CYHA News

Easter Adventures

Here we are in East Anglia having had the driest 12 months in over one hundred years and enjoying March temperatures on the balmy side of spring-like. So naturally, come the double bank holiday, come a wintery blast from the north. Those of us heading out on the Wednesday before Good Friday had to contend with closed roads and snow ploughs, but I guess it just added to the excitement. The reward for setting out early was to arrive in the Lakes Thursday lunchtime in blazing sunshine and perfect blue skies. Dave, Tom, Yasmira and I spent a lovely afternoon strolling along Duddon Sands with spectacular views of wind turbines to the west and snow-capped mountains to the east.

With dinner booked for 7pm, I guess it’s not that surprising that most of us turned up at our luxury accommodation within about half an hour of each other. For those of you not familiar with the story, we were originally booked into Rydal Hall, but sadly, due to building work, they were forced to cancel our booking and went to a lot of trouble to find us replacement lodgings. The Kepplewray Centre in Broughton in Furness is located a little way south west of Coniston and provides fully catered accommodation – so no sausage frying for Dave, no veg chopping or washing up. What were we going to do with ourselves?

Our first challenge was surviving Thursday night. Both Hollye and myself were ill overnight, so not everyone greeted the bacon and hash browns with the same enthusiasm the following morning. The weather was also a dampener to the spirits. Gone were the blue skies, only to be replaced by low cloud and the threat of rain. After much studying of the weather forecast, most of us decided to go for broke and hike up the nearby Black Combe, famous for its views over the western Lakes.

The reputation for views will have to be taken on faith, as we never saw anything apart from the inside of a cloud above about 700 feet. As a result it was quite navigationally challenging, with Dave P as chief cat-herder and struggling to keep the front of the party in view of the back of the party. All that was missing was a suitably exposed location in which to eat our sandwiches – but there, right on the summit, was the arc of a stone shelter surrounding the trig point. Perfect. It was a bit chilly though, and there was some amusement as Lily joined Judy in the anonymity of her group shelter. After a knee-grindingly steep descent, it was back to the centre for tea and cake and a bit of a warm up.

Saturday’s weather was somewhat similar with thick grey clouds pressing down on the mountains and the odd bit of rain squeezing out. The group split roughly in two, with Jim leading a group on a long hike round Tarn Hows, and Dave P leading a select band up the modest heights of Caw. Most of us got a little cold & damp, but it was almost worth it to come back to the centre and find that Mike the cook had made a big tub of delicious flapjacks. Yummy.

Easter Sunday and we made the best of the showery weather with a local walk: taking in the wild flowers of the Duddon Valley, an eighteenth century iron furnace and the Neolithic stone circle at Swinside. There were some gorgeous woodland paths through trees shaggy with moss, a couple of weeks later and we would have been tip-toeing through bluebells.

Easter Monday was the really wet day. Most of those who were due to go home anyway decided to forego a last Lakeland walk and get on the road. The residue decided that it was a good day for visiting the sculptures in Grisedale forest. This had the bonus of numerous points of interest to keep us going in the rain, plus a very splendid tearoom to warm up in afterwards.

Our last day had some of the best conditions of the trip. Monday’s rain had fallen as snow on the peaks, beautifully highlighting the Coniston mountains. The weather today was characterised by sudden showers of hail, interrupted by bright sunshine and the blue skies which had been so elusive since Thursday. It was a lovely way to end the trip and I can hardly wait until Rydal Hall next year.

 Ali