Captain's Log

Train Troubles And Underkegs

Yesterday's travel to Carlisle proved problematic. The issues started when I arrived at Barnsley railway station only to find that my 10:22 to Carlisle didn't appear on the departures board. 'Yes, there is a 10:22 train to Carlisle' said the ticket officer. My face brightened. 'But there isn't one today, on a Sunday.' I'd booked my tickets online through Trainline. Shouldn't these companies be using the same timetable database? 'Okay, what do you suggest?' I asked the lady behind the counter. 'Well, you could take a train from here to Leeds and then catch a train to Carlisle from there' she offered. 'Excellent' I said, 'when is the next train to Leeds and from which platform should I catch it?' I asked. Things were looking up. 'Well, that's where you have another problem. Due to track maintenance, there aren't any trains from Barnsley to Leeds today' she responded. She must have seen the disappointment in my face since she then continued 'But there is a replacement bus service to Leeds.' This conversation was a bit like sucking porridge through a straw. 'Okay, where do I get on to the replacement bus service?' I asked with forced politeness. 'Well, I'm afraid we have a bit of an issue there. The bus that should be here isn't. You see that man over there in the Arriva high-vis jacket?' she asked. I nodded. 'He's trying to find out why the bus hasn't arrived. I wandered over to the dozen or so other rail passengers who were trying to get to Leeds and were crowded around the Arriva man. He seemed to be continuously on his phone, but broke off sometimes to give us updates. He told us that the bus should be here, but nobody seemed to know where it was. This seemed incredulous in this age of gps trackers and mobile phones. For the next 10 minutes, every bus that went past the railway station, the Arriva man and his group of followers got excited, only to be disappointed when it drove on past. 'The bus drivers work to a different timetable to the train timetable' he told us by way of an explanation. 'It didn't explain why one of their buses had gone AWOL' I was about to ask. But he was back on the phone again asking whoever was managing this incident whether they could order taxis to take us to Leeds. Management were having none of that though at their control centre. This was Barnsley clientele after all. After another 5 minutes of bus no-show, I went back to the ticket office women to see if she could offer any other alternatives. I think she could detect my frustration, since she offered me a free bottle of water. After consideration, she said that I could take a train to Huddersfield, and then one to Leeds. This would mean going back through the place that I'd set off from an hour earlier today, but it seemed a step forward from waiting for a ghost bus.

I did eventually get to Leeds and then even a train to Carlisle. The train from Leeds to Carlisle went through the Yorkshire Dales and over the spectacular Ribblehead Viaduct. This turned out to be a really scenic rail journey and brightened my mood somewhat. It did mean that I got to Carlisle a couple of hours later than intended and so I had to remove my planned city sightseeing tour from my itinerary.

I'd booked into Premier Inn's Carlisle Not-So-Central hotel (over a mile from the town's centre).  I'd stayed there a couple of week's earlier on my Hadrian's Wall Path Venture. On that occasion I'd left a pair of Icebreaker underkegs airing on a coat hanger in my room and had forgot to pack them when I left. Since they were nearly new and cost over £30, I thought I might as well ask to retrieve them from the Premier Inn's 'lost property' when I arrived. I fully intended to do this, but when I got to the hotel's reception, there was a sweet, young lady behind the desk and an impatient family waiting behind me. I suddenly lost confidence about asking for them back. It would have been nice if Premier Inn had had some sort of flag on their computer system for such a situation....'Returning customer, who left a possession on a previous stay? No problem sir, here is your property'...and then they could just slide over the reception counter, the lost item in a discrete brown paper package. That would be an excellent service, but they don't have it now. I decided to give up on my £30+ Icebreaker underkegs. Hopefully they will be donated to charity and somebody would make good use of them. They'd probably have to give them a wash first though.

Carlisle

The Cumbria ways starts/finishes in the market place of the city centre. This meant that I had to traipse the mile back into town from Premier Inn's Carlisle Not-So-Central hotel. It was a lovely sunny morning though and I was looking forward to the trail, and so I wasn't that bothered. It should be noted that most Cumbria Wayers walk the trail from Ulverston to Carlisle. During the planning stage I saw some benefit from walking north to south, that is Carlisle to Ulverston. Namely, on the day's I'd camp at Keswick and Coniston, I'd reach the town centres before reaching the campsite. This would allow me to get some grub and stock up on provisions before pitching the tent. I did find some 'cons' to doing the trail north to south though; these can be seen in the notes for this Venture.

There isn't a specific start/finish point to the Cumbria Way in Carlisle. This is a little disappointing for what is quite a popular route. Most people seem to choose the large Carlisle Cross in the centre of the market area. Some workers had just hosed the placed down before my arrival, which was nice of them. I took a photo of the cross as a record of the start of the journey and then consulted my Cicerone Cumbria Way guide as to where to go next. I'm not a big fan of Cicerone guides and their Cumbria Way guide is remarkable for its paucity of information. It did have a basic diagram of how to get out of the city centre though, which was really the only bit of the guide to be of any real use. I found the Cumbria Way to be quite an intricate walk and was unsigned for the most part; therefore the  Cicerone 1:50,000 maps were pretty much useless for the tricky bits. The guide was also written assuming the walker was going from south to north and so again, wasn't any good for anyone walking north to south. Until Trailblazer do a proper job of a guide, I'm afraid the Cicerone one is all we've got.

