man after a very successful walk in wonderful weather in a great part of Lakeland, so smile and the world smiles with you I say.

WASTWATER VISIT

Wednesday 14/04/2010. After a good day at the lodge with Joy I am setting off this morning to tackle the two Birkett routes on the Screes side of Wastwater which comprise the tops of Illgill Head, Whin Rigg above Wastwater's gloomy depths and Irton Fell and Great Bank lying south of Whin Rigg. In addition I will be starting off with an ascent of the Eskdale Fell tops, that one plus it's outlier Whinscales and the low but appealing Boat How lying at the southern end of Burnmoor Tarn. I get a bus down Borrowdale to it's terminus at Seatoller and from there walk the one-and-a-half miles down the quiet lane leading to it's terminus at the National Trust's Seathwaite Farm. Surveyors were out with their instruments on the approach to the farm measuring up for something with activity on both sides of the road, perhaps Seathwaite is going to get a proper car park - the current arrangements of paking on hard standing by the road while a lot better than the way things used to be are still less than satisfactory, so we shall see what transpires. I have a ten mile walk in to Wasdale by way of the Sty Head pass to gain Mose's Trod over the col and down to one of my favourite valleys in the lakes - Wasdale. I made good time to the tarn, passing a few parties who seemed in the main bound for the corridor route to Scawfell. As I am not intending to tackle my Birkett summits till tomorrow my concern for today is to complete the walk-in and find a decent camping spot and be "in situ" for an early start tomorrow morning, I intend to string the two Birkett-routes together and do them as a single day-long walk, and depending on time will probably need to spend another night on the fells on my return journey. As I was making a good pace; when I reached the junction where the Mose's Trod path and the Sty Head ascent route to Great Gable meet, I decided to have a bit of a proper climb and take the high level route to Wasdale by way of the summit ofGreat Gable. I have not previously climbed this large but beautifully formed mountain from Sty Head so this will be a new ascent route and as I'll be returning via Moses Trod - not having traversed it before - two new routes will be bagged. The climb to Great Gable's rocky summit is direct and steep but pretty straight-forward. I passed a few climbers making their way down from the summit and learned that the weather was poor on top, but ever the optimist I'm hoping it will improve before I get there. Unfortunately this turned out to be a forlorn aspiration, it was cold windy and cloud-fast when I sat down by the memorial to the members of the Fell & Rock Climbing Club who lost their lives in the First world War. On armistice day a memorial service is held here (I have attended, in fact I think the last time I was on Great Gable was for the memorial service in 2007) it's a quite moving experience, especially if the clouds are not down as low as they are today.

From here I descended into Wasdale by way of Great Hell Gate a terrific scree run which must be about 2000' in length down to the valley floor, great stuff and another first for me on Great Gable. I passed through Wasdale by the back door of the Wasdale Inn only just managing to resist the temptation of callling in. Soon I was heading up the drive to Brackenclose the F&R's local climbing hut and taking the track south and up towards Eskdale Fell with the great mass of Illgill Head on my right hand side blocking out any view of Wastwater. The sun is back with a vengeance designed to infuriate as it popped out of the cloud as soon as I came off Great Gable into the valley ! Never mind it is very welcome and gave me a wonderful end to my day as I climbed over the col and dropped down to Burnmoor Tarn and pitched my tent by the side of the tarn, see my picture, for a great night's wild camping. Ideally positioned for a successful days climbing tomorrow morning.

