Captain's Log

Sedbergh

My car's satnav had a bit of fun at my expense this morning. Instead of directing me to Joss Lane carpark in the centre of Sedbergh, it plonked me in the middle of a housing estate. To compound my woes, I then foolishly decided to drive up a narrow lane that eventually turned into a rubble farm track. I ended up having to reverse back down the lane for a hundred yards, trying not to scrape my wing mirrors on the stone walls lining each side of the road. I then made a better directional choice and found Joss Lane carpark. To be fair to the satnav, the problem was probably due to the postcode for the carpark that I’d extracted with Google. I thought the carpark was also a Yorkshire Dales National Park carpark where I could use my annual pass, since they do feature it on their website as one of their carparks. Confusingly though, it does not appear on their list of carparks where you can use their pass. This was very disappointing, although much more so for the Kapitan, since I instructed him to go and buy a parking ticket for the day. Ironically there was a perfectly good and free carpark we could have used at New Bridge, which we crossed before entering the town. At least we’d know better for next time. In fact the first part of today's walk involved making our way to New Bridge.

It had been a couple of decades since I’d rambled in the Howgill Fells and I was looking forward to the return. Initially though, we'd follow the River Rawthey upstream on the eastern side of the Howgill Fells. This would be for about 4 miles before we’d head westwards to England’s highest single drop waterfall, Cautley Spout. We’d then climb up on to the top of the Howgill Fells and take a high level route across the tops back to Sedbergh. Assuming that we could lose the mist that had congregated around the River Rawthey I reckoned we were in for some amazing views today. 

Valley Walking

The sun started to rise as we made our way along the riverside path casting misty golden beam of light through nearby trees. Over to our left I could just make out the line of the tops of the Howgill Fells through the mist. I thought that I could even see some blue sky above the hills. I bet that if  anybody was up there on the tops, they’d see a lovely cloud inversion below them. After Straight Bridge the path headed away from the river for a while and we left the mist behind for the day. We joined a single track road and made good progress up the valley. At Ellerthwaite we came across a curious lattice structure in a garden that had two horned sheep skulls strapped to it and what looked like two sacrificial tables inside. We quickly moved on. The road ran out and we continued on footpaths. Having gained some height above the river, we had a marvellous view across the valley to the massive bulks of Baugh Fell and Wild Boar Fell. I was eager to get to the top of those fells on future walks. 

I got ahead of the Kapitan and Cabin Boy at one stage. I turned around and they were nowhere to be seen. After waiting 5 minutes, I wondered if they’d got lost. Just at the point I was going to backtrack to rescue them, they appeared in the far distance and started walking towards me. When they arrived, the cause of the delay became apparent; the Kapitan was covered in mud. He’d taken a tumble and his trousers, jacket and hands were coated in the stuff. I’m not sure what it is with the Kapitan and his ability to coat himself in mud. He doesn't just fall in mud, he has to wallow in it like a Hippo too. I sighed. ‘You’d better get cleaned up before you get back in my car’ I warned him and I set off again towards the valley holding Cautley Spout.

Cautley Spout

There is a deafening silence when the Cabin Boy wants to let people know that she  doesn’t want to do something. She exudes that same element of danger as smelling a bad gas leak and knowing somebody might accidentally ignite the fumes at any moment.  Sometimes you don’t know the cause of the Cabin Boy’s dilemma and this can be particularly frustrating. With today’s silence though, I did. The answer was obvious and straight in front of us: Cautley Spout.  At 76 metres, the waterfall has the highest single drop in England. There was a path just visible on the north side of the waterfall. Admittedly, when we looked at it straight on, it did look almost vertical. When we got  closer though, we found it to be steep, but not particularly dangerous. Even so, the Cabin Boy had made her discomfort heard in a deafening silence sort of way. At a break I suggested that we take the easier path up to Bowderdale Head and then take a flatter route over to The Calf. We’d not get a close view of Cautley Spout, but we’d still get a decent one from the alternative path. The Cabin Boy eagerly agreed and normal service resumed. It was still a steep pull up to Bowderdale Head, but not as steep as the Cautley Spout path. Once we reached Bowderdale Head, we left the path and started making our own way over to the bridleway on the other side of Hare Shaw. It was quite tough going and it was a relief when we reached the easier path of the bridleway. Looking back towards Bowderdale Head, we could see the huge lump of Yarlside beyond. There was so much more of the Howgill Fells that still needed to be explored. 

Ticking The Howgills

The bridleway brought us to a broad ridge running up to The Calf. We followed the ridge and it offered wonderful views over the northern Howgill Fells. Further over to the west we could see the familiar and distinct outline of the Lake District. The Howgill tops provided easy walking on well worn paths and it wasn’t long before we joined some other people on the summit of The Calf (676m), the highest point in the Howgill Fells. A couple were busy taking photos of themselves and their dog on the top. One of the shots involved lifting the large dog onto the top of the trig. Over to the west I could not only see the M6 motorway, but I could hear the traffic too. It seemed incredible to hear it given its distance away. 

The mist drifted in and then drifted out as we headed southwards. We made a short diversion from the path in order to bag the Explorer hill, Bram Rigg Top. Further on we came to Calders and probably the best view of the day. Just after the summit a magnificent panorama opened up before us. It was a perfect  viewpoint to look down the valleys of Garsdale and Dentdale. In the far distance we could make out the outline of Ingleborough. Below us were some shapely lower Howgills. Our descent path from Calders headed near to a peak called Arant Haw and I figured we might as well bag that one as well. At the col between Calders and Arant Haw, I looked down the valley to my right and saw half a dozen wild horses grazing on Brant Fell. The Howgill Fells are wonderful. 

A couple of elderly walkers had commandeered the cairn on Arant Haw. It was an amazing 360° view from this peak too. A couple of fighter jets flew low over Sedbergh and repeated the exercise several times. It was hard to drag ourselves away from the view, but we managed to do it in the end. .

Return To Sedbergh

It was an easy, grassy descent from Arant Haw and we picked up a track that ran down the west side of Settlebeck Gill. Halfway down we came across three teenage boys making their way up the path. They all had Sedbergh Public School tops on.  ‘Good afternoon, it’s a lovely day’ the front lad said to the Kapitan in received pronunciation. After they’d gone the Kapitan said ‘Crikey, they wa posh. Yer dunt get that in’t Barnsley.’ There was another moment of class enlightenment for the Kapitan when we reached the intake fields at the bottom of the fell. A few Sedbergh Public School girls were receiving instructions from a couple of teachers before they set off up into the hills. ‘Now, remember girls. We want you back here by seven-thirty' said one of the teachers with perfect diction. The Kapitan was obviously impressed; he looked as out of his depth as Billy Casper would have done on a day trip to Eton. Given that the girls didn’t seem to have any wet weather gear or even a headtorch, I was slightly less impressed. Maybe they just breed them tougher up here. 

The path actually brought us down to Joss Lane where earlier in the day I’d attempted the world's first ever south-to-north traverse of the Howgill Fells in a Mark V Ford Fiesta. More low flying jets skirted the fells as we made our way down the lane and back to the carpark. What a day! The weather had been superb for mid-November and the views had far exceeded expectations. The Kapitan even had had his first introduction as to how the other half live. Already I'd heard him muttering 'T'rain in't Spayn, stez menly on't playne.' It was so nice to witness his efforts at self improvement.