Monday 26 August 2013

Hauxley Nature Reserve, Druridge Bay near Amble, Northumberland

Cormorants, lapwings, Canada geese, grey lags, a lazy heron and ducks, all seen from the North Hide today. Nothing terribly exciting but quiet and calm on a beautiful morning. 



Looked this up, still none the wiser. 


Teasels.

A true sign Autumn is on its way, rosa rugosa hips. 


A hungry caterpillar.




Wednesday 21 August 2013

A ride on a steam train and hike back.

The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway is one of the oldest narrow gauge railways in England and known locally as La'al Ratty or 'little railway'. The train transports tourists from Ravenglass on the west Cumbrian coat to Dalegarth near Boot in the Eskdale Valley. Some of the carriages are closed, some open, but all with spectacular views as you travel up the line, stopping at places called The Green and Murthwaite Halt. We decided to take the train from Dalegarth to Muncaster, just one stop from Ravenglass and then hike back to the car over Muncaster Fell.


Flora's first railway ride which she appeared to thoroughly enjoy.


After an initial wrong turn from the stop ( sometimes the very start of walks can be confusing!) we set off walking steadily upwards along Fell Lane out on to the open hillside towards Muncaster Fell. It was a cloudy, close morning with no sign of any sun and very boggy underfoot. There were few people around and most we met were doing a similar route one way or another, walkers are always happy to share a route and mull over an OS map!


We made steady, if slow progress eastwards keeping the valley on our right and picking our way carefully through bogs, mud and gorse, wonderful views but the tops were clouded in mist and we were glad we had not planned a high level walk today. We came off the fell at about 3pm and the skies turned blue, the sun came out and temperature rose to about 20oC.

Not a Wainwright but Muncaster Fell does appear in his Outlying Fells books and certainly lived up to his description, 
"The supreme joy of Muncaster Fell is the delectable traverse of its ridge ... Here is enchantment"


Down under The Green station and then another ascent, quite a steep pull to the top of Fell Side before joining a narrow path which took us up and over the fell towards our destination.



We were following the OS map carefully but had to resort to the compass on at least one occasion as the narrow grass paths were quite indistinct on the top of Fell Side, we kept on a north east route to eventually reach the 2 tarns identified on the route, Siney Tarn and much larger Blea Tarn. There we located the steep zig zag path down to the road through the valley where we trudged for another 1/2 mile or so before arriving at the car. 

A demanding walk for modest height gain, but the views were very rewarding and thoroughly enjoyable.