SHAP FELLS CONTINUED

Sunday 11th. April 2010. Up reasonably early and with no reason to linger on a good morning by 8.15am I had packed up and was tackling the climb up onto the Bannisdale Fell ridge, only a few hundred feet above my campsite just below Lord's Seat. The sun is out and the outlook for the day looks very inviting with lots of tops to reach before the end of the day. The first of which is Long Crag on Bannisdale Fell. From here a fine long and easy ridge runs south-east over the trig-point summit of White How and on for about a couple of miles to drop down to the slopes of Lamb Pasture. Route finding is dead-easy, just follow the wall which deteriorates into a fence by the time it reaches the high point of Lamb Pasture, here the fence needs to be crossed to reach the small cairn marking the top of the fell and a grand point to look into and across Bannisdale and the other side of the valley where the route continues. I made a direct descent over the Bannisdale edge of the fell and picked my way steeply down between the crags and a small patch of stunted woodland obviously suffering from exposure at this relatively high altitude. Down in the bottom approaching Dryhowe Bridge the backward view of the descent looks like an impressively steep descent but it is ot to bad in the doing of it. The sun is very hot now and this is probably the warmest day of our year so far (limited competition for the title though) so I take a break and strip of a bit to coold down before the next climb up onto the western ridge of Bannisdale and the first cairned top of Whiteside Pike. From here there are good views on all sides and over to east are the quiet hills of Kentdale with the village of Staveley where I briefly lived in digs for a few months in 1971, a long time ago. Now I am working my way north or a little west of it keeping to the ridge to take in succession the tops of Todd Fell, Capplebarrow and Ancrow Brow, all an easy walk along the summit ridge with Bannisdale and Borrowdale on my right and the tapering heights of the western Shap fells running down to the Cumbrian coast. I had a lunch break on Ancrow Brow, where the summit cairn is unobligingly three feet on the wrong side of the fencing. Next the route trurns round the head of the Bannisdale valley before I strike north passing the inviting Mere Crags to flog up to the ridge just east of the summit of Harrop Crag, where I turn east to follow the fence line to reach yesterdays early top of Great Yarlside, then I took a direct line over fell and bog to reach the shelter of a strange walled enclosure on the banks of Tongurigg Beck where it meets Sleddale Beck. Sun still shining for England and at 5pm I am pitching my tent and getting a leisurely brew organised. I have had a good couple of days walking of about 25 miles and managed to tick another 18 Birkett tops off my list.

SHAP FELLS FOR BIRKETT ROUTES

Saturday 10th. April 2010. Now that spring seems to have sprung and with a forecast for at least a week's dry weather courtesy of genial atlantic high pressure I have set off for The Lakes travelling over by bus on Friday (yesterday). And what a journey that was setting a new personal best for misfortune on this journey. My third bus of the day, en-route from Newcastle to Carlisle broke down at Hexham and we had an hour's wait for the next service, with relief we boarded and set off but bugger me a few miles out of Hexham the bus was stopped by police who informed our driver that the road ahead was blocked due to an accident! The alternative route was along the way of the Hadrian's Wall bus route but as several passengers were due to disembark before Carlisle in villages that the bus could not now service on that diversion, we had to return to Hexham to drop these unfortunates off and then set off for a direct but much longer run to Carlisle where I arrived about an hour after the last bus for Keswick had gone (4pm). A 45 minute wait and I boarded a service to Penrith which left on time but stopped about a mile away from the bus station where the driver announced that he "could not drive the bus to Penrith" and that we would have to wait here for another driver! As he would not answer a direct question about "why not"? I surmise that it was the end of his shift and he wanted to go home! Asked why we had stopped here he was honest enough to tell us that stationery buses clog up the bus station so we are shunted out to wait for better things, which, took about 30 minutes, but when the replacement driver turned up we got to Penrith and from there I got the last connection to Keswick arriving at Burnside Park about 7pm a total journey time of nearly ten hours, phew, hope to have nothing like that again.

