Humphrey Head |
The outlying fells walk 16 Humphrey Head (172') from Kents Bank railway station. Monday 12th April 2004 (Easter Monday) |
Weather :- Overcast to start but brightened up, quite windy and cool on Humphrey Head Accompanied by :- The family! Yvonne, Charlotte and Matthew. Total distance just under 4 miles, height ascended approx 200 Feet, time taken 2 Hours 50 minutes. |
I had been looking around AW's outlying fell book and saw that this
walk started at Kents Bank railway station. Last week I made some enquiries
about train times and costs from our local station. Apart from having
to change trains at Preston and Lancaster, it seemed like a good idea.
When I mentioned this to the good lady Yvonne, she seemed to think that
it would make a nice day out for the family. I am sure that I mentioned
that it involved walking, something that Yvonne does not do anymore!
Anyway after reviewing the train times she decided that it would make
more sense (a lie in) to drive to Lancaster
and get the train from there. This was OK with me, so I planned the walk
for later on in the week as Yvonne and Charlotte had some riding lessons
booked for Easter monday. On the sunday night this was cancelled so my
plan to take Matthew up to Holme Fell was shelved and we would all go
out on the monday. Because we would be leaving the car behind and journeying
by train I wanted to make sure that we had everything that we might need
with us, I was still a bit unsure about the weather forecast! This meant
all sorts of spare clothing and waterproofs, spare shoes and in the end
two very full and heavy rucksacks! |
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| Our train picks us up at Lancaster | and drops us off at Kents Bank |
| We watched a couple of really fancy Virgin trains leave the station, Matthew was impressed! When our train pulled in he wanted to know why it wasn't like those....mmmm! After about 25 minutes and 5 stops later we arrived at Kents Bank. It had been quite a nice journey, traveling along the shore line of Morecombe Bay, through the nature reserve at Leighton Moss, over the bridge at Arnside and along the coast by Grange Over Sands. Kents Bank was a nice quiet station. The weather had turned warm and we set off to follow in AW's footsteps to Humphrey Head. | |
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| The footpath by the side of the railway and Humphrey Head in the distance | Yvonne making a quick start along the path |
| As part of the railway embankment, a narrow concrete path helped lead the way straight ahead towards Humphrey Head. This was OK but I thought it would be safer to walk along the shore line, I had thoughts of Matthew tripping up and falling onto one of the concrete block things that made up the embankment, it must be a dad thing - worrying about the kids! Matthew did not want to do this so instead followed Yvonne along the top whilst I looked on worryingly from the safer, but much wetter path below the embankment. | |
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| Looking over the sands to Arnside Knott | Yvonne and Matthew |
| The kids were grumbling about food by now, in fact they had been grumbling ever since we got on the train! Somehow it did not seem right to stop here along the embankment, it was too "manmade" a place to stop for lunch! At the end of the embankment the railway line headed inland and we were confronted with some sloping limestone slabs. With the sun out and great views over the sands this seemed like a much better place for a spot of lunch. | |
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| The shore line when the railway turns inland, Kirkhead End | Matthew trying out the rock around Kirkhead End |
| Out came all the sandwiches, drinks, crisps, cakes and all the other paraphernalia of a family picnic! The kids were happy - they had something to eat and drink, Yvonne was happy - the sun was shinning, and I was happy because we were away from all of the crowds that you would normally associate with a bank holiday in the Lake District! (not that this is actually in the Lake District!) As soon as Matthew had enough refreshment (it's funny how his version of enough and ours is different, or is it the same for all 5 year olds?) he looked behind us and saw something that took his fancy, some rock, they must have looked like huge sea cliffs to him ! Charlotte soon joined him and I spent a while underneath them both as they tried various ways to get to the top. Charlotte managed it no problem but Matthew did seem to get so far and them rely on me to lift him back down, more route planning is needed in Matthews case, or was he just doing what 5 year olds do, and having fun climbing everything? | |
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| A posher train than the one we had! | Yvonne acting as a safety marshall ! |
| Following the shore line around we had an interesting but slow time of it. There were lots of limestone outcrops that just had to be climbed over! This was good because the alternative was the wet path that led around them. The only problem was that it took so much time! The kids loved it though. Rounding a corner we again saw the railway, very soon a train passed by and I must say it looked a lot newer and cleaner than the one we had arrived on! From what I can gather there at least three different train operating company's that use this line, I guess it's pot luck which company you use, unless you study the timetables and work it all out! | |
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| Trying to find a dry path | The path towards Wyke House |
| Back to the walk......As we rounded the headland we could see that we were walking around the shore in a sort of square. We wanted to be straight ahead but the path followed the shore line all the way round. This was because of a drainage ditch that lay across our path. Charlotte wanted to go straight across but I had to force her to follow the longer route around the shore and back along the embankment. | |
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| Humphrey Head | Matthew trying to push Mum into the mud |
