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| Sarah, Mike E, Donna, John and Charlotte start the walk in the Sun Inn,
Pooley Bridge |
Sarah showing Fay and Suzanne
how we prepare for a walk ! |
| I have been camping twice already this year
in Pooley Bridge. Once at Hillcroft and once at Waterside Farm. I always
use Hillcroft when I go away with the kid's but Waterside is much better
for a group, although they now have a sign saying family's and couples
only! (think in terms of a group being a collection
of couples and family's and you will be OK!) This year during the school holidays I don't
think it would have been physically possible to fit more tents into either
site, even standing room in the pubs was at a premium!. Now, one week after
school term starting it was quiet and the Sun Inn had even removed tables
and chairs to make room for a pool table and a piano! |
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So with most of us in the pub it was that mad time to catch
up on everyone's news. This, in my case was helped with all the bribes
(beer tokens) that I had collected. I see Sarah and John often (obviously) , Charlotte ever day (again,
obviously) , Tony, Mike M, Mike E and Dave
sometimes and Joanne, Nikki and Suzanne not as often as I would like to
(if you met them you would know why I say that!) . This year there were
lots of children and some of Suzanne's friends as well. As the beer flowed
George and Lewis started to take over the pub, first sitting on the bar
stools and then later persuading someone to let them play pool (aren't
pubs great when you're a kid!) |
| The younger members have to cope without the beer |
| Very soon the whole pub seemed to be watching
them battle over the pool table! At kicking out time it was back to
the campsite (for the parents reading this that left
the children in charge of their better half's for the weekends camping
trip, the pubs in Pooley Bridge shut at 9pm, honest!) Back at the campsite it was time for bed for
the children, well apart from Charlotte who has always been stubborn! For
the rest of the night we just caught up on everybody's news, new jobs,
new children and basically just nattering away until the wee small hours.
In a group this size there is always a comedian. Coupled with the rivalry
between the Liverpool sort of people and the Greater Manchester types it
all led to side splitting laughter! I can honestly say that time flew and
a good time was had by all. |
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| From The Sun Inn we arrived at a communal beer tent! |
And carried on preparing for the walk |
| No sooner had my head hit the pillow than I was awakened
by the sound of George and Lewis, they had obviously had too much sleep
(honest they went to bed at 9.30pm at the latest!) It was time to
get up and think about breakfast. Tony, Joanne and Dave sorted their kids
out with cereal and stuff and then Dave started on the fry up! (God
they are organized!) Sarah and Donna quietly got on with cooking their own,
the two Mikes started a BBQ, Suzanne and company went to the cafe in Pooley
Bridge, absolute organized chaos (no change there
then!) What with the
cooking, eating, washing up, playing football and rounder's with the kids,
morning ablutions and generally tidying up the mess from the night before
it was 12 o'clock when we were sort of ready for the walk! I had promised
Sarah a walk that counted towards our quest, the others I had promised
an easy walk that was suitable for the kids (and
certain adults!) . During
the last camping trip we had walked around Hallin Fell, in June this year
I walked around Hallin Fell again, it is a great walk, especially the parts
that run alongside the lake. This time I was going to get everyone UP Hallin
Fell instead of around it! |
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| Hallin Fell from Waterside Farm campsite. Place Fell is
behind. |
Trying to arrange for 11 adults, 1 teenager, 6 children,
5 cars and an unspecified amount of rucksacks into a position to walk
up a fell takes some organizing! Needless to say I couldn't do it, what
with stops for the toilet before we left the campsite and leaving at
different times it was organized chaos again! I started in front but
had to stop at the loos, John drove past me and carried on, I think he
knew where we were going! With everyone else following I set off down
the road towards Howtown. In places this road is narrow, Murphy's Law
states that you will always meet another vehicle at a narrow place in
the road and we proved this theory today! Eventually we passed John and
the two Mikes who had parked at the bottom of the zigzags. Shouting to
them as I passed that it was this way I continued up the zigzags to park
at the church, followed eventually by everyone else. Now came a fun part!
Now that 11 adults, 1 teenager, 6 children, 5 cars and an unspecified
amount of rucksacks minus John and the two Mikes had arrived at a position
to make a summit bid on Hallin Fell (A summit bid!
