Monday 22nd. March 2021 - Sandside quarry circuit
Along with fellow bloggers I seem to be continually trying to squeeze the last drop of something new from my locale. For ages I have only walked from home but today I gave in and drove about two miles to Sandside and parked for the climb up the side of Sandside quarry. I have featured this several times before here but it is spectacular. I don't know how big this ranks in the UK but the amount that has been extracted since around 1900 is colossal. I took a three-shot panorama and stitched it in Photoshop but barbed wire fencing in the foreground has found its way into the result, but at least you get some idea of the scale.
Further on I think I willed myself into having a mini epic exploring for the third time the derelict Observer Corps installation.
An extract from a previous visit:
Further on I re-visited the ruins of a WW2 Observer Corps post that I thought I had posted about a few years ago - I found the photos but not the post. It was of personal interest to me because my father, being deaf was unable to be in the conventional services in WW2 but served throughout at an Observer Corps post on Otley Chevin in Yorkshire. The purpose was to spot and report enemy aircraft.I lost my way in the surrounding thorny, birchy, brambly woodland enclosed by various high wire fences with intermittent limestone pavement underfoot, all a bit treacherous. I found a plastic bag to safeguard me over a barbed wire fence and emerged with blood and scratches on both hands, but I was now in a welcome verdant sheep cropped field. From here I have one of the three best views in my area looking right up the Kent estuary with the backdrop of the Kentmere hills way in the background.
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| Photo from a previous visit. |
Good to see you out.
ReplyDeleteI remember being up there with you and Mel. It is complicated I agree, I'm surprised you didn't have you emergency cutters with you. You have to be careful not to get your foot down a gryke or trip over a clint - or is it the other way round?
BC - When I walk locally I don't take my rucksack unless I plan to be out long enough for munchies and drink to be included so no cutters were available. At the outset I envisage a simple walk on established paths but something innate in me tends to force me off into the wilds and mini-exploration especially when I am already on very familiar ground - I suppose in a desperate attempt to try and find more interest.
ReplyDeleteIn 1954 my dad sold his house and bought a car like that (A40 Somerset). It's a shame the one at Leighton is just being used for storage and is slowly decomposing.
ReplyDeletePhreerunner - It looked to me as though it was probably in use. The paintwork looks original which is pretty surprising if so. I well remember that make and model being contemporary in my youth.
ReplyDeleteThe A40 was being used for storage when I last passed it in October 2020...
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