| After passing a sheep carcass, yuck! we reached the embankment and followed a path that ran along it. With no rock to play with the kids thought that it would be fun to try and trip each other up, as only kids do! After a telling off they then decided it would be fun to try and trip up mum! This was fun until Charlotte succeeded and Yvonne ended up with one wet foot. It took at least a couple of minutes before she saw the funny side of this, eventually she did laugh, but I was not convinced! | |
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| After Charlotte did push Mum in! | A helpful sign at Wyke House |
| Walking around the path we started to notice a few things in the sky. A couple of powered hangliders, a plane coming into land and a few parachutists. Cark airfield is still in use just as AW described it. The plane that came into land must have dropped of the parachutists and was on its way back down for some more. I still can't figure out why people want to leave a plane in mid air whilst it is still working! | |
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| Some of the locals | and a few more |
| Passing by Wyke House we saw a sign saying that the footpath was a bit further on, obviously put there due to walkers walking in the back gardens and inspecting the washing on the lines! Point taken, we walked past and soon came across the gate that the path to the road led up. We would use this path on the return journey. Matthew kept wanting to go and talk with the sheep and lambs that were grazing around the shore line. Again this meant slow progress, but the sun was shining and there was no rush, so we let him try and talk to the sheep. In fact he managed to get close enough too one to stroke it! | |
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| More of the locals hogging the dry ground | Yvonne still trying to find a dry path |
| From here on Yvonne started to get a bit worried. There was no sign of any path at all. She started to question if I knew where I was and if I knew where we were going! I am sure that this was brought on by the increasing wetness of her feet! It was wet underfoot if you did not keep right up to the shoreline, but doing that meant walking under trees and crouching down a lot! I stopped and consulted the map and AW's book. There was a path shown on the map and AW's description was to walk where we were walking, this did not seem to satisfy her! I must point out that Yvonne does not do walking anymore. After a few walks with me many many years ago, most memorable being refusing to go any further up Crinkle Crags when only a few yards away from the Bad Step, and a trip around the Wasdale Screes she has refused point blank to do any more. | |
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| A fence blocks further progress | The path in Humphrey Head Wood |
| We soon came across a fence that blocked our way forwards. AW states that here a path starts into the woods and indeed I could see the start of a path, Yvonne couldn't and started to complain when Charlotte walked up the embankment to a spot on the fence that did not have barbed wire on it. I had a look around the fence and tried to see what would happen if we continued along it, wet feet! We all then followed Charlotte over the top of the fence. Yvonne was not impressed and I had to tell her that just because someone had put a barbed wire fence in front of us this did not mean that we could not go past it! | |
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| Charlotte tucking into chocolate cake | Whilst Yvonne and Matthew just rest! |
| Once into the woods I rechecked the map. There was two paths marked, one that followed the shore line and one that went up into the woods. At first we tried to follow the lower one, but this was quite indistinct. I made my way upwards and found a much better path, it even had one of those orienteering posts on it. Me and matthew followed the upper path and soon we started to loose sight of Yvonne and Charlotte below us. Charlotte started to shout for us to come down so we made our way down through the trees. When I saw the path that they were walking on I told them that the higher one was much better so we all made our way back up through the trees to the upper path. Yvonne was not a happy bunny ! She did not like the fact that we were making our own path and not following a clearly signed path! Matthew decided that it was time for a rest and promptly sat down. Yvonne and Charlotte soon followed his example and started on their second lunch! | |
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| Heading back down towards the sands | A helpful sign that tells us where we are |
| Yvonne really was not happy now. Charlotte and myself saw the funny side of this which made it even worse! In fact it was that bad that I ended up carrying both rucksacks now as Yvonne was in a protest sort of mood! The kids thought that this was hilarious! Anyway, making good time along the path we made our way up through the woods and then back down towards the shore until we reached a stile that lead onto the open countryside. A sign indicated the area around Humphrey Head, showing all the paths and things. Yvonne was still not impressed! | |
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| Out from the woods | Heading towards the Point |
| Now out of the trees we followed the path along side a fence. I am sure that according to AW we should have been on the seawards side of this fence but I was not going to go into that with Yvonne at the moment, for the time being I was glad that she was just walking straight ahead. The sun was out and the kids seemed to dawdle along here, trying to trip each other up and generally muck about, slow going! Yvonne was all for turning back now as she had decided that the kids had had enough! I was trying to tell her that the point was just around the corner and then we would be heading back. It took a bit of effort to convince her to carry on but I succeeded and soon we were at Humphrey Head Point. | |
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| Humphrey Head Point | Looking up towards Humphrey Head |
| Humphrey Head Point was a nice place to sit and watch the world go by. The only problem was that we were now in the wind, and a cold wind it was too! Without hanging about too much we started to follow the fence that led up towards the summit. Now in the wind Charlotte and Matthews spirits began to sag, they were cold and walking uphill soon made them want to be somewhere else! Charlotte started to struggle now, she had somehow pulled a muscle in her back during the previous week and was now beginning to feel it. | |
