Wedsnesday - 3rd November 2021
Jeppe Knave SD 761 379 - 215m
Black Hill SD 781 366 - 252m
Bank House SD 816 377 - 281m
Hollin Top SD 834 411 - 324m
Not a good start, but worse was to come. Three miles from home in the car I realised I had left my wallet including credit cards behind. That didn't matter because I had plenty of fuel, and sandwich and coffee, and would have no need to buy anything. However it is a blow to one's pride when one messes up like that, but I managed to take control and accept this as one of life's inevitable stumbles that afflict us all from time to time.
The footpath to approach the trig close to Jeppe Knave was opposite a convenient car park on the steep road leading down into Sabden. A squelchy march and then a tough ascent on pathless tussocky hillside had me at the trig. I took three photos which I was looking forward to seeing enlarged back at home. One was first sight of the trig with half of its bright white sticking above the horizon of the hill. From the trig I got a super zoom shot of the famous multi arch railway viaduct far down in Whalley where I had walked doing catch-up on with BC on our Wainwright's Way walk . I then got a dramatic zoom to Clitheroe's cement works with its constant plume of white smoke climbing high above the brutish scar of the works below.
A strange to me word usage comes to mind if I say it "seemed rude" not to visit Jeppe Knave's grave marked on the map a few hundred yards to the south west and there appeared to be a decent path so off I trogged.
The grave was a hole in the ground about twelve feet across on a grassy mound with a jumble of stone and boulders in the hole - Internet provides:
"According to the legend, Jeppe Curteys (Geoffrey Curtis), a highwayman was hanged for his crimes of robbery in 1327, and was subsequently buried here at this solitary spot (in a pre-Christian grave) on Wiswell Moor. "
From The Journal of Antiques where much more information is given including, fortunately for me, a photo.
I then trekked across completely pathless deep tussocky moorland climbing slightly over a shoulder then descending to pick up the lane from which I had approached the trig earlier, but quarter of a mile further west. It was here I discovered I had lost my camera (Panasonic TZ 80, replacement cost around £300.)
I tried as accurately as possible to retrace my route back to Jeppe Knave's where I had taken photos, a distance of about one third of a mile. My camera, by logic, must have been somewhere on that stretch. Back at the grave I went backwards and forwards three times on slightly different zig-zag courses between the grave and the hill's shoulder but to no avail.
I had been keeping the camera in a vertical zip, chest pocket in my Paramo jacket. I realised I must have stuffed it back in there, but missing the pocket so the camera would eventually work its way down and drop out of the bottom of my Paramo.
This time I was not able to overcome my self-censure and annoyance and the rest of the day was ruined.
I went through the motions of visiting the other three trigs and took photos "for the record" with my iPhone. Those three were visited by driving in between and none of them were more than a mile there and back and I have no motivation for describing them in more detail other than showing on the maps below.
Various circumstances are preventing me from multi day trips which I long for. Campaigns such as this 77 trig point capture are a dilution of proper multi day walking, but I have had some grand circular walks, but driving in between and jumping out to bag a trig only a short distance from the car is yet another dilution. I am not happy.
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| Black Hill |
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| Bank House |
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| Hollin Top. Strange red and blue facets |
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| Blue, my route. Red camera search. Straight red bottom right = Straight line sea to sea with BC with pink the actual grid line we were walking |
OMG. I hardly dare comment. Commiserations are most needed.
ReplyDeleteIf that had happened to me I think I would be still there with a head torch going backwards and forwards.
It's probably too late now but was your camera connected via WiFi to your phone, mine is I think. You could have taken a picture, transferred it to your phone and maybe received a clue as to its whereabouts. Or waited till dark and set off the flash! Am I being a bit fanciful?
Is it worth going back again, was it in a case? There has been no rain. I would be happy to help.
BC - Thanks for that. I've seen your email. The camera is not connected to WiFi as far as I know but I am impressed with your ingenious suggestions. I have now resigned myself and am looking ahead to get a replacement. I think Wilkinson's do it for £259. I could claim on my house insurance but there is a £100 excess so it is hardly worthwhile considering the penalties they would be delighted to inflict.
ReplyDeleteYes I bought my DZ70 on offer from Wilkinson's.
ReplyDeleteI chose a model a year or so old, as I didn't want a folding screen version.
I left a watch up at Craigy once somewhere in the grass. The alarm was set for 8.00am — it took me three mornings tracking it down and homing in on the sound.
BC - I felt a bit guilty at not trying harder after reading your inspiring reaction and this subsequent anecdote regarding the watch. But I have no enthusiasm for the thought of the long drive there and back to my fateful venue with only a slight chance of success. I hopefully retain some self respect for going forward rather than backwards?
ReplyDeletefrom what i understood was your not so faint disappointment with that camera, two possibilities come to mind
ReplyDeletea. the camera sensed this and took this ideal opportunity to escape and hide - hence your not being able to find it
b. fate in the way of slight inattention or haste has intervened to relieve you of it and relieve (yes , deliberate repetition) your conscience in buying another 'type' without the shame of admitting such waste and wantonness of having two cameras full of precious metals and plastic in front of the wailing mobs of schoolchildren (of all ages) we hear of all around, coming for us for such refusal to prostrate oneself in panic at the coming armageddon/holocaust/ . . .
but i did want to see whether this grave was really such or like the giant's grave in Penrith churchyard, a well know misinterpretation of a medieval bench where weary pilgrims could sit and eat their lunch when they had forgotten to bring their own (folding, of course) stools.
other than that, i do commiserate - marginally worse than having it stolen
That's so unfortunate, Conrad. I remember you getting that camera - I'd just chosen the TZ90 - not used very much as the Samsung phone seems to take acceptable snaps.
ReplyDeleteHo hum, but I suppose worse things have happened - at least you didn't fall into the grave!
Take care and make the most of your short outings.
M
Phreerunner - Perhaps if I had fallen into the grave, and survived the sequence of events would have been altered and I may not have lost the camera. C'est la vie!
ReplyDelete