Saturday 12 February 2011

Plan B the Four Teddy’s of Gragareth

Saturday, woke up to horizontal rain pounding the window, Teddy wanted another bag of leaves and to hibernate till spring ! but I’d packed the haversack the night before and printed two maps and laminated them, Plans  A and B. B won - Gisburn – Settle bypass – Ingleton – Cowan Bridge – Leck – parked at the first gate on Leck Fell - SD 66560 78306 you had to wave your arm about to clear the mist to see your hand
So I made a drip coffee ( Lavazza) and ate an oat square kindly donated by Simon, at Pennine Cauldron Cafe – Skipton road – Foulridge – Nr. Colne (home made and local produce open 5 days/week closed Mon. Tue.) after about an hour it began to clear enough to set off. Looking back down to Leck
and looking where I'm heading
followed the tarmac road as far as Leck Fell House then along the Bridleway
 in among the clouds
after I’d gained some height I set off back diagonally for the top cairns to look down on the “ Three Men”
arriving at them SD 67916 79256 to set up Teddy's Bistro
some of last nights cast iron Potjie pot stew :- sliced chicken breast chopped onion garlic, fried in olive oil with herbs of provance then layered with sliced :- parsnip, courgette, sweet potato, carrot, mushroom, and green beans with a tin chopped tomatoes a couple of Oxo cubes and a splash of Nandos perri perri brought to boil and slow simmered an hour’ish warmed up and served with a  Campo Viejo 2007 Rioja
packing up and heading off to the next cairn
brings a stone igloo shelter into view
it wasn’t working too well though as the mist was condensing in it and dripping, it was wetter in than out !
here’s one for Mike Knipe and all the Lichen fans, and I got a wet knee !
the mist was thick again so I pressed “go to” on the Garmin for the next cairn waymark SD 68089 78184 I doubt you can see it even if the clag was up because it’s sort of up and over and round the hill, anyway it loomed out of the mist
and I could see the Shepherds Hut !  SD 68099 78127 all I can say is they must have been hardy buggers !
I then played “go to” back to the van and set off trustingly,(first time in 50 odd years I didn't get the compass out, though it was in a pocket) to come out of the murk spot on
with a brief glimpse of the Three Men and another higher that I mist in the clag probably you can see the Shepherds Hut cairn from it ?
then a final view back down to Leck and the way home with the river Lune glinting in the sun
just thought I’d share cheers all Danny

Route map for Alan (comment #4)
 cheers Danny

7 comments:

  1. That lichen is flowering.... I have a load of pics of lichens with their names somewhere.....

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  2. I'd have stayed in the cafe with Teddy mate!

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  3. Hi Mike, so you know the Lichens by name ? and I thought it was only the sheep that "winked" at you !
    cheers Danny

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  4. Yes, thanks for sharing, I think I would have been a bit scared up there in that fog. I love your dinner and am amazed that you have that out on the hill, it’s better than I can cook at home!

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  5. Hi Danny,
    Don’t have a clue about Lichens but i do like taking photos of them.
    Technology is a wonderful thing and i am pleased you are finding the Garmin ok.

    It will be route maps on the blog next then!
    Don’t forget to keep spare batteries in the rucksack though.
    Cheers
    Alan.

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  6. Hi Alan Garmin comes into it's own in the "clag" and it's the same bats. as the camera which has x2 spare in the bag.(AA's)It took ages to work out Macro on the camera every time I pressed "tulip" it went to manual focus no where in the instructions did it say you have to be on Auto with no zoom to get Macro, figured now and a whole new world to explore maybe a Blog subject ?
    cheers Danny

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  7. Nice one. It’s a whole new world.ha

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