As Roger left home for our outing, his daughters were somewhat disparaging of his carefully selected outfit which he proudly displays below as a suggestion for the Slow Warts’ uniform. As an alternative, our other well-dressed Slow Wart also models his suggestion for a suitable uniform.
All seven of us now suitably clad (?), including the welcome return of Dave H, set off from the gas station for a saunter around the Wet Slack Ridge area. Our first target was the Emlin summit which, even in the bright sunshine, was surprisingly cool in the north easterly wind, five layers, balaclava and gloves for me! In effect, Andy’s route was the reverse of part of the Hunter wreck race so compass bearings could be changed by 180⁰, thus 290⁰ for the Rocking Stone, on the so called corridor route, was set. As always, this territory is populated with clearer patches of burnt or mown heather which facilitate progress across otherwise deep Harmerian heather. It was again sad to see the felled sapling rowan tree lying near the Rocking Stone, however, we distracted ourselves by rocking the stone and estimating the weight of the rock itself. Such fun?
Choices of our check points tend to be well spaced features of some sort but our next one was only 400m away but across the formidable well vegetated Hobson Moss Dike with its stream crossing, fortunately not in full flow. The ruined building (again on the corridor route) near one of the streams feeding into HMD was our check point, it was hard won but nevertheless satisfying to make this rare visit.
Here we diverted from the reverse Hunter Wreck race and attempted the Bog Asphodel crossing to reach New Cross (remains of), a marker for a pack horse way across the moor. Such is the pedantic nature of Slow Warts, there had been a serious (?) discussion about the parentheses or brackets, presumably they arrived when the wooden cross was no more. We only crossed the edge of the Bog Asphodel area so didn’t benefit from a full immersive wet feet experience,
Besides the ancient remains of New Cross a small and neat cairn had more recently been built out of peat hags and topped off with a white plastic stick, why? I’ll leave the speculation for another day. In the glorious evening light, we decided on the direct route to the shooting cabins rather than the hard track route. The pleasant downhill to the car park encouraged race pace for a flourishing finish.
We had been discouraged to visit the refurbished Plough at Low Bradfield by the large dismal grey internal decoration and the loss of the warming fireplace so, we decided on the Nag’s Head, warm, welcoming and comfortably busy. It, and the beer stimulated wide ranging conversations on a wide variety of topics, the benefits of polypropylene clothing, the thorough cleaning of it involving vinegar, Arctic wind-sail skiing and many others. We were joined by Roger B and Bob M who had returned from an outing in the Loxley Valley and the presence of these legends prompted talk of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the founding of DPFR in 1976. Does anybody know the date of the first club AGM held in Chris Worsell’s house?
Whilst such mysteries revolved in our minds, we did decide the outing had again been a great success. Thanks to all.
Graham