Sounds good doesn't it, something that you might find in the Himalayas!) the fun really began.
I usually get a bit frustrated by the amount of time that the terrible
trio take to get ready!, today was infinitely worse, all these children
to get ready, all those various forms of rucksacks to fill with god knows
what! And then there were the non walking feminine members who couldn't
possible walk up a hill looking like this! A couple sat just above the
road looked on in bemusement, and who could blame them! |
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| Eventually we remembered the walking part and set off from the church |
Within 5 minutes the group became separated |
| Whilst everyone got ready there was no sign of John and
the two Mikes. Little did I know that they had realized what a performance
this was going to be and had decided to walk straight up the side of the
fell! Eventually we set off as a group up the obvious path that led up
from the church. Tony immediately had to return to the car to get some
forgotten item of clothing or equipment or something! Anyway to try and
get back to a description of walking up Hallin Fell, the initial part was
steep on a wide open grassy pathway. This soon leveled out and I could
see a glimpse of John and the two Mikes over in the distance, having set
off without having to wait for anyone else they had made good progress
already! |
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| John, Mike M and Mike E even started the walk from somewhere else! |
Beda Fell |
| Making our way up this grassy promenade the
group soon split up. I must admit that I was surprised by the eagerness
of the younger members of the party who soon disappeared from sight! I
was taking my time (as usual) but found it hard work to keep up (back) with the slower members! While I waited for them I took the odd photo
or two. Walking up Hallin Fell this way you soon gain height and the view
that opens up behind you is great, Martindale is one of the more quiet
valleys in the Lake District and it looks just perfect! |
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| The steep ascent soon slowed people down |
While some waited for the rest to catch up |
| I thought it best if I waited to bring up the slower members,
I could still hear the younger members way in front (Come
to think about it, I can't remember a time this weekend that I couldn't
hear them!) Sarah,
Donna and Charlotte soon got tired of waiting and carried on. |
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| You can't see the summit from here |
Suzzane and Fay bringing up the rear |
| I waited and waited and eventually the rearguard
appeared. Jonathon being the youngest member at age 4 did not seem to see
the point of this walking up hills thing! As I waited for Suzanne, Fay
and Jonathon I found it highly amusing that he had already turned back
enough times, then retraced his steps back up, to have already walked up
Hallin Fell! Fay, who has something to do with the medical profession,
was chatting away about what was happening to the human body whilst walking
up hills. Heart rate increasing, lungs working harder, brain needing more
oxygen, and god alone knows what else! I was thinking to myself, "Yeah,
and just wait till your legs start to hurt!" This was Hallin Fell, not
Kirk Fell by the direct route! I sort of decide that this lot were not
going to reach the summit, mainly due to the fact that Jonathon was having
more fun going back downhill than retracing his steps uphill! |
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| Martindale with Steel Knotts on the left, Beda Fell in the
center and Place Fell to the right |
| Taking the chance to do a panoramic photo looking back over
Martindale I decided to press on and catch up with the rest. I told Suzanne
that we would be returning back the same way, she was OK with this so for
the first time ever I left someone to their own devices on the fells, they
could see the car, it was fine weather and I don't think that even they
could get lost! |
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| A less steep section below the summit plateau |
You would not know it but Tony has done the three peaks with me, now
he watches Bolton Wanderers! |
| I set off with a purpose now. I could just about see some
of the group ahead. Whilst I made my way up I could still hear Lewis shouting
encouragement to the others! He had ran up the hill, decided that it was
OK, ran back down and encouraged everyone that they could do it, not bad
for a 5 year old! He kept repeating this every five minutes, maybe
he would sleep tonight! |
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| "Are we there yet!" |
Hallin Fell's summit coming into view |
| I soon caught the others up, all sat on the ground looking
fed up! Lewis, of course was just about in sight, shouting down to everyone
that it was OK and if they got a move on they could do it! I explained
to everyone that Suzanne would catch us up, or not! and that we should
carry on. Somewhat reluctantly they raised themselves up and continued
onwards. Nikki had brought a new toy with her, a digital video camera.