River Caldew

It soon became pretty obvious that the Cumbria Way wouldn't be well signed. I wandered off track at Cummersdale Green and had to backtrack a little to get back on the trail again. I couldn't really go that far wrong though since the River Caldew was my guide right up to Caldbeck. It was a pretty trail along the river. Even a couple of chemical factories didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the route. The Civil Engineers were busy building a massive bridge across the river at one point. It didn't seem to take me long before I reached the village of Dalston. I raided the local Co-Op for goodies and sat on a bench wolfing them down. It really was a lovely day with blue skies and sunshine. The weather forecast for later this week hadn't looked good on Breakfast TV, this morning though. It looked like I could be in for a bit of a storm in the day's ahead. I'd worry about that tomorrow though.

I temporarily swapped to the east side of the river after Dalston. I found that bits of the route didn't seem like public footpaths at all. It was only seeing the gpx route on my phone that gave me confidence that I was actually on the right path. The trail gradually became more rural. There were lots of field hopping involved, but the fields were large and the farms were tucked away from the path and so it didn't really feel like field walking. I eventually came to some impressive old, buildings. A sign indicated that it was Lime School (a boarding school that had been in business since 1899) and that 'Visitors Should Report To The School Office.' Thank goodness they didn't have to report to the Headmaster.

Just beyond the school, a castellated, sandstone building  became visible to the west. This was Rose Castle and has been the palace of the Bishops of Carlisle since 1230, when the land was gifted to them by Henry II. It looked an impressive pad. I suppose being a Bishop does have its advantages.

It was on this stretch that I came across my first thru-hikers making their way to Carlisle. The first group was a young couple who said that they'd had great weather for the whole walk. They told me a about a 'footpath closed' section near to Caldbeck. There had been a landslip that had wiped out the bridleway. 'We still followed the official bridleway and found it easy to get over the landslip bit' the woman told me. 'It's just a matter of climbing over a few trees and branches.' I thanked them for the information and told them to enjoy their celebratory beers in Carlisle. The next thru-hikers weren't that far behind and were sat on a fallen tree trunk having their lunch. It was a father and son outfit and they'd stayed at Lingy Hut last night. Lingy Hut is a bothy, just beyond High Pike, the first and highest hill climb on the Cumbria Way. No other walker had shared the bothy with them, but they'd mysteriously heard some motors near the hut around 10pm.  They also had gone through the landslip section near Caldbeck and found that it hadn't been a problem. This gave me some confidence that it was okay sticking to the official route. One of the advantages of walking a trail in the least popular direction is that you tend to meet more walkers and have a better idea of what is coming up. It also gives you an approximation that you've walked half of today's route since most walkers will have set off  from your intended destination for the day (or thereabouts). 

Cows And A Landslip

Are you comfortable with cows? If not, then the Cumbria Way is probably not for you. I lost count of the number of fields I traversed that had cows mooching around. I was never really troubled by them, although one or two showed signs of befriending me. The Health And Safety Executive investigated 142 cow-injury incidents between 2015-2016 and 2019-2020. 22 of these resulted in death and the majority of those related to people that worked with cattle. Members of the public only accounted for four of those deaths. It investigated 65 non-fatal incidents involving cattle and members of the public over the same period. Given those figures, you'd have to be pretty unlucky to actually get injured or killed by a cow.

I'd started seeing the high Lake District northern fells by now. I knew Caldbeck stood at the foot of them and so that meant I'd not far to go. A little beyond Sebergham I came across Dentonside Wood that contained the stretch of bridleway that had been closed due to the landslip. A notice said that it would be shut for 21 days (starting from 28/05/24), then probably another 21 days, followed by a 6 months Closure Order. When I got to the landslip, I guessed that the 6 months Closure Order would probably be further extended. The landslip had taken out about 20 metres of bridleway and was now a Jack Straws tangle of trees and branches. Even if the trees were cut and removed there would still be quite a cut into the hillside that would erode with rain. Maybe after water had washed away the mud to solid rock, a new track could be created to traverse the area. I didn't find it much of a problem to get across the trees and branches although it was quite muddy. If you have reached this section after heavy rain, then it might be better to take the alternative route.

Caldbeck

The Cumbria Way brought me straight through the Caldbeck Camping campsite, my destination for the night. I walked straight through though since I wanted to take the opportunity to get some grub inside me before the closing time for the café and shop. I managed to find my way to the Watermill Café, but then couldn't squeeze through the narrow front door with my rucksack on. I gave up in the end and retreated to the village store where I stocked up on some goodies. I sat on the bench outside of the shop eating some cake and drinking a cold Pepsi. The shop was also a petrol station with one pump situated just in front of the bench. A car pulled up to get some fuel. I'd spotted a nearby notice saying that you shouldn't use your mobile phone at this petrol station. I always thought that this was an urban myth and it was impossible for a mobile phone to ignite petrol fumes. I was pretty sure a cigarette could ignite the fumes though and so was quite disturbed when a smoking pedestrian walked along the pavement just alongside the petrol pump, that was now emitting petrol vapour as it pumped fuel into the car.   I thought there might be safety rules indicating how close a public path could be to a fuel pump...obviously not.

Caldbeck camping was the best and significantly the cheapest (£7.50 for one man tent) campsite that I used on the Cumbrian Way. Each pitch had a generous area as well as a personal picnic table. The showers and toilets were clean, although there weren't that many, and so it would have got a bit crowded if the campsite had been full. I talked to a couple who were pitched next to me and found that they did their weekly shop at the same supermarket as me. It's a small world.

It had been a wonderful start to the Cumbria Way. The trail alongside the River Calder was a delight. The forecast was for heavy rain tomorrow. Well, tomorrow was another day and I sat on my picnic bench and enjoyed the last of the evening sun.