Three go to Hodge Close Quarry – an adventure in Cumbria.
After a thoroughly boring journey up to Cumbria – (Paul and Susan talking French – or at least making a feeble effort to do so, like “what’s the French for jam?” “Now I should know that but can’t remember it”, etc etc etc) our day started when we boarded the Windermere ferry. Paul and I thought it was wizard, but Susan just said “I’ve been on it loads of times”. Also, I just knew the front of the car would scrape the ramp on the ferry – and it did. On the ferry we pulled up behind a vintage motorbike – A Matchless – and as it turned out, we saw several more vintage bikes throughout the day. We arrived at Tarn Hows car park at half past nine. It was very quite as we set off round the right hand side of the tarn, and it was cloudy. It is a zig zag route to Black Crag summit, going through the decaying remains of Iron Keld Plantation. It was then a shortish walk to the summit of Black Crag. Here we had sandwiches which were jolly nice, and we enjoyed the views whilst we ate.
Leaving Black Crag summit we made our way over pathless terrain to Low Arnside and on to Hodge Close quarry. This is a spiffing place where we had a super adventure. By the time we arrived here Susan was feeling tired (probably from the after affects of a full bottle of wine the previous evening – we don’t think she can take her drinkypoos any more), but undeterred our little band of three started the long and steep decent in to the quarry. Initially we fought our way though jungle like bushes, (actually we just pushed aside a few branches), and noted the hazard of old machinery and industrial leftovers. Deeper we went – probably 75 to 100 feet or so, when suddenly we saw the two archways. Paul and I thought it was top hat, but again Susan seemed nonplussed by it all. She would later find herself getting excited hugging a tree! After solving some mysterious questions we’d asked each other, we set off to climb out of the quarry.
After climbing the steep track bed to escape from the quarry we turned left and settled down on an embankment with good views across to Wetherlam. It was here that we did something new on our walking trips (which we may well incorporate in to future walks). We had a catnap. I took some time to come round, but Susan felt much better straight away.
So after the kip we set forth for Holme Fell, a neat little fell with fantastic views along the length of Coniston Water. We had another five minutes here before the long descent to Yew Tree Farm where we had a cup of tea, and scones with damson jam. The jam and scones were delightful. A word of warning though – the jam has damson stones in it – I thought I’d broken a tooth, so loud was the crack.
After leaving the farm we headed across the road up a steep path to Tarn Hows Cottage, and then along the road back to the car park.From there we drove to Coniston, had a pint in The Sun and then went in search of Fish and Chips. In the centre we found an outlet that advertised takeaway food. We asked for three fish and chips and in return was asked for over £20. Needless to say we declined and walked out. We got our food eventually in Grange over Sands.
Today’s walk was a great walk with great views – but was different to most mountain walks as we crossed roads and came upon dwellings, something we don’t usually do on our walks!!