I was pointing out various summits to anyone who would listen to me, I
was asked first though! Nikki asked me to repeat them all as she had been
videoing them with my commentary but forgot to press the record button,
so I had to do them all again! |
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| Sarah bringing up some stragglers |
The summit of Hallin Fell |
| It seemed a very short time before we came out near
the summit, a family sat eating their lunch just to one side. They soon
made a quick exit as the hoard of happy campers made their way past, sorry
about that! And there it was, the summit cairn of Hallin Fell. What
a sight, a huge square obelisk sat proudly above a fine view of Ullswater!
This was one of those minimum effort, maximum view sort of fells. It was
fantastic looking down on Ullswater from up here. |
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| 360 degree panorama from Hallin Fell |
| John and the two Mikes had enjoyed a much more peaceful
approach to the summit. John looked on in amusement as we arrived
in dribs and drabs at the summit. Someone had been chatting to an elderly
gent on the way up, he had said that it used to take him 20 minutes to
get up here, now it was taking him a bit longer. I think it probably took
us 45 minutes, but we had children and were not on any rush! |
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| Tom, Dick and Harry at the top! |
Some people even brought food! |
| Everyone settled down to enjoy the views. Those thoughtful
enough to have brought some food enjoyed eating it, those that had been
thoughtful enough to bring some liquid enjoyed drinking it, and those thoughtful
enough to bring children looked on in horror as the children found new
ways of putting their parents hearts in their mouths as they jumped around
the rocky outcrops! I was panicking a bit and my Charlotte was just sat
down doing nothing! |
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| The terrible trio on Hallin Fell |
One of the steamers on Ullswater |
| I took the time to separate out John and Sarah from the
crowd to have our picture taken at the summit. I thought that John was
taking it extremely well! As we all sat there one of the steamers passed
us on it's way to Howtown. Two weeks ago I was on one of those, looking
up and admiring the views of the fell tops around Ullswater, today I was
looking down on the steamers on Ullswater, it was so still that the wake
could be seen perfectly. There is definitely something to be said for these
lower fell tops, you do not need to climb over 2500 feet to get a good
view and have an enjoyable walk. Looking back at some of the walks that
we have done I seem to remember most the lower ones such as Castle Crag
and Holme Fell, they are great walks without all the sweat and toil of
some of their higher cousins. Hallin Fell sits in this category, it was
great! |
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| George and Lewis practice there rock climbing skills! |
The last few arrive at last! |
| Now that everyone was refreshed it was time to think about
doing something else. Scott, Bradley, George and Lewis were way ahead of
us. They thought it would be a great idea to run around the summit cairn,
lap after lap they tried various overtaking maneuvers to pass each other.
This was driving Joanne mad as she was worried about a trip or a fall,
the kids didn't though! Enough was enough, it was time to leave. Just
as I tried to get everyone organized to head back, miracle of miracles
but I saw Suzanne, Jonathon and Fay making their way up to us! We couldn't
leave just yet, after all I had now succeeded in getting 11 adults, 1 teenager,
6 children, no cars and various forms of rucksacks up Hallin Fell! I think
that Suzanne was quiet glad to get up here, Jonathon didn't though! |
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| Leaving Hallin Fell |
Heading down to the church |
| When we had given Suzanne and company time to enjoy the
summit I tried to get everyone back down. Just to make things slightly
different I decided to take a different route back. At first this was fun
until we came to a part that had rock. Some of the children found it very
slippy here and had to be helped down. After that we had to make our way
through some ferns to get back to the path, We had to carry some
of t he kids who found wading through the ferns not to there liking! |
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| A novel way of descent |
Which was so good the kids had to find even slippery things than their
backsides to slide down on! |
| Once back on the path I thought it would be fun to introduce
the kids (and certain adults) to the sport of sliding down hills on
your backside! I don't think that this is quite an olympic sport yet but
I am hopeful! I discovered this sport by accident one day, probable after
a trip or a fall. If the grass is steep enough and dry enough you get the
same effect as ice! It wasn't until we reached the steep initial section
near the road that conditions became perfect (Mums,
sorry about all the grass stains on the kids clothes, I take full responsibility!) After a
few abortive attempts the kids soon found the knack and the fell side was
soon full of kids (and certain adults!) sliding down. They thought it was
so much fun that they started to look for ways of reducing friction, so
increasing speed! As a result various cardboard boxes, plastic bags and
other friction reducing devices appeared! The only draw back that the adults
found was that friction meant an increase in heat in certain parts of the
