CYHA News

A Tale of Three Holidays

Holiday no.1: Langton Adventure Centre, Hartsop

Our traditional Eastertide trip to the Lake District was centred on Hartsop in Patterdale, between the lakes of Ullswater and Brothers Water.

The trip got off to a slightly uncertain start. Dave & I arrived at the centre to find no lights or power. A few minutes putting coins in the meter, flicking switches and jabbing buttons to no effect, we called the caretaker to find that BT had drilled through the high voltage cable and the power was off to the whole village. Since we couldn’t even make a cup of tea, there was nothing for it but to leave a note and head out for our first walk of the trip. The weather was simply beautiful, so we made the most of it not returning to Hartsop until 7ish. On the way back we passed Electricity Northwest engineers towing generators into the village, but when we asked about the power to the Langton Centre there was a lot of toothsucking and an estimate of power returning after midnight. So there was no option but to relocate our evening dining to a local pub. Whilst not as good as one of Tom’s bologneses, there was beer on tap and no one went to bed hungry. Thanks some light switches being left on, we were able to confirm that the power came back on at 1:33am.

Friday saw our first ‘proper’ walk of the trip as Neil led a 20K horseshoe hike focussed on Fairfield and St Sunday Crag. After this baptism of fire it was not a disappointment that after Thursday’s change of plan we now had two meals to eat.

More days, more walks. Over Easter we clocked up some 65K, bagging pretty much all the peaks you could see on the skyline from the centre. The highlight was probably the Sunday ascent of Helvellyn, which was not only sunny but had perfect visibility.

Holiday no.2: Skiddaw House

Those of us fortunate to get the time off work were able to extend our Lakes trip to the remote hostel of Skiddaw House. A 3 mile walk from the village of Threlkeld takes you to Back O’Skiddaw and the former hunting lodge which would be our home for the next two nights. No mains water or electricity, but an atmosphere that money can’t buy. Bagging Carrock Fell and Skiddaw itself, we clocked another 52K before heading over to Dufton for the Royal Wedding weekend.

Holiday no.3: Dufton, North Pennines.

The 9 of us who’d lasted Hartsop and Skiddaw House arrived at Dufton a little footsore and weary, only to meet up with fresh-blood from Essex eager for peak bagging. Naturally we started in true CYHA style with the challenge of a mountain of food at the local pub. To keep Doug company on his birthday, the mountain was crowned with a fair few puddings.

Royal wedding day, we decided to celebrate with a walk to the spectacular landscape feature of High Cup. The walk proved to be quite challenging, with a strong headwind. A few brave souls conquered the lone peak of Dufton Pike, but no one lingered – it was hard enough to just stand up! For lunch we found shelter in a shooting hut en route. It seems that strong winds are a feature of this area as the only thing in the shooting hut was a picnic table. Possibly not quite as posh as Will & Kate’s wedding breakfast, but I bet they didn’t have an endless supply of Colin’s muffin bars!

Luckily the next part of the walk was along a shallow gorge formed by the river we were following - this gave us a little shelter, but the wind hit us face on when we emerged at High Cup Nick. High Cup is a huge scoop taken out of the hillside surrounded by the toothy smile of the remaining Win Sill rock. Pausing for a snack, Dave treated us to an I-Player clip of the wedding from his phone.

Three more walks, including a humdinger taking in Cross Fell and the landmark radar golf ball on Great Dun Fell, and the final walk total came to 193K (about 120 miles). And only two tea shops! I need another holiday.

Ali

 

Thank you Steve for a lovely walk taking in Clacton, Frinton and a super pub in Great Holland. A slightly blowy day, it alternated between chilly and hot depending on how sheltered we were. The walk along the seafront had a brilliant view of the new off-shore wind turbines – five miles out and they still looked huge! Sadly Clacton shuts at 4pm on a Sunday and becomes a cake desert. We had to practically beg for a few biscuits at the Kingscliff Hotel just to get us back to the cars.

Rubens & Rembrandt, Royal Parks & Riverside

And thanks to Lily for an enjoyable and educational day out in London.  In the morning some of us had a sunny walk from Kensington through the parks to meet the others at Trafalgar Square for a fascinating tour of the National Gallery, followed by a lovely sunset stroll along the South Bank.