Five miles or six miles?

 Saturday 30th October 2023 - Circuit from Cartmel racecourse

Bowland Climber called me on Friday suggesting I devise a route for us in my territory on Saturday. We both have some medical ailments, but I have noticed a very slight improvement in my breathlessness recently, so I was confident with five miles even though there was quite a lot of ascent. I emailed the route to BC and he replied with a possible crafty one mile extension. I had already rejected that in consideration of us both and opted to stick to my five miles. We agreed to decide when when we got to the parting of the ways on the walk.

I remember plotting a walk from Barbon a few years ago. Having identified with Google Earth a parking spot on a very narrow, almost less than single track road  I duly arrived. I reckon that road had not been resurfaced in the last twenty years or more, perhaps thirty, and passage of cars probably about once per week, but I hit the jackpot having to retreat from tarmac machines and rollers. I wish I could put one over on The Theory of Chance as easily with The Lottery, well I had a good bash at it today.

Cartmel is a minor tourist destination with its priory and home of the original Sticky Toffee Pudding and L'éclume Michelin star restaurant, but certainly not given to overcrowding. We arrived with BC driving to find one way signs all over, pavements and some of the roads thronging with folk and cars parked absolutely everywhere, even in the outskirt lanes of the village. By devious means, and I think driving the wrong way down one of the temporary one way streets, we arrived at our planned parking on the racecourse where a concessionary charge of £2 was taken by volunteers manning the gate. We learned that the occasion was a medieval fair with enactments and stalls in the village centre. Considering interest in things medieval I guess is less than most sporting events and other attractions the number of people attracted here must have been several thousand - the racecourse car park was full to overflowing, and it is big - all quite astonishing, to me at least.

BC has written an excellent descriptive account of the walk which is well worth a read with a string of photos giving a much more detailed impression of the whole walk:

CLICK HERE FOR BOWLAND CLIMBER

After crossing the racecourse and climbing steeply through woods we came across an abandoned speedboat complete with outboard being gathered into the undergrowth like a fly being eaten by a carnivorous plant - it was a long way from any water! As we plodded a few yards further many pieces of unidentifiable machinery cars, vans, and an Hitachi digger were similarly stuffed into the trees and bushes, all decaying, written off and silent. Here was spooky atmosphere with  a feeling of decay, and mystery, and thoughts of some hillbilly  folk not too far away -  my imagination was improvising erratically - the book and film of Deliverance came to mind.

Emerging from the woods pleasant paths took us to a col-de-sac  road which climbed steeply to its farm destination. From there a little more climbing on a lane and grassy paths brought us to the skyline and onto a ridge with a superb surprise view of the Leven estuary looking across to Ulverston. Excellent green turf walking along the ridge brought us to the trig point of How Barrow. We stopped here for our sandwich break having found natural limestone seating. We could see weather coming in from the sea and sure enough we had a mild spattering of rain during the rest of the walk but not enough to bother. We did take the debated extension but still got bsak to the racecourse before the crowds had started to disperse in numbers from the fair.

These photos are much better if you click to enlarge, especially the panorama

Departure from the racecourse carpark

Across the racecourse and into the woods

A new twist on the anti-fouling campaign

The abandoned boat, never to see the water again,

leading us to the final resting place of many more

orphaned machines and vehicles.

This is the nameplate on the machine in the previous photo.

It may give somebody a clue to identifying the machine?

Perhaps unidentifiable? Nature takes over.

???

Hitachi digger, and the next. Unusual colour

We couldn't guess what these were

Posh folk here, quality blue rope in lieu of

the ubiquitous hairy orange stuff I often deride

This was steep and long. A tough test for my breathlessness

 but ok with a few stops and excuses for photos and looking at the views

There were several small crags here snd there that could

provide scope for the bouldering fraternity, and below.

Coming up to the ridge to the surprise view

I have seen these clumps everywhere over the years but never
had a proper explanation - anybody out there throw any light?

I

The Leven estuary. Much more spectacular in real life. Th photo  hides the fact that we were over 150m above sea level 

How Barrow trig and out to Morecambe Bay