anatomy, ouch! Just ask Donna, she knows what I mean! After we all had
enough we retired back to the campsite to begin some form of bat and ball
games whilst we prepared ourselves for the saturday night. I am reliable
informed that we ended up playing a game called rounder's. I thought it
was a cross between cricket and baseball, but bat to ball and run I could
understand! I am not sure about the rest of the rules though, they seemed
to change depending on who was batting, oh well, I always think too much
anyway! There seemed to be some ominous looking clouds heading our way,
Mike M said to me that he thought it would soon rain. I looked around and
went into a serious discussion on why, because of our position and the
surrounding hills, the wind direction and so on it would not rain here
on the campsite. I had to cut short this conversation as it started to
rain quite heavily, what do I know anyway! We all retired to the communal
tent and put the kettle on, all thoughts about a BBQ disappeared. It was
decided that we would visit the pub for tea tonight. This fell in
with my plans as I had wondered about what to do on the saturday night
during the planning of the trip. Fridays are always self planning and great
fun but the saturdays can sometimes be a bit quiet. In an effort to cheer
everyone up I had a word with the FA before I set off. They kindly agreed
to have a football match against Macedonia on the saturday night, it took
a lot of behind the scenes work but planning these sort of things is something
that I am good at! |
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| Joanne has had enough! |
Donna and Sarah thinking that she needed more, cider that is! |
| All we needed now was a pub to watch it in, for a change
we chose the Crown. So all was well, we all arrived in dribs and drabs
and sat down wherever we could to eat. Unfortunately one of the Macedonian
players decided to ruin all my plans and scored o goal. England getting
beat by Macedonia! Oh no, I hadn't planned that. Not to worry, the boys
soon got to grips and by the time everybody had finished eating we won
2-1, that's better! By this time we had sort of taken over the games room
in the pub. The pool table soon got a hammering (just
like Macedonia!) We all took turns to get beat by a Geordie sort of bloke, patiently waiting
for someone to beat him so we could get a game amongst ourselves! Along
came our rescuer Dave! Dave played a very tactical, well though out game,
helped I must say, by the tricks of George and Lewis who tried their best
to put the opposition off (hang on, they had tried
to put off ALL the players so far!) With Dave victorious it was time for us to play. George and Lewis
carried on where they left off the previous night! Dave was so chuffed
he decided to parade himself around the pub with some high heels borrowed
from Donna! This was worrying for me as I have seen Dave do this before.
I do hope that Mrs Dave keeps a lock on her underwear drawer! |
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| Dave tries on new walking boots ? |
Lewis, Scott and George find Dave more comfortable than Dave finds his
new boots! |
| So with us (Dave) ruling supreme over the pool table we
carried on enjoying the night. John and the two Mikes had done a bit of
a disappearing act, much to the dismay of Sarah and Donna! When they eventually
reappeared they said that they had just been over the road to the Pooley
Bridge Inn for a quick one, it did seem a bit unfair for them to leave
Sarah and Donna at the mercy of a room full of kids though! At going
home time (9.30pm!) those with kids left, leaving John and the two Mikes,
Sarah and Donna behind to enjoy a more peaceful evening in the hostelries
of Pooley Bridge. Tony had driven Joanne and George back and then come
back to collect me and Charlotte. Dave drove Nikki and Danielle and Brad
and Scott back. When I arrived back I could hear Joanne reading a story
to George and Lewis, Charlotte volunteered to carry on and read the story
to them, Joanne decided that this would be a good idea and joined us in
the beer tent, sorry communal tent, took a few deep breathes and opened
a can of cider! When George and Lewis fell asleep Charlotte reappeared
out of the tent and wanted to spend some quality time with the adults,
Scott had other ideas and soon Charlotte was in another tent reading another
story! I think she is going to be a teacher or a nursery nurse when she
grows up! |
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| Please can I stay up just a little bit longer dad?, Please...... |
Sarah starting to feel the chill, well she did have a battery operated
cool box! |
Soon she rejoined the adults and wanted to party! She
was full of life and I felt bad telling her it was time for her to go
to bed, she put on that smile, you know the one!, the please I will do
anything that you want sort of smile. Well she had been a very good babysitter/bedtime
story teller that so I had to relent! So she stayed up with us. After
a while the rest of the group arrived back from the pub, somehow Donna
had managed to walk back along the lake path in high heels! Eventually
we managed to get the remaining kids into bed and started to chat and
laugh rather loudly, drinking the occasional drink to keep from drying
out. Dave was on great form, Mike E managed to destroy one of my chairs,
John thought that this was hilarious as he had sat on the same chair,
felt it start to go, and sat somewhere else not long before! It was another
fun night but soon the cold started to be felt. The kettle was put on
and a pot noodle or two, crisp buttie's and god alone what else was eaten!