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| Nearing the "summit" | The summit trig column |
| By the time we arrived at the summit trig point they had had enough. I had thought that we could spend a bit of time here but it was all I could do to get them to pose for a photo. They felt cold, fed up and annoyed at me for dragging them out here! Oh well! | |
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| The Siddall family at Humphrey Head summit | And three of them without the finger! |
| I thought it was nice here, but looking back at the photos I can tell by the expressions and the odd finger or two that no one else did. If Yvonne was thinking why she does not come walking with me anymore I was thinking the same thing! Give her a horse to exercise or walk by or ride for miles and she is happy, a couple of miles walking with me and she does not see the point. Knee deep in horse muck and she is happy, an indistinct path and a bit of mud does not give her the same satisfaction! | |
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| 360 degree panorama from Humphrey Head | |
| I tried to cheer them up by saying that we were well on our way back now but that did not seem to work. Yvonne took the other rucksack but I ended up with Matthew on my shoulders! Charlotte was walking slowly as her back was playing up, I did try and cheer her up but it wasn't working. Its funny how not long before the kids were having a whale of a time trying to trip each other up, laughing and joking away with each other. Now they had had enough and made it known to us! | |
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| Two photos of what Yvonne and Matthew think of it so far. Not impressed! | |
| The above two photos show what Yvonne and Matthew thought of it all. I was still liking it but I guess I was outvoted! We could clearly see how far we had to walk back to the station, about a mile and a half. From here the only problem was trying to figure out how to get back over to the other side of Humphrey Head as the path we were walking on led to the other side! | |
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| Looking back to the summit | Looking back to the sea cliffs |
| Making our way down I took the opportunity to try and have a look at the cliffs on the side of Humphrey Head. I would have liked to spend some time looking at them and maybe looking for the cave marked on the OS map but there was no way that that was going to happen today! When we reached the outdoor centre I thought that we could walk through it to the other side but locked gates and private signs decided me against this! | |
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| Looking along the way down | The entrance to the Humphrey Head Centre |
| AW came to the rescue and when we reached the Humphrey Head Centre we walked down the road to the road (?) , turned right and a few steps away took the path back over the peninsular to a gate and the shore line that we had passed before. | |
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| The path that cuts across the peninsular | Looking back towards Kents Bank |
| Charlotte was still struggling so I muttered a few words of encouragement to her. When we reached the shore I stopped everyone for a break and something to drink. The kids were happy with this but by now Yvonne was not talking to me, oops! I consulted the train timetable and decided that we had half an hour to get back to the station or a wait of one and a half hours would be needed before the next train. When Yvonne heard this she went mad and we hurriedly packed up and set off walking again. I did not think it would be a problem. Matthew had to be told repeatedly that we did not have time to climb up every rocky outcrop like we had done on the way out, he was not happy! | |
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| Kents Bank railway station | And our train back to Lancaster |
| Once back at the station Charlotte felt much better and started to tuck into the last bits of food that we had. We had at least ten minutes to spare! Matthew felt happy and wanted the train to come now, and Yvonne was still not talking to me! Once on the train Matthew started to eat away at Charlottes left overs, crusts and bits of tomatoes from a BLT sandwich and I finished off the flask of coffee. We did not manage to get a set of four seats around a table as we had on the way up, at least this gave Yvonne time to cool off! By the time we reached Lancaster she was nearly talking to me again, apparently she thought that it was too much of a walk for the kids, along wet ground, no proper footpaths and that I had no thoughts about the kids ability to do it. And there was me thinking that they had all enjoyed it! Once back at Lancaster I made the mistake of trying the A6 to get back home. Being a bank holiday there must have been an accident on the M6 and loads of people decided to use the A6 as an alternative. The result was miles of standing traffic waiting to get through the traffic lights at Garstang, oh well! | |
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| Ted, wondering where we have all been! | And getting exercised and fed before we did! |
| Once back near home I was looking forwards to something to eat. Unfortunately we had to go to the stables and sort out Ted who had been sort of ignored today! He was waiting for us with an inquisitive look, sort of saying to us "where have you lot been all day!" Yvonne promptly took him for a lunge, that's like taking a dog for a walk but with a longer lead and just going around in circles. Meanwhile me and Charlotte got the good jobs, mucking out and filling hay nets and stuff! Once all this was done we visited a local fish and chip shop and sat in for a well deserved meal. It had been a different sort of day, but any day out on the fells is a good day! It brought back memories of why Yvonne does not like walking and I hate to say it but it will be a long time before I ask her again! | |
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| The GPS track from the walk. Unfortunately the Harvey's 1:25000 map data does not cover this area. | |