After a night at Burnside Park I got a morning bus back to Penrith and from there a local service down to Shap where I got off at the Wet Sleddale Reservior Road End for the two mile walk in to the public car park on the south side of the reservoir. My objective is to finish off all the unclimbed fell tops which reach over the minimum height of 1,000' - and that will be 18 in total. In Bill Birkett's book "The Complete Lakeland Fells" which covers all the 25 Shap Fells, reaching the qualifing height in a series of five walks I have done two and now plan to walk the final three in a single continuous round rather than as three separate walks, which because of the distances between the start points would be very hard, or rather, take a lot of time, as they are quite far apart in an area with virtually no public transport services.
I walked down the Shap to Wet Sleddale road end at 11.15am reached the dam at the reservoir and then struck uphill to head for the first top, that of Sleddale Pike, this is a rather insignificant hump among the moorland with a couple of stones serving as a cairn. I had some company on the top and so got a photo arms akimbo on the summit. From here I parted with my company and never spoke to another person for the rest of the weekend. I yomped across the moors south to the top of Wasdale Pike and then west to Great Saddle Crags, I stashed my ruc-sac in some of the rockfall and carried on down to the top of Ulthwaite Rigg which overlooks Mosedale. Retracing my steps back to Great Saddle Crags to retrieve my ruc-sac and then headed south and downhill before climbing up to reach the ridge of Great Yarlside, (my picture shows Great Yarlside from the south from near the top of the Little Yarlside fell, love the wall), this at just under 2,000' is the highest point on the entire walk and so the high point of the 18 tops on my list. The sun shines strong and my old bald head is feeling the heat but this is fine, so on down to the lower end of Great Yarlside, named quite sensibly Little Yarlside, continuing along the ridge and gently downhill in a south-west direction to the top of What Shaw and then steeply down into the valley bottom crossing the Crookdale Beck at Crookdale Bridge Farm. Took a break at the bridge and filled up my water bottles from the fast flowing stream, water would be a bit of a problem if you are not prepared to chance the free stuff. From the bridge it was a stiff climb up to the shoulder of High House Bank (I must be a bit tired as I found the climb quite taxing), to reach the southern ridge of Crookdale where I will be heading north-west on the opposite side of the valley - and in exactly the opposite direction from the earlier part of the walk. From here it is about two miles over the top of the engagingly named Robin Hood summit to reach Lord's Seat. On reaching Lord's Seat I picked out a likely camping spot down into Borrowdale by the beck immediately below Bannisdale Crag (not that there were many options), which will be the first of the eight tops scheduled to be completed tomorrow. And so to bed, ten tops topped about a dozen miles walked and a few thousands of feet of ascent climbed. I shall sleep well by the Borrow Beck.

ON COCKLE SHELL ISLAND

Tuesday 06/04/2010. Well here we are with Easter not only upon us but over now. We had planned to go to Keswick for the holiday but the weather forecast for Cumbria for the holiday weekend was dire, so we decided to stay at home. In the event the weather turned out slightly less awful than forecast for The Lakes but there was still an awfull lot of rain so I think we made the right decision. A pleasing consequence was that I was able to attend the RSPB Saltholme work-party scheduled for today and tomorrow. The main objective is to shore up the shuttering that surrounds the island in Back Saltholme Pool, this is a much used nesting site for Canada Geese, Common Terns and Roseate Terns. The effect of the constant wind driven wave power is to undermine the shuttering - itself necesary to keep the island from being washed level - this causes erosion of the land and the essential cockle-shell surface so suited to our birds. Our tasks involved the transportation of rubble to the spit of land closest to the island from where it was manually loaded into tote boxes which in turn were loaded onto the reserve boat and then the payload was taken across to the island where repairs were carried out. This was all good work there is no doubt that you are engaged in something valuable for the birdlife, we set up some experimental nesting boxes especially for the Roseate Terns . By the side of the shuttering we had a Canada Goose nest with seven white eggs. We covered that up with a woolen jacket while working there, the parents kept close by but despite their natural concern no harm done. I stayed from 9.30am till 3.15pm and returned home by bus. On Wednesday I returned to continue working on the island, but for the morning only. Another Canada Goose has set up home and had a single egg by the shuttering exactly where we land and offload the materials for the repairs. But you gotta love 'em don't you? On Wednesday we finished the job on this island but we still have similar work to do on the others.