Outside the sky was clear and I stood for a while outside looking up
to the heavens, I saw a few shooting stars and even the planet Mars!
Pooley Bridge is a great place to look up into the night sky and just
ponder the universe and the wichnes of the why! A loud shout of outrage
was heard from somewhere below us, something about kids trying to sleep
and the noise! As I was outside I looked around and saw another large
collection of couples and family's (groups aren't
allowed apparently!) below us on the campsite with a roaring fire going. I presumed the shouted
comments were aimed at them but it did start to put the dampers on the
evening for us! I had started to feel the cold now and decided to call
it a night, as it was well after midnight I was well chuffed with myself,
usually I seem to have a real problem with the saturday night on these
trips, I am either knackered or ill, tonight I managed to survive quite
well! |
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| Danielle, Charlotte, Scott, Lewis, Brad , and George enjoying themselves
in Whinlatter Forest |
The author, Joanne, Dave, Tony and Nikki enjoying the kids enjoying
themselves in Whinlatter Forest! |
| When sunday morning came along it was time to do that horrible
thing, pack up the tents, tidy up and leave, heading back to reality after
a great weekend away! Most of the adults headed off in good time but those
with kids needed to do something to keep them interested for a while longer.
Whinlatter Forest provided such an opportunity. The kind people at Whinlatter
have provided a couple of little orienteering course sort of things for
kids. The Rabbit and Fox Trails. These involve navigating along the forest
trails and finding markings on wooden boards placed around the forest,
great fun for the kids! These courses are laid out in such a way that after
walking through the trees you occasionally get a view of something different,
Grisedale Pike and later on the Vale of Keswick are laid out before you. The
kids love it and the adults seem to enjoy watching the kids having fun.
At the end of the trail is a large outdoor playground, just what the kids
needed to reduce energy levels before the long trip back home! |
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| Fun, fun, fun! |
Even Nikki is still a kid at heart! |
So after completing the Fox Trail the kids enjoyed the
playground. I had to drag them away some how so I told them about a slide
that was around the corner. The kids loved it, even Nikki joined in the
fun, big kid that she is! With time marching on we had to drag them
away and went back to the cars. We split up and shared our last remaining
drinks and snacks and sweets. It is always difficult to leave after one
of these weekends but parents and work awaited so we had to force ourselves
apart and head home, it's so sad! The journey back was uneventful apart
from Dave being pulled up by the police for not displaying a number plate
on his bike rack.
I am so glad that we live in such a crime free environment that the
police can spend time catching real criminals like this! I am sure that
nobody was being mugged, no houses were being broken into, no cars were
being stolen, no drug dealers were pedaling their wares at the time!
Isn't it nice to know that we can all sleep soundly tonight knowing that
the police are there looking out for our best interests and not wasting
our and their time by targeting real criminals like Dave. Even better
is the fact that the fine Dave received will be plowed back into the
great fight against crime, a bobby on the beat or more speed cameras,
what do you think!
I am afraid that this put a bit of a damper on an otherwise great weekend.
Another summit to tick off, so many laughs it hurt, and generally a good
